Hello world! My name is Jenna Bucien. I currently live in San Jose, CA and will graduate this June.
In this blog, I will reflect on my journey completing my CS 467 capstone project. Here’s my self-introduction:
Why did you choose to go into Computer Science?
Like all students in Oregon State’s Computer Science Post-Bacc program, I hold a bachelor’s degree in another field. In my case, I graduated from Barnard College in 2019 with a BA in East Asian Studies. After graduation, I worked as a travel planner for a boutique travel agency in New York. Unfortunately, roughly seven months later, the Covid-19 pandemic crashed the travel industry, and thus my new professional life. Yikes!
While sitting at home unemployed, I decided to pivot towards a different career direction. I was always attracted to Computer Science because its concepts are the backbone of our world’s technological progress and innovation. How do these seemingly magical technologies work? It would be amazing to contribute to their development and advancement! So, to test the waters, I enrolled in a self-paced Python course. I ended up loving the analytical, problem-solving aspects of coding, and shortly afterwards decided to apply to OSU. And here I am!
Now that I’ve almost completed this computer science degree, I can say that I have no regrets. I still love working iteratively to solve problems. Although there are definitely lots of frustrating moments, the high I get from making a tiny bit of progress is addictive. I’m excited to enter the professional tech field and continue my computer science adventure!
Why did you choose the projects you did on the survey? What makes them interesting to you?
The projects that I chose are all related to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Here’s my ranked list:
- Top-n Music Classification
- AI/ML Trading Bot
- Investor Match.ai
- ML Breakout
- Smart Recycling Bin
- Data Mining of Disparate Date Sets
It’s not shocking to any of us that AI/ML is shaking up the world. Headlines about the coming AI revolution are constant, and every company wants in on the latest AI technology. (Even my 90-year-old grandpa knows what ChatGPT is!)
Unfortunately, because AI is an advanced, complex, and vast field, I haven’t been exposed any AI/ML concepts in my time at OSU thus far. So, the opportunity to scrape the surface of AI through these capstone projects strongly appeals to me.
In particular, my top choice is the Top-n Music Classification project because I am interested in how to train, test, and validate neural networks using Keras or Tensorflow. I think it will be fascinating exploring how programs learn to classify objects in datasets. What characteristics and methodologies do they use? How quickly do they learn? What biases and/or unexpected results should we watch out for? I’d love to gain a basic understanding of neutral networking, as well as a how it can be applied to a subject all humans relate to–music! (Learning how Python can perform auditory processing is also a plus.)
I hope that I learn valuable skills through this capstone project, and I’m excited to share my progress with you through this blog. I look forward to writing my next entry!