Favourite modules included Advanced Graphic Design, 3D Rendering, and Lighting modules, as well as getting to use the recording studio for audio production
Waterford native Jordan is a 2020 graduate of WIT who has most recently studied the BSc (Hons) in Creative Computing, the add-on year to the BSc in Multimedia Application Development which he started his college experience on in 2016.
A past pupil of St Paul's Community College, Waterford, since he finished his undergraduate degree in the first lock down from Covid in May 2020, he has spent his time building skills in various areas of personal development and building his professional portfolio.
I wanted to study the BSc (Hons) in Creative Computing at WIT because:
Growing up I always had a love of media and computers, from the age of 12 or13 I began producing electronic music, design, 3D modelling and Photoshop which made project work in secondary school to be quite interesting.
I've always loved working with and helping those with computers too. When I was finished my work experience in 2014 I built my own computer, which has assisted me throughout the entire college years. When I read the prospectus in 2016 this seemed to be one of the courses where I could show what I have learned myself and expand my knowledge of creative solutions and software.
Some of the highlights of my college experience at WIT include:
Some of the highlights of my college experience were getting to use the recording studio for my Audio Production Module and putting together some radio advertisements. One of the most unexpected modules we had was watercolour painting, where we explored some of the techniques of the medium and famous artists throughout different generations.
Anytime there was a colour run on campus I loved the experience. A fantastic change to the college was the improvement to the main food hall (bistro), which included an extended food counter and a barista which made staying healthy and access amazing coffee much easier.
The Advanced Graphic Design, 3D Rendering, and Lighting modules were some of my favourite as I was able to experiment with the skills I have learned over the previous years and create some fantastic pieces which seem to always catch people’s eye when showing a portfolio.
Work placement participation benefited my college experience in the following way:
With work placement thankfully I had the opportunity to work for the Marketing Department in WIT. This was a fantastic learning experience and one of my first real steps in exploring the kind of work I would love to do in the future. I really enjoyed my time working alongside the team and another intern while there.
The three months consisted of working on the WIT website front-end, development of wearewaterford.ie, assisting different departments with their 'School' representations and working on graphics for different sections. The work here was one most pleasant experiences I could have wished for. The experience helped me in my own web development and marketing module in my final year. It’s kind of funny now being on the other side of the Student Story process.
Why I would recommend studying in Waterford/WIT:
Waterford Institute of Technology is a college with an amazing amount of opportunity to learn and grow into the person you want to be. A giant library full of free resources and access to resource papers for projects on their network, fully equipped kitchens for culinary, a dining hall with cooked foods and a barista stand, and a building entirely full of computers along with a Mac room for 3D modelling, games development, audio production and video editing.
Waterford itself has many fun activities to do throughout the day or weekends during course downtime, many cafes/food places and a very lively nightlife making it easy to make friends easily throughout your time here.
My advice for anyone considering the BSc in Creative Computing course is:
This course is the add on year from Multimedia Application Development. Both of these courses are fantastic for giving you a taste of every part of media and IT.
This includes more logical modules such as databases and big data, cyber security, cryptography, mathematics / statistics and networking. Modules to help plan for the future like professional practice and critical thinking.
Along with more media/creative focused modules like audio production, graphic design, web development, mobile app creation, 3D modeling/animation and web app creation.
All of these are important in the course, and it can make deadlines quite difficult when they start overlapping.
My advice would be to create a calendar of all modules/deadlines, check in with classmates on their work, check Moodle for lecturer updates and always ask questions, even if they seem completely silly as it may just save you from a lot of future confusion and to research in your own spare time when you can, only working during lectures of practical classes will cause only a little work to be done, if you have questions from your own work outside of a class the lecturers will be glad to assist seeing your initiative and are available on email when outside of campus.
SETU Waterford, Cork Road, Waterford City, 
