A welcome message to all prospective students from the Head of Department

Welcome to the Department of Computer Science at the University of Sheffield. On our website, we try to give you an insight into Computer Science and Software Engineering, and the opportunities that we can provide to study these subjects. Our degrees are available in a variety of forms to suit the needs of our students and the many careers available in industry and commerce worldwide. Our graduates are exceptionally employable, and find employment within a variety of sectors and in senior positions around the world.

Computer Science is a fascinating subject, and one that is now indispensible in our lives. Almost every aspect of modern life involves computing - from mobile phones, TVs, planes, trains and cars, to gaming, security and medicine. Every organisation's payroll, customer records and finances are held electronically, sometimes containing millions and millions of records. The digital world is really upon us. Looking to the future, initiatives such as cloud computing will connect us all through small portable devices, enhancing social networking and allowing us to exchange audio and video data from our daily lives.

The design, coding, and testing of such systems is a complex task - and one needing a highly trained workforce. By studying Computer Science at Sheffield University you will get both an understanding of the wonderful subject that is Computer Science, and also equip yourself with the skills to have a great career ahead of you.

As a student at Sheffield, you have the opportunity to study a variety of subjects encompassing all aspects of Computer Science. We have some unique aspects in our courses. For example, our world-renown Genesys module offers you the chance to be part of the only student-run software company in the UK, and gives you a real insight into being a professional; and our Darwin module offers you the experience of being a scientist.

Our degrees are very flexible, with options to include aspects of Business and Management if this suits your needs. They are accredited by the British Computer Society (BCS) so you may be confident that the outside world will recognise your qualification as an excellent preparation for your chosen career. Sheffield Computer Science graduates can be found the world over in all branches of the IT profession.

I am immensely proud of our students and their achievements. We had a fantastic last year, with our 4th year undergraduate Chris Green winning the coveted national BCS Award for the Best IT student at the 2009 SET awards. He won the award on the basis of the software he developed - eMotion Shuffle - that allows users to organise their music so that songs with a similar mood are clustered together. Our students have also been successful in national competitions for computer game design, mainframe computing, IBM's "Thinkpad Challenge" and Microsoft's "Imagine Cup".

A university education is about you, the student, supported by an enthusiastic community of professional teaching and research staff. If you decide to study Computer Science at Sheffield, you will benefit from our high teaching quality supported by highly competent academic staff and academic support staff. You will also meet the staff and students in research groups working at the leading edge of the technologies, often supported by national and international industrial links. Our teaching and research facilities are excellent, and continue to benefit from large investments in state-of-the art IT and real-time computing systems.

I am delighted to say that students have judged us to be the top course in the country - in 2009 we scored 100% in the National Students Survey (NSS), and won national press coverage for doing so. The full results can be found at www.unistats.com.

I hope that you find the information on our website useful and that it encourages you to apply to study Computer Science here at Sheffield. As you embark upon your University career, we in Computer Science would like to wish you well in your future studies.

Professor John Derrick, Head of Department