Getting Started
Getting Started I began my online school journey at the Oregon State University at the ripe age of 30. I initially graduate with a mechanical engineering degree in 2012 and had spent my career designing and building consumer electronics at Microsoft. I really loved working on hardware and through my job I got to work on a wide range of subsystems and technologies from capacitive touch sensors and 5g antennas to CNC’d magnesium enclosures. In late 2019 I realized though, it wasn’t enough to just understand how computers felt, I need to know how they thought. With a cumulative 20 minutes of research I applied to the Oregon State University’s online computer science program and the following spring, as Covid-19 gripped the world, I began my journey to become a software guy.
The Long Road
One of the things I didn’t realize when embarking on my online school journey was how much fun computer science would be. I loved mechanical engineering because I loved being able to take an idea and bring it to life in the real world. With programming, the ability to do this scaled dramatically. With hardware there are lead times, tooling expenditures, supply constraints and so many other barriers between your idea and a working product. In software many of these barriers are either much smaller or eliminated completely.
As I progressed through the program, I began to learn more about how different types of software work and how systems come together. As someone coming into the program with almost zero programming experience, it felt to rewarding to learn a new language and see my projects come together on the screen. I got to build a SQL database for storing gamertags and their game libraries, I designed REST API for tracking machine usage for jobs, and I even created a social media web app for cats! (check out some of these projects on my github) I’ve started working on some projects outside of school as well, the most recent being an AI hackathon where I worked with Microsoft’s Semantic Kernel SDK. I’ve loved learning how to create software and while I’m still a noob, I’m excited for what the future holds as I expand my skillset.
Wrapping up
Today marks the beginning of my final class at the Oregon State University and over the next few months I hope you’ll join me as I share the highs and the lows of my capstone project. With enough encouragement, I may even make it through and become a Bachelor (of Computer Science)!
Leave a Reply