JOURNEY TO OSU

Greetings! This marks my first post, and today, I am going to share my journey that led me to the computer science post-baccalaureate program at OSU.

My academic background initially lies in public health. Post-college, I ventured into the realm of research as a Research Assistant. It was during this phase that I learned about a simple syntax within the SPSS software, using it to manipulate collected data for reporting purposes. While intriguing, I soon realized the limited growth opportunities within the public health sector. Recognizing the need for further education, I contemplated pursuing an ABSN program, given my public health degree. Over the next few years, I juggled roles as a research assistant while completing nursing requirements.

Amidst this, I learned two crucial things. Firstly, my interest in a nursing career waned. Secondly, a strong desire to delve deeper into syntax writing emerged. Conducting thorough research on how to pursue this, I stumbled upon computer science which eventually led me to OSU!

Success in Capstone

I believe my most significant achievement in this course has been working on a project within a team framework, engaging in continuous development, implementing effective project management strategies, and ensuring mutual accountability. Over the past weeks, our group has consistently progressed, resulting in ongoing enhancements to our project. I consider this achievement significant because this course has provided us with a platform for creativity, independent collaboration with peers, and valuable teamwork experience.

These experiences in my opinion have been invaluable. The ability to be able to be collaborative and complete task’s is essential in any field. Moreover, I’ve significantly enhanced my proficiency in utilizing GitHub and executing git commands throughout the duration of the course. Overall, this learning journey has given me the chance to discover more about my capabilities and the extent of my capacity for rapid learning and adaptation.

AI – Usage In My Capstone Project

How are you using AI in your project (or another one)? What are some pros and cons? Has it made you a better programmer?

My capstone project officially uses the assistance of AI to help build a web application. My team and I are working on the AI-coder project with the focus of creating a job tracker for computer science students to track all jobs they have applied to.

The pros, being able to turn to AI which has been extremely helpful. With the help of AI, my team and I have gotten our project up and running. Currently, working on familiarizing myself with the back-end of Javascript, react and mongoDB. I have been able to move along with the project tasks because of AI – specifically chatGPT. It has successfully given me instructions on how to complete things and guide me when needed.

The cons, AI is just… I quickly learned that you need to be extremely specific with AI. You have to use clear and use detailed language for it to get it just right. Also, it makes mistakes. I have had to ask AI to repeat a task/guide me multiple times for the same request because it will solve one thing but remove a completed- working part or changed something you did not intend to be changed.

So, at the end of the day, AI can be a great tool to get started but I truly think it’s important to have a general idea of what you are wanting to accomplish because in my experience AI can be great but it can also cause headaches.

As for the ‘as it made me a better programmer’, it has taught me the importance of being able to communicate effectively, even with AI.