Rowan's Super Amazing Computer Science Coursera Survival Guide

Repository containing notes regarding and from computer science coursera courses

Executive Summary

• Complete a set of the first course from each Specialisation/Stream
  • At 7.5 hrs a week => 23 weeks
• After completing the set of intial courses below, You can continue with the rest of each specialisation at your own discretion

Specialisation	Course	Time (hrs)
N/A	Computational Thinking Problem Solving	18
Discrete Mathematics	Mathematical Thinking in Computer Science	41
Scala	Functional Programming Principles in Scala	45
Interaction Design	Human-Centred Design: an Introduction	14
Software Developement Lifecycle	Software Development Processes and Methodology	22
Deep Learning	Neural Networks and Deep Learning	20
Computer Communications	Fundamentals of Network Communication	15

Foundation of Computation

Computational Thinking Problem Solving

• 18 hrs
• Neat, brief introduction to computational concepts (Search algorithms, Von Neumann Architechture, Decomposition etc.)
• Perhaps overlaps with content from apprenticeship course, but still worth doing.
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Discrete Mathematics

• 6 months at 5 hrs/week: 120 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Course	Time (hrs)
Mathematical Thinking in Computer Science	41
Combinatorics and Probability	20
Introduction to Graph Theory	20
Number Theory and Cryptography	19
Delivery Problem	13

Functional Programming

Scala

• 7 months at 7 hrs/week: 196 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Course	Time (hrs)
Functional Programming Principles in Scala	45
Functional Program Design in Scala	36
Parallel Programming	33
Big Data Analysis with Scala and Apache Spark	28
Functional Programming in Scala Capstone	27

Other Functional Programming Resources

• Structure and Interpretation of Programs
  • Wizard Book n. Hal Abelson's, Jerry Sussman's and Julie Sussman's Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs (MIT Press, 1984; ISBN 0-262-01077-1), an excellent computer science text used in introductory courses at MIT. So called because of the wizard on the jacket. One of the bibles of the LISP/Scheme world. Also, less commonly, known as the Purple Book.
  • Uses the Scheme Dialect of Lisp
• Learn You A Haskell
  • Free online book for learning functional programming with Haskell
• Clojure For The Brave and True
  • Free online book for learning functional programming with Clojure, a LISP dialect that compiles to the Java JVM

Theory of Human Computer Interaction

User Interface Design

• Shorter course, seems to be more specific to designing User Interfaces rather than the Theory behind HCI
• 4 months at 3 hrs/week: 48 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Course	Time (hrs)
Introduction to UI Design	14
User Research and Design	8
Prototyping and Design	11
Evaluating User Interfaces	12

Interaction Design

• 10 months at 3 hrs/week: 120 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Course	Time (hrs)
Human-Centered Design: an Introduction	14
Design Principles: an Introduction	13
Social Computing	9
Input and Interaction	9
User Experiences: Research & Prototyping	11
Information Design	14
Designing, Running, and Analysing Experiments	15
Interaction Design Capstone Projects	36

Software Engineering

• This was the main subject of the Level 4 Apprenticeship Course, so a lot of the content in the courses in this section repeat that.

Software Developement Lifecycle

• 4 months at 4 hrs/week: 64 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Course	Time (hrs)
Software Development Processes and Methodologies	22
Agile Software Development	12
Lean Software Development	10
Engineering Practices for Building Quality Software	18

A.I. and Machine Learning

• Several Courses available, Deep learning course flows into Tensorflow course. But both may be supported by mathematics for machine learning course.

Deep Learning

• 4 months at 5 hrs/week: 80 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Course	Time (hrs)
Neural Networks and Deep Learning	20
Improving Deep Neural Networks: Hyperparameter Tuning, Regularisation and Optimisation	18
Structuring Machine Learning Projects	5
Convolutional Neural Networks	20
Sequence Models	16

Professional Certificate: Tensorflow

• 4 months at 5 hrs/week: 80 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription
• Do this course as a follow up to the deep learning specialisation course to achieve a professional certificate in "DeepLearning.AI TensorFlow Developer". (No breakdown as expected to do full course to achieve certificate)

Mathematics for Machine Learning

• Supplementary machine learning course investigating the mathematical principles behind machine learning
• 4 months at 4 hrs/week: 64 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Course	Time (hrs)
Mathematics for Machine Learning: Linear Algebra	19
Mathematics for Machine Learning: Multivariate Calculus	18
Mathematics for Machine Learning: PCA	18

Networking & Cryptography

Computer Communications

• 5 months at 3 hrs/week: 60 hrs
• Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription

Course	Time (hrs)
Fundamentals of Network Communication	15
Peer-to-Peer Protocols and Local Area Networks	16
Packet Switching Networks and Algorithms	18
TCP/IP and Advanced Topics	16

Cryptography

• 23 hrs
• Can be completed for free, but to earn the certificate cost £57

Extras

• Nand2Tetris (Design a computer from first principles)
  • 44 hrs
  • Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription
  • Good introduction to Digital Logic and Computer Architecture
• Nand2Tetris Part 2
  • 90 hrs
  • Included with Capgemini Coursera Subscription