Learning new things is something that is constant in any field of computer science. There is always something new and useful just around the corner. Programming languages and software tools are always evolving. It is important for anyone in software development to be exposing themselves to the cutting edge of their field.

There is so much to know when it comes to programming. It isn’t possible for the average person to remember all the details of every language they’ve ever used. Being able to research for answers and quickly find what you need in documentation is extremely valuable and could be the difference between spending an hour on something or spending all day. That is why it is important to become familiar with documentation. Know what is out there and generally how it is structured.

So far, my team has drafted a design document and begun work on the foundation for our capstone project, Space Atlas. Space Atlas is going to be a 3D simulation of the solar system that a user can explore or use as a physics-based environment to build engineering simulations in. Space Atlas will be created in the Rust programming language and using Bevy game engine. I have used Rust before, but I’m not very experienced with it. Bevy is still under development and its documentation is still a work in progress. But none of this is a problem because having to learn new things was always expected with a big project.

A lot of my time I’ve spent working on this project so far has been dedicated to learning how both Rust and Bevy work. I’ve had to heavily rely on the documentation for Bevy while also referencing some basic examples. Using examples as a stepping stone is extremely helpful. My approach to using examples has been to try and piece them together bit by bit and understand how each line of code works. Once I understand how it works, I can change it to and try to build on top of it. Overall, this project has helped me improve valuable learning skills that I can apply to many other areas of my career.