CSUMB Computer Science Learning Journal

    This week, it is not over yet. I spend hours every day refining my Java skills and getting back up to speed. It's been mostly smooth, despite some hiccups in learning about loops and parsing strings with them. I am still studying to ensure I fully understand the topics. We used codingbat.com/java for this week's homework, and I first started with the warmup, which I fully completed. Then, I began working on the assigned homework, which included beginner string manipulation, array, and logical problems. The process starts off by dissecting what the text is asking and working the solution carefully around the prompt. I heavily limited the usage of AI unless it was simply used to explain, or if I was incredibly stuck and I couldn't figure out what exactly to do next. I don't really plan out my code, well, I do at least a little in my head before I throw code at the issue. Reading references and API about strings and arrays, watching tutorials and given sources, it sign...

  Part 1 - Review Other Teams' Final Video Projects      I chose to personally review "The Deepfake Dilemma," created by the Tech Heads team, which consists of Sami Hobson, Faith Thomas, and Luis Valadez. Both the general audience version and the professional version  will be reviewed in the following paragraph. The topics in both videos are well-covered with respect for their own audiences. The topics were presented clearly with an evident speaker rotation pattern. The quality of the research is sufficient for the videos. The professional provides in-depth information for those who are interested and knowledgeable in the technology industry. The quality of video production is great. There was no unnecessary visual aid that didn't help explain the content spoken about. Teamwork is somewhat evident, as I believe that they all made their own slides, but, in a way, I suppose dividing up the work is also a form of teamwork. Overall, I believe Tech Heads demonstrate...

 Part One     We collaborated using Canva to create graphic slides for the video presentation. For the script, we used Google Docs to share research links, contribute ideas, and write collaboratively. We held a meeting to discuss what we have learned in-depth and worked together to create a fluent and well-structured script. Communication was handled via Discord, allowing us to coordinate in real-time through text and calls. Finally, we uploaded the finished presentations for both the public and professional audiences to YouTube. The overall process was much smoother than anticipated. We devised a schedule to adhere to. We quickly found tools that aided us in the creation of the projects, and everyone did their parts in research, writing, and rotational speaking in the presentation. Next time doing such a large collaborative project, I think clarification of who does what is needed to prevent accidental overlaps in script writing. Part Two     This week's lectu...

Part One - Help Your Teammates to Develop Capstone Ideas     One idea that Claudia had that particularly caught my interest was that she thought of creating a motion-tracking software for athletes. I thought that would be a unique and strong project for a capstone project. She also talked about creating a firewall, which I also thought was a very nice idea. For Mariah, the project that piqued my interest the most was the pet adoption matching system, where it was described as a match-making system, but for humans to find the perfect pet. A very unique idea that I thought would be excellent and fun to do. I thought for myself, I'd make a forum website or tracking flying insects or birds, and pre-calculate their flight trajectory, and possibly detection of what kind of insect or bird it is. Part Two - Keep Up With Your Learning Journal For this week, I explored various careers, LinkedIn, resumes, cover letters, and internships in depth. I've never created a resume or cover lette...

      I selected a person named John, a recently retired senior software engineer, specifically because he is a family friend of my mother's, whom she has known her whole life. I naturally thought that this would be the perfect person to interview. During university for a Bachelor's in Computer Science, John took the search for internships seriously. After a while, he found one at a small startup, which would ultimately be his first real-world experience in the field, where, as he remembers, he only did maintenance and bug fixes of the code. Upon graduating and with real-world experience, his job search went relatively smoothly, where he was hired with knowledge of skills in Python, JavaScript, and mainly, C++. His first job after graduation was mostly front-end website development, where he built on already existing code, fleshing out various features. After talking about his career life, I then asked about emerging trends within the industry, and he quickly replied that...