The Situation Report

Navigating Large Workloads

This term at OSU has been one of the heaviest workloads that I think I may have had throughout my time in the program. While unexpected, the challenges that come with balancing the needs of all of my courses has presented unique opportunities for me – especially as my team and I work through our Capstone project. I am typically the type of person who will add more to my plate (sometimes absurdly) in order to make the lives and work of my teammates less stressful and easier. However, this quarter I have had to learn to let others be responsible for their share of a project in order to help ensure that I am successful in all of my courses. I still find myself trying to take on more than I probably need to, but I have found that it is beneficial to encourage everyone’s participation rather than taking on too much work.

Differing Approaches to Work

In addition to learning to encourage others to be more involved in our project, it has also been difficult for me to adjust to the various approaches to work that are present in our group. I am typically a very plan oriented person who tends to work ahead in order to try and head off any potential issues that may arise. In previous group assignments I had the opportunity to choose my teammates and often tried to align course schedules with peers that had similar philosophies – often I was working with friends who shared the same outlook.

This course has required me to be much more adaptable to others’ schedules and approaches to completing assignments. It has been rather challenging for me, especially with my personal responsibilities, including ensuring that I am staying present as a father and husband. This need for adaptability has led to some long nights in order to ensure that everyone has contributed to the assignment and had a chance to look it over before it gets submitted.

With all of this being said, I still think that I will stick to my philosophy of working ahead in the future. I think that the added stress of trying to put a bow on a given assignment the night that it’s due is not conducive to complete, productive, and effective work. However, this project has made me understand the difficulties and intricacies of navigating deadlines and due dates when groups of individuals – with varying lifestyles, timezones, and obligations – come together.

What’s Next?

Navigating a large workload as well as working with a group of individuals that I’m not very familiar with has posed unique challenges this quarter. However, these challenges have also allowed me to develop a more empathetic and understanding outlook when schedules don’t align perfectly or hiccups occur. The main thing for me to focus on is being vocal about my concerns regarding last minute work and expressing my concerns and interests to avoid it. While this is not always possible, it at least lays my concerns out on the table in an attempt to make the situation more inline with my outlook. Moving forward, I will be more proactive in working to ensure that we have at least a window for corrections in the event of unforeseen circumstances.

Who am I?

Hello, everyone! My name is Tyrell and this is the start of my journey through Oregon State University’s nine-month capstone courses.

I currently live in western Montana and relish in the outdoor opportunities that my home state has to offer. I have a lovely wife and two beautiful children that I spend my time with, as well as our three Corgis! When I’m not on dad duty, I enjoy fishing, UTV riding, personal coding projects, and playing a variety of video games.

Why Computer Science?

I am a computer science student through OSU’s distance learning program and am nearing the completion of my degree. My journey to OSU and Computer Science is a bit long and scattered, but can be boiled down to a few core memories of my life.

When I was quite young – around the ages of four through eight – I was first introduced to computers by my father. He had an old Macintosh desktop – I couldn’t tell you the model, I just remember the color being a dingy tan color and how bulky the computer was. I was introduced to the device’s built-in “Paint” equivalent which I used to create various toddler drawings, and several text based adventure games. I really enjoyed the time I had playing around on that machine and I look back fondly on those experiences.

Following this machine, we bought a family Toshiba desktop when we moved to Montana. This machine was the first time that I got to really tinker with computers. We ended up replacing and adding hard drives and disk drives to this device as my dad would bootleg the shows that he directed at the local community theater to provide recordings to the cast members.

The next core memory that helped to pave the way for my entry into computer science was at a much later time in my life, in my early-twenties. I got a job in project management for a small software start-up that was developing GIS solutions for telecommunications company. The small size of this company meant that we all had to wear many hats, and one of mine was minor code changes that needed to happen when others weren’t available to make them. Seeing how complex some of our company’s systems were piqued my interest and got me interested in learning how to code in my free time.

The last of these core memories was the final catalyst needed for me to fully commit to pursuing computer science in an all-in manner and happened in my mid-twenties. I was interviewing for a new job with the owner of the company and he posed the question “What do you want to be when you grow up?” It seems like a silly question at first glance, but for whatever reason really got me thinking about what it was I wanted to make into a career. As I thought about this, I thought back on the memories I spoke of before, and eventually decided to pursue computer science. I haven’t looked back and have enjoyed every moment of it.

What’s Next?

Now that you know a little bit about me, what’s next? Well, this blog is intended to document a part of my pursuit to be a successful computer scientist, specifically my journey through the OSU capstone courses and the project that I work on through those courses. Along the way, we’ll talk about new (to me) technologies, goals, roadblocks, successes, and the courses themselves.

I look forward to making this journey with all of you!

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