Month: November 2020

This week my group and I all came together to finish the demo for our project. We had decided that our main focus for the end should be split into our three initial sections that we chose at the start: the database, interaction with the database, and then the UI. For the purposes of this exercise, however, we decided to split from our original roles for the purpose of better understanding what one another will be working with for the rest of the project. It is because of this that I decided to take up the database interaction to store the information gained from the sensors. Through some research, I was able to find the solutions I was looking for and we were all able to push what we made into something worth showing off.

A challenge I faced was having to relearn how to code in Python. Luckily for me, Python isn’t that difficult of a language to begin with, and if you already understand how to write code and learned Python in the past, jumping back into it and remembering the syntax is a breeze. Although taking a look at the code now, it looks a little funky, I know it is only because it is in a format that I am not used to looking at. By the end of this project, I will be able to scratch up Python to being one of my top languages known when it comes to how comfortable I am writing in it. Given that Python will be the language that we will be writing most of our work in, it isn’t very strange to think that it should become as forward in my mind as others. My only hope is that it doesn’t push out the knowledge I have for C. Being a more complex language than Python, I get the feeling it would be a lot more strenuous to have to relearn C than it is to relearn Python.

This week, our groups main focus was deep diving our project rough draft and reading out the questions we received. With the knowledge obtained in this manner, we hope to improve our project in a way that benefits us for the foreseeable future. A part I found slightly more difficult than reviewing our project was reviewing another groups project. I am not sure if it was just the way that they set up their design document or if it was their wording, but I felt like it was written in such a way that understanding the full scope of the project was initially difficult. In order to find out their exact method of completing it, it took some re reading and bonus questions being asked. It wasn’t by any means poor quality work, I just felt as if they could have made it more clear as to what exactly their method was to achieve their task. I was sure to voice some of my concerns in their comment sections on specific sectors, but in the end I had enough information to do something of interest.

The course itself, as a whole, has been a blast. I have felt as if I am learning things that can only benefit me in the future. A good example of which came from this last week when we had to peer review work. If I was brought somebodies design and had to review it, this was a good mock of what I would say, do, and react to such an encounter. As well as learning to write my own in a meaningful way. Not many classes in my past have offered me this same sort of insight, except maybe my HCI or software engineering courses. I enjoy these classes because I feel as if I am actually learning concepts that will be directly reflected into what I will be doing almost every day. It always makes me go back to an old phrase I heard when I first started learning Computer Science: “Anybody can learn how to code, but not everybody can be a Computer Scientist.”

This last week my group members and I had a draft due of our Team Design Document. We made the comment to one another that the project itself seemed a little repetitive. That everything we had done so far in the term was just reiterated in this project, but we also saw that was the point of everything earlier in the term. We did all of those earlier discussion boards, papers, and posts all to lead up to this draft where we could put all of the information we’ve been talking about for the last five weeks and became masters of. I feel very confident in my team and I’s ability to complete what is desired for us in this project. We do not believe that the problem in question is too complex, but there are probably some unforeseen hiccups in our path that we have yet to have the foresight to behold. I am looking forward to completing this project with a high head, taking the first needed steps in getting to a project that I am proud to show off, even if it is just something as simple as making an automatic stop of a wave pool.

My group mates have been very cooperative and seem to share the same ideals as I do when it comes to getting this project done in a clean and precise way. Despite all of us going through many other classes, all of which being more on the difficult end of the spectrum, we can always find the time to get together and work on this larger more time consuming project together. We make sure to not let one another down, and that is something I glean as an absolute positive, especially when dealing with a class as important as this one.

My group and I have a set date to meet up on the 9th to finish up our latest assignment, The Team Design Document. So far, the guys and I have been getting along great. We all have a similar work mentality and when we all put our minds together to work on the project, the outcome is usually very positive. It’s kind of like working with other versions of myself, but with strengths in different locations. I am grateful that this group is a very astute and down to earth one. I’ve been in computer science courses in the past where group members have been on cruise control the entire course and do very little overall work, but that is not the case for this one thankfully. Our load this last week wasn’t too grinding as past ones, we all pretty much stuck to what we needed to do and waited- working on other classes that are in dire need of attention. Besides for a few minor conversations, there hasn’t been too much going on. But that doesn’t defeat the fact that we are up and ready to keep on moving. It’s kind of nice to have this sort of pacing. I’m so used to being in computer science courses that are all about finishing the project as fast as you can so that you can learn and get the grade just to do it again the next week. This one is far different with it being more about the quality of work you put out, I really like that in a computer science course because it more simulates what should be happening out there in the real world. I know that after this is all said and done, I won’t be gunning for a positing in a location that prefers quantity over quality.

This week was a somewhat lull one. My group and I mostly worked our independent bodies of work for the project with little communication besides for the pop ups every once in a while to see how everything was doing. I am still looking forward to this project, it seems interesting and exciting to me. I ended up choosing to take on User Interface and Design, a strength of mine, for my section of the project. Any excuse to pour the skills I learned from past classes into a working movable project is something that I’ve always looked forward to doing. The assignments we’d get in lecture or while moving up in computer science were lack luster in my opinion. I never felt like I was actually making something that was useful or had an end. It always just felt like busy work that you’d stress about and would dictate whether you passed the class or not. Now that I’m finally reaching the end and I am past most of those classes, I am finally feeling as if I am enjoying what I am doing. With the knowledge I’ve received, I am confident in my ability to give a product to the user that they will be beyond satisfied with no matter who the user may be or what the product is that they want created. Working towards a goal that will make someones life more easy is something that inspires me to continue on this path of computer science. It is through this lens that I am looking at this capstone class with. I am able to meet with and talk to an individual of a group that desires something to be done and my group and I are the ones tasked with completing it to what they want. This is something that I cannot wait to get started on and goal I can’t wait to start working towards.