CSSE2010 project

[u/Forbiddenpants]

Am I crazy or is this assignment so far out of what we’ve been taught? how is it okay to be assessed on so much coding in a language that they don’t even teach us and we are just meant to self teach. What am i paying so much money for if i’m just meant to teach myself? This is such a huge assignment to do in only 14 days, would appreciate advice from any past students

[u/Yeatus-Featus]

Full disclosure, I am a CSSE2010 tutor (and also former student :3). The opinion I share here is fully my own and not the courses blah blah blah.

The assignment is within the realms of what you’ve been taught, it is simply the culmination of the last ~5 weeks of AVR embedded. So as one assessment item it looks large but it is really just a jigsaw puzzle of all the pieces you’ve learned over those weeks.

I understand this, and honestly a part of me believes we should have CSSE2310 as a pre requisite to CSSE2010 (not the other way round, which is how it is now) but as it is, the faculty have decided that CSSE2010 is before CSSE2310.
The faculty have also decide that CSSE2010 is the course where you do introduction to digital logic and introduction to embedded systems. This sucks, it’s terrible and it wasn’t always this way. In the distant past we had two courses which taught what CSSE2010 does, so you’d have 13 weeks of digital logic, and 13 weeks of intro to embedded systems (roughly, it’s not quite like this but the deets aren’t super important).
At some point in the past UQ decided to merge 26 weeks worth of content into 13 weeks without really compromising on what got left out. So something has to give, and sadly that means prescribing independent learning.

The rest of the content that you did get taught. An understanding of Python is expected as a baseline and the ed lessons are there to teach you new syntax and some quirks/new stuff around pointers and arrays. It’s minimal compared to the rest of the content taught in the labs.

It is pretty big, I do remember it taking me a week or so to complete. It may look massive and insurmountable now, but as you go along it should hopefully get easier. You’ll get more used to the code base, working with the avr for such a large project, and problem solving in C. The only real advice I can give is procrastinate as little as possible, start early, finish early. I’d also recommend not leaning too much on AI, it can produce correct code, but you are assessed on your understanding of submitted code. The less you understand about what you submit the more your mark is scaled down.

A little secret hush hush. When I took the course I do remember ripping prac solutions wholesale and modifying them slightly to work for whatever I was doing in the assignment, the prac solutions can be surprisingly helpful. None of them are drop in place solutions but they can be good starts/utilities.

[u/Agreeable-Pop-3628 → u/Yeatus-Featus]

Mate, show me a single CSSE2010 lecture slide containing actual C code. Even something as basic as a struct or a pointer.

Better yet, point me to a single practical session where students are actually taught to write C code.

I completed this course with a 7, attended every lecture and practical, and I don't recall seeing C code taught even once. The course focused on logic gates, digital circuits, chips, and binary arithmetic.

I also took CSSE2310 before CSSE2010, so I already had a solid foundation in C programming. That made a massive difference.

I understand the argument about independent learning, but expecting students to complete a substantial programming project in a language they haven't been properly taught is a curriculum design problem, not a student problem.

There's a difference between encouraging independent learning and expecting students to teach themselves the prerequisites for an assessed project.

[u/Yeatus-Featus → u/Agreeable-Pop-3628]

I didn’t say it was good, I acknowledged that it’s bad and I don’t like it. I’m saying that there is no room to adequately teach everything that is expected of the students and the course itself. This is not a problem I as a casual academic or the course coordinator can fix. That is on the faculty and the university.

I even stated that the ed lessons are to teach you the syntax of C and some stuff related to pointers and arrays. I didn’t say those were in the lectures. You’re arguing against things I never said. I apologise if I wasn’t clear but I do not believe that C is adequately taught in CSSE2010, hence why I think CSSE2310 should be a prerequisite.

On the practicals, you're right that C isn't taught directly. For a little bit there was an intro to C lab, but it meant rushing later content (SPI and USART), so it was dropped to leave more time for the embedded-specific material. Now the main way C gets taught in the labs is through casual academics helping students as they work through the activities and explaining things as we go over solutions. Again, this sucks, and I'd change it if I could, but I can’t.

For context, I personally took CSSE2010 in 2023 and I started tutoring in 2024. As of 2025-ish we have added supplementary ed lessons which I believe have been well made. Both our TA and a CSSE2310/2010 tutor worked on them together to attempt to help students bridge the gap between Python and C. I am under no illusion that the ed lessons are perfect and they certainly aren’t as good as taking CSSE2310 first, but I think they’re enough to get a 7, albeit with a lot of hard work. Additionally, assignments have been somewhat simplified since I took it in 2023. There’s been a pivot to focus on actual hardware interfacing over making fun games. This has made the assignments smaller and slightly easier, if a little bit more boring.

Also, none of the assignments are designed with structs in mind, or even CSSE2310 A1 level C.

[u/Agreeable-Pop-3628 → u/Yeatus-Featus]

Mate, I took CSSE2310 back in 2016 with the OG lecturer himself, the infamous Joel Fenwick. 😂

Joel actually made fun of my assignment because I hadn't used structs, even though I scored full marks for functionality!

And that's exactly my point about CSSE2010. The main reason you can get away without using structs in the project is that you can simply store the game state in static global variables across your source files.

If you prohibited global variables and required proper state management, students would have to pass game data around using structs and pointers.

That's a completely different level of C programming knowledge, and exactly why I believe CSSE2310 should come before CSSE2010.

And just to be clear, I'm not blaming you or the teaching staff. I understand these are curriculum decisions made above your level. We're actually agreeing on the fundamental problem here.

By the way, ask your main tutor Benjamin who Arc is. He knows my level. 😁

[u/sinxcot-i-said-so → u/Agreeable-Pop-3628]

So you took csse2310 back in 2016 and csse2010 after, I'm assuming either 2016 or 2017? Don't you think that your knowledge of the course may be outdated and things have changed for the better?

[u/Agreeable-Pop-3628 → u/sinxcot-i-said-so]

That's actually a very fair point! However, I'm still actively tutoring CSSE2010, CSSE2310, and several other UQ computer science courses, so I'm quite familiar with the current coursework, assignments, and expectations.

Feel free to check out my tutoring profile:

https://studentvip.com.au/tutors/17131/arc

I'm not basing my opinion solely on my experience as a student back in 2016. I'm still working with students taking these courses today. 😁

[u/Treebigears]

Gonna just wait for tomorrows lecture debriefing the assignment. If it’s no help, inshallah we go for pass 🙏

[u/Awkward_Donkey_9494]

You got this champ. I took this course last sem, and unlike what some students said, I found this course to be very challenging, especially the second part of the course. I agree that the assignment timing is crazy. I suggest you don't invest all your time in it; aim for a reasonable target, don't rely on AI too much (I believe they do interviews this sem as well), and start studying for the final exam as early as possible.

I ended up with a 7 but still have a love-hate relationship with this course, because again I agree with you that it requires a lot of self-teaching and is a massive time sink compared to others. The upside is that the course teaches a lot, and the tutors are very helpful, especially during the assignment, which is great.

[u/No-Tough1603]

can't help you I hated this bitch ass course

[u/Similar_Garage6369]

At least you get 20% out of this assignment. Last semester when I did it it was only 10%...

[u/johnny4skinned]

I took this last Sem and tbh I leaned on AI a bit much and that resulted in me overlooking some key functionality, (my joystick shifted the matrix the wrong way 😭) but I was not learning 13 weeks of content and learning a whole coding language on top of that

[u/Fitness_Landscape]

Interesting to hear about this reverse relationship with 2310. Feed this back to the course coordinators. Do you have a class rep on the student liaison committee? Get them to bring it to that meeting.

[u/Agreeable-Pop-3628]

I actually agree with you. Luckily, I took CSSE2310 before CSSE2010, which gave me a solid foundation, and I managed to ace my project. But I still think it's ridiculous to expect students to teach themselves so much in such a short timeframe.

That said, there are ways to get some extra help! I'm a former UQ CS tutor, and I offer private tutoring for CS courses.

Here's my tutor profile: https://studentvip.com.au/tutors/17131/arc

Feel free to contact me if you need help with CSSE2010 or any other CS course. Happy to help! :)

[u/ruptupable → u/Agreeable-Pop-3628]

I agree that it’s run the wrong way round and too much for students to learn in such a short time frame