4 ms·

No you're not. My background is biochemistry (UK degree), biomedical image processing (UK PhD) and web development (self-taught). After a decade of academic res

No you're not. My background is biochemistry (UK degree), biomedical image processing (UK PhD) and web development (self-taught). After a decade of academic research in medical imaging, I'm now moving more towards pure tech. I'd love to go back to uni, say full time for 6-12 months, either in the US or UK, and rigorously study the fundamentals of Computer Science, however I haven't found a mechanism that really works for me. An additional undergrad degree is too long and slow - I know I can study MUCH more efficiently than I could when I was 18, and I also want to be very focused on CS, so most of a US undergrad course would be a waste of time to me. On the other hand, a 1 year Masters is too advanced, since I don't have a firm grasp of the basics. Online courses are definitely filling the gap but I feel like I learn faster with human interaction and mentoring. Bootcamps are okay to an extent (I'm currently doing The Firehose Project to learn some industry web dev practices, and they provide great mentoring and group projects), but they only advance your skills so far, and probably not up to the level I expect you'd be at after completing the first year of CS. It'd be great to see some different options out there which provide the rigour and cater to a more mature audience.

ChuckMcM 12y ago
This is pretty much the target, a 2 year program that covers basics to mastery in a particular subject. I have seen folks who have put together curriculums for that out of MOOC lists but it hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves. My theory is that if could retrain for a new discipline in 2 years it would strongly mitigate the notion of 'structural' unemployment. Particularly if you already had the basics down (aka an undergraduate degree). I suggested to the Alumni group at USC that such a program, a "mini-bachelors+masters" might make for something they could provide their alumni (or others) that would both get them more tuition dollars and help people.
dataminded 12y ago
Someone somewhere needs to be working on this. I also want something shorter and faster than an undergrad degree and more focused on CS than boot camps appear to be.

ChuckMcM 12y ago

This is pretty much the target, a 2 year program that covers basics to mastery in a particular subject. I have seen folks who have put together curriculums for that out of MOOC lists but it hasn't gotten nearly the attention it deserves. My theory is that if could retrain for a new discipline in 2 years it would strongly mitigate the notion of 'structural' unemployment. Particularly if you already had the basics down (aka an undergraduate degree). I suggested to the Alumni group at USC that such a program, a "mini-bachelors+masters" might make for something they could provide their alumni (or others) that would both get them more tuition dollars and help people.

dataminded 12y ago

Someone somewhere needs to be working on this. I also want something shorter and faster than an undergrad degree and more focused on CS than boot camps appear to be.