Software Design with Artificial Intelligence - Athlone

Why take this course?
Ireland's reputation as a centre of software excellence is unrivalled in Europe. It is home to multinational and indigenous firms generating €16 billion of exports annually. The sectors wide-ranging activities include software development, R&D, business services and EMEA/International headquarters.

As computers become smarter Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making strides in simulating human thinking. Creating computer systems that automatically improve with experience has many applications including robotic control, data mining, autonomous navigation, and bioinformatics.

This course provides a broad introduction to machine learning and statistical pattern recognition. Students will learn about both supervised and unsupervised learning as well as learning theory, reinforcement learning and control.

What will I experience?
TUS's Faculty of Engineering and Informatics is housed in one of the most modern and well-equipped facilities of its kind in the country. Lecturers have extensive industry experience which enriches their teaching skills and competencies. You will be part of an exciting software development environment, with advanced research and strong links to industry.

Course Award: Master of Science
Course NFQ Level: Level 9

Year 1
Object Oriented Programming I
Research Methods & Professional Practice
Applied Scripting Languages
Data Mining and Machine Learning
Object Oriented Programming II
Data Visualisation
Advanced Machine Learning and Neural Networks
Engineering Team Project

Students may choose to complete a research dissertation or industry based work placement.

Work Placement
The Work Placement & Professional Practice provide in this programme provides learners with a comprehensive experience of the working environment while deepening specialist skills relevant to the programme. The module responds to the requirements of industry and relevant professional bodies as it facilitates in-depth student induction, extended professional practice, and immersion in contextualised specialised technologies and techniques.

Minimum Entry Requirements:
Applicants should hold a 4 year honours degree in software design or an equivalent qualification with a minimum grade of 2.1 (60%). In line with institute policies, non-native English speakers are required to have an IELTS level of 6.0 or higher.

Assessment Information
The programme assessment strategy has been devised to support both the programme and module learning outcomes and to foster the development of the intended knowledge, skills and competencies. A wide range of assessment methods suitable for the programme will be used and due consideration has been given by the Programme Board and Programme Management Team to the number of assessable components per year and to the possibility of cross-modular assessment throughout the programme. The assessment workload will be reviewed by the team on an annual basis. All assessment will be at the modular level.

1 Year full-time.

Course Commencement Date: September 2020

What opportunities might it lead to?
The programme provides excellent employment opportunities for graduates. Historically there has been a significant shortage of graduates in the ICT area. According to the Forfás Vacancy Overview Report, 35% of all difficult to fill vacancies were for the ICT sector, primarily for professional roles in software development including software developers, database developers (with Oracle/SQL), web, cloud; with skills in Java, JavaScript, C++, and .Net the most frequently mentioned. This MSc in Software Design with Artificial Intelligence will provide these technical competencies.

Career Prospects
According to the Forfás Vacancy Overview Report, the most difficult to fill vacancies were for the ICT sector, primarily for professional roles in software development including software developers: cloud computing, Web development database (with Oracle/SQL), Java, JavaScript, C#, and .Net the most frequently mentioned. Based on significant industrial collaboration of the Department of Computer and Software Engineering graduate of the Artificial Intelligence for Cloud Computing stream are well placed to work in these roles. According to Irelands Skills Strategy 2025 (Department of Education and Skills) there are skills shortages for professionals and associate professionals across sectors in many areas of ICT. The shortage of ICT talent is potentially significant for a number of sectors where ICT skills are needed, in particular software development. Ireland is likely to face an average increase in demand for high-level ICT skills of around 5% a year with the employment of ICT professionals anticipated to rise to just over 91,000. This skills shortage has become increasingly acute as more and more tech companies expand their operations in Ireland."

Further Study
Students who successfully complete this programme will be eligible to pursue research opportunities at PhD level.