This blog will chronicle my progress through the capstone project for Oregon State University’s Bachelor of Science in Computer Science. This is the 3-month, online course version of the project.
At the time of this writing, the class is just beginning. A couple of other students and I have requested assignment to the same team but it’s not a done deal. Here’s hoping!
There’s not much to say about the project yet so I’ll give a quick background about me and my reason for being here.
After getting a bachelor of science in aerospace engineering, I was a flight controller for the International Space Station at Johnson Space Center. Working in the space program had been my childhood dream but the weight of student loans drove me to jump ship for the more lucrative oil industry.
I was immediately regretful.
I got out quickly and yoyoed in the opposite direction: taking on endangered species conservation (specifically, Attwater’s Prairie Chickens) at the Houston Zoo. Unfortunately, it wasn’t sustainable. I took a job doing structural analysis for remotely operated submersible launch cranes. My heart wasn’t in it but it paid.
In 2015, I became disabled from work. This gave me a lot of time to think about my next move.
I recognized a common thread in all my jobs: a desire to automate tasks. I always thought, “This would be a lot safer and a lot more efficient if we had a certified tool for it. Not to mention, less monotonous.” But I never had the skills to make my vision into reality.
I chose to join OSU’s postbaccalaureate computer science program. As I researched the industry, I became very interested in machine learning and data science (before AI was always in the news and AI snake oil was everywhere, I swear). I’ve come to really enjoy software development and I’m more motivated now than I was in any of my previous work.
Whatever team and project I get, I’m looking forward to the capstone experience.