This specialist Level 9 Postgraduate Diploma in Science in Computing aims to equip students with the necessary skills to pursue an active and leading role in a dynamic, evolving industry.
Designed specifically to address a growing need in the industry, the Postgraduate Diploma in Science in Computing at Griffith College is a 1-1.5 year programme which aims to give students an insight into the world of academic and industrial computing research. Delivered on a full and part-time basis, as a graduate of this course, you will:
We run two intakes for this course, commencing in Spring and Autumn.
I found the course to be both challenging and rewarding as it gave me the opportunity to acquire a valuable accreditation whilst enhancing my computer expertise. The modules on the course are extremely interesting and beneficial, knowledge of which will prove useful in the IT marketplace.
Duration: Full time 1 year or Part time 1.5 years
Part-time programme:
This course has been created in consultation with leading industry partners. At Griffith College, we aim to be flexible to suit your personal and professional needs. Our part-time programme is usually delivered over three or four semesters.
This module serves to significantly deepen the learner's research skills, both in relation to the module related assignments and later in the completion of a dissertation / dissertation by practice. Specifically, it extends the ability of self-directed learners by equipping them with the appropriate vocabulary for reflecting on, critiquing and evaluating their own work and that of others. Throughout the module, learners are required to engage in a number of research methodologies and current research issues and trends in computing science. The module also addresses the need for good project management skills and techniques for the successful delivery of any project.
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This module aims to provide you with an understanding of the issues involved in the design and analysis of telecommunication networks, as well as a knowledge of such systems in terms of physical implementation, protocols, routing algorithms, management, software interfaces, and applications. The course also focusses on high speed telecommunication networks.
This module aims to give the learner the opportunity to study relatively new developments in Computer Science. The currently suggested topic is Mobile Development.
Currently there is great interest in mobile development, with Android and iOS being at the forefront. Smartphone shipments have increased year on year since the release of the original iPhone to the current point where such shipments now exceed the shipments of feature phones. As a result the development opportunities and market for these applications have increased rapidly over the last 5 years. As this is still a relatively new computing and interaction format it would be a great advantage for learners to have experience of developing mobile applications.
In this module learners are introduced to a mobile development platform and learn the processes involved in designing, prototyping, developing, testing and publishing of applications. They are also introduced to the mobile operating system, with explanations of how it differs to a desktop operating system and how this affects their applications.
This module introduces the learner to the concepts of information retrieval (IR) and web search. They encounter various techniques used in IR and means of evaluating their performance. Learners also gain an exposure to the practical design of large- scale IR systems that are commonly used in the web search domain. Current trends in IR, such as collection and data fusion are introduced through the use of academic papers.
This course aims to provide the learner with a mastery of the core aspects of computer communication security. This course of study gives them a mastery of security models, policies and mechanisms, confidentiality, integrity, authentication, cryptography and secure communication, digital signatures, certificates and the practical aspects of secure programming.
The future of microprocessor development is based around multi-processor multi-core architectures that will deliver the performance required for future application demands. The difficulty for software developers is how to write programs that harness the power of these new architectures. As a result the fundamental aim of this module is to teach learners how to write software for these machines. The general module aims are to provide learners with an understanding of the need for, and advantages of, concurrent and parallel systems; to master a new programming paradigm that is different from that of the single threaded one; a description of how processes and threads are managed in multi-processor, multi core machines; an understanding and mastery of the many classical problems arising with concurrent and parallel tasks; an awareness of the need for such issues as fairness, process synchronisation, deadlock avoidance, etc.; the ability to write concurrent and parallel programs to solve real world problems; an understanding of multi-core architectures and their significance for the implementation of parallel systems; a mastery of notations to express solutions to parallel problems.
This modules aims to equip the learner with the skills to design, analyse, compare and implement a range of important and commonly used algorithms across a number of problem domains. Learners learn the relationship between data structures, algorithms, and the problem which is to be solved. Mathematical methods of analysing algorithms are introduced and worked out in example. Classic algorithms are used to demonstrate problem solving paradigms, design strategies, and data structures. Learners are taught how to classify algorithms using asymptotic analysis and use this as a tool for comparing algorithms both with other algorithms and theoretical lower bounds for running times. An understanding of computation tractability, NP-Completeness, and the impact of these topics on theoretical computer science is a significant goal. Learners are taught different approaches to deal with intractability. Parallel algorithm design including identifying problems that do or do not lend themselves to parallelisation are presented. Learners are able to design functional parallel code that handles and/or avoids common parallelisation problems and issues. The theoretical prediction and practical interpretation of parallel performance metrics must be understood.
The module aims to introduce the learner to modern web based services, their architecture, design and implementation. The emergence of web-services in the Cloud has opened up the need for new approaches to software development and deployment. The wide-spread use of mobile applications (typically backed up by a cloud infrastructure which performs the heavy lifting) has also brought new challenges and opportunities. A significant part of the assessment involves the learner developing a web application, deploying it to the Cloud and configuring for and evaluating performance post installation. Assessment emphasises a collaborative group approach to equip the learners with the skills required to work in a successful agile software development team.
Sample Timetable
Applicants should hold an undergraduate honours degree 2:2 or above in computing or related area. Alternatively, applicants with a 2:2 Higher Diploma in Science in Computing or related area are eligible to apply.
To apply for the Postgraduate Diploma in Computing, please submit an online application
A member of our admissions team will then be in contact with you to request to following documents:
An Academic Administration Fee of EUR250.00 and a 2% Learner Protection Charge is applicable each academic year in addition to the fees quoted below. The fees below relate to Year 1 fees only.
Dublin
Irish/EU living in Ireland: EUR 5,200.00
Irish/EU Living in Ireland: EUR 5,200.00
A Registration Fee of EUR250.00 and a 2% Learner Protection Charge is applicable each academic year in addition to the fees quoted below.
Non-EU students: a Medical Insurance, Student Services and Administration fee of EUR300 is payable each academic year in addition to the fees quoted below.
Non-EU Living in Ireland or abroad: Please refer to our Non-EU Tuition Fees section.
EU Living Abroad: EUR 6,000.00
Students wishing to pay for their fees monthly may avail of our direct debit scheme. Please download our Fee Payment Information document to review the payment plan schedule and how to apply.
Is your company paying for your course?
They will need to complete a Griffith College Sponsorship Form and send this to the Student Fees Office:
All QQI accredited programmes of education and training of 3 months or longer duration are covered by arrangements under section 65 (4) of the Qualifications and Quality Assurance (Education and Training) Act 2012 whereby, in the event of the provider ceasing to provide the programme for any reason, enrolled learners may transfer to a similar programme at another provider, or, in the event that this is not practicable, the fees most recently paid will be refunded.
Please note that a QQI Award Fee applies in the final year of all QQI courses. To find the relevant fee for your course level, please see the Fees page.
Graduates of the Postgraduate Diploma in Science in Computing course have the option to continue their studies in Griffith College have the option of progressing to the MSc in Computing
Graduates of the Postgraduate Diploma in Science in Computing will find opportunities as technical applications developers and consultants, systems analysts, database administrators, network managers and other leading computing science roles, in academia and also in industry research and development roles.
