Hello, and welcome! This page is intended to hold my weekly blog posts for my Senior Capstone Project in Computer Science at Oregon State University. While I await my group assignment and project selection, I wanted to introduce myself and outline my vision for this site.
ABOUT ME: I am a senior in the Computer Science program at Oregon State University. Prior to the start of this degree I gained experience in all things related to process modeling and computer simulations. My first undergraduate degree was in BioSystems Engineering- with emphasis in chemical engineering and environmental engineering. My master’s degree was in Environmental Engineering – with emphasis in Contaminant Transport. During my undergraduate work I was exposed to several different tools/computer simulation packages that really fueled my passion for utilizing computers and algorithms for solving real world problems. Here are some examples that I really enjoyed:
- Mathematical modeling with MATLAB and MATHMATICA to solve statistical and dispersion models.
- Code and running a bio-simulation of insulin dispersion through the body in people living with diabetes.
- Modifying inputs and evaluating changes in chemical process plant model in a PROII simulation package.
- ASCE National Design Competition – design and simulate a waste water treatment plan for a small community.
- And for my master’s degree I worked on a chemical contaminant transport model that was used to develop grants for studying contaminant transport and remediation in both the Spokane River Basin and also in stormwater runoff collections.
It is probably not a shock then that I chose to dive into a career of process modeling and coding simulations. In the early 2000s there were many Commercial Off The Shelf simulation packages that could do all kinds of cool tricks and were customizable to the users needs. As the needs of the company I work for became more specialized, we began developing our own tools. It is over the evolution of these tools that I have been exposed to coding in C#, C++, and SQL on both Linux and Windows OS. My boss asked me to take some additional coding classes to strengthen my code tool box, and instead I decided to get an entire Computer Science BS through the online Oregon State University program. Which brings me to where I am today… working on my final course and doing my senior capstone project.
Over the course of this quarter I will be blogging each week about the things I observe with my project, things I stumble across in my research, pitfalls I experience, and hopefully discuss some of my successes. I am calling my blog “Agile Capstone – Avoiding the Ghosts” as a throwback to the old pacman games I played as a kid. In agile programming the tasks are broken down into bite sized scope, much like the little yellow “chomper” in the game would eat one dot at a time. Additionally- the goal of the game was to eat these dots while avoiding the ghosts. The “ghosts” written about in this blog will be the pitfalls that I experience. The power pellets in the game will be new tools and tricks that I learn along the way. And if I am lucky- I hope to get a cherry or two and document the successes and things I am proud.
This is my first ever blog, so I expect it might be a little rough at first. But, I promise to try to include lots of real life examples and anecdotes to make it a more interesting read. Thank you for following along.
