Finn Bauer

Finn Bauer

Could you tell us a little about yourself and about your studies before coming to Imperial?

I am originally from Germany and came to the UK to study. I studied Finance at LSE before joining the MSc Computing Science at Imperial. I really liked all quantitative subjects around financial engineering and over the course of my studies got very interested in programming. At the time I mostly wrote code in R for statistical modelling. I completed multiple internships in investment banking but ultimately realized that I was missing the coding. I came to Imperial to pursue my real passion, computer science.

What attracted you to your degree?

The MSc Computing Science offers a great opportunity to anyone who has always liked programming but decided to study another quantitative discipline. This was my chance to receive an excellent education in computer science within one year. I learned everything I needed to pursue a completely new career in software engineering. I would say that makes this program unique in Europe. Needless to say the course is not easy. 

What did you enjoy the most?

I think the most important part of any computer science education is the practical coursework. The Imperial College lecturers put a lot of effort into your practical exercises and that really accelerates your progress. One of the most interesting challenges is the group project which you complete in term 2. We build a web application that could sort large amounts of images the same way a human would arrange them. This required machine learning skills as well as web development expertise.

Can you tell us about some of your achievements at Imperial that make you proud?

For my master’s thesis I built a web application called CodeSnip that helps university lecturers teach programming. CodeSnip lets teachers share programming exercises and code examples with their students. The design of CodeSnip encourages students to manipulate and solve these materials. Students no longer need to set up a development environment, download any files or copy code. They simply program inside CodeSnip and their answers are checked automatically. I added a novel feature to the application that lets lecturers also test the efficiency and style of their students exercise solutions. The final product generated significant excitement among the faculty. I am really proud that the department received funding from the Imperial “Excellence Fund for Learning and Teaching Innovation” to keep developing CodeSnip.

Do you have any advice for prospective students?

I think anyone on the program should take the opportunity to do some side projects during the year. In University you do have some spare time and that is an opportunity to explore topics outside of the curriculum. For example some friends of mine and I taught ourselves React by working on two web applications.

What are your plans after completing your degree?

After finishing my degree I will start as a software engineer at Amazon AWS in Berlin. I am joining one of their java based back end developing teams. The software engineering module from the second term at Imperial was great preparation for this role.

Could you tell us a little about yourself and about your studies before coming to Imperial?

I am originally from Germany and came to the UK to study. I studied Finance at LSE before joining the MSc Computing Science at Imperial. I really liked all quantitative subjects around financial engineering and over the course of my studies got very interested in programming. At the time I mostly wrote code in R for statistical modelling. I completed multiple internships in investment banking but ultimately realized that I was missing the coding. I came to Imperial to pursue my real passion, computer science.

What attracted you to your degree?

The MSc Computing Science offers a great opportunity to anyone who has always liked programming but decided to study another quantitative discipline. This was my chance to receive an excellent education in computer science within one year. I learned everything I needed to pursue a completely new career in software engineering. I would say that makes this program unique in Europe. Needless to say the course is not easy. 

What did you enjoy the most?

I think the most important part of any computer science education is the practical coursework. The Imperial College lecturers put a lot of effort into your practical exercises and that really accelerates your progress. One of the most interesting challenges is the group project which you complete in term 2. We build a web application that could sort large amounts of images the same way a human would arrange them. This required machine learning skills as well as web development expertise.

Can you tell us about some of your achievements at Imperial that make you proud?

For my master’s thesis I built a web application called CodeSnip that helps university lecturers teach programming. CodeSnip lets teachers share programming exercises and code examples with their students. The design of CodeSnip encourages students to manipulate and solve these materials. Students no longer need to set up a development environment, download any files or copy code. They simply program inside CodeSnip and their answers are checked automatically. I added a novel feature to the application that lets lecturers also test the efficiency and style of their students exercise solutions. The final product generated significant excitement among the faculty. I am really proud that the department received funding from the Imperial “Excellence Fund for Learning and Teaching Innovation” to keep developing CodeSnip.

Do you have any advice for prospective students?

I think anyone on the program should take the opportunity to do some side projects during the year. In University you do have some spare time and that is an opportunity to explore topics outside of the curriculum. For example some friends of mine and I taught ourselves React by working on two web applications.

What are your plans after completing your degree?

After finishing my degree I will start as a software engineer at Amazon AWS in Berlin. I am joining one of their java based back end developing teams. The software engineering module from the second term at Imperial was great preparation for this role.