CS373 Spring 2017: Nicholas Dant

Week Fifteen

2017-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

Class Experience

I think that I’ve gotten a lot out of this class. Everything from the quizzes, tests, readings, and projects helped me become more familiar with software engineering. The quizzes made sure that I was keeping up with all of the content in the course (and it forced me to get to class on time). The tests were a bit tricky but I believe they were fair. The readings took me a while but they have valuable information and topics that are extremely relevant to software engineering so it was import to not blow them off. The projects are what I enjoyed most about this class though. They exposed me to interesting tools that I didn’t have a lot of experience in so I am glad I got to try them out. I’ve never been involved with building a site from scratch before so this experience was quite valuable. Professor Downing was an enthusiastic instructor and I am glad I had to opportunity to take this class with him. He does a tremendous job at teaching the content and course is structured very well.

Week Fourteen

2017-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

Other than finishing up the readings for this class, I did not have much to do regarding SWE. I worked with my team to put the final touches on the site presentation and we presented on Friday. I think the presentation went well and putting it together gave us the opportunity to step back and review what we did well and what we did not. This is valuable insight and I look forward to the critique from other groups.

What’s in my way?

I will be focusing much of my time on studying for the upcoming exam. I am quite rusty on SQL joins so I want to make sure I review. If the second test is like the first, it could be tricky so I want to keep the format of the first exam in mind when studying for the upcoming one.

What will I do next week?

The last week of class is here so I will work on finishing up any last assignments and tests. I have 3 exams coming up this week so I will definitely have to put some time into studying.

What’s my experience of the class?

Now that the project is done I feel pretty relieved. It was a good bit of work but I’m glad I had the opportunity to do it. It was valuable experience working with some new technologies and working in a team environment is always beneficial.

Tip-of-the-week

This may be a bit late but my team leverage GitHub’s API for statistics on our about page. It’s a well documented API so if you think you could use this in the future check it out!

Week Thirteen

2017-04-23T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

I worked with my team to implement search and put the final touches on our site. Luckily, we were able to get search resolved rather quickly and early in the week so we didn’t have to worry about being pressed for time later in the week. I found the visualization portion pretty interesting although I wasn’t working with particularly good data.

What’s in my way?

I want to finish strong on the quizzes so I want to make sure I get the readings done before the week starts. Furthermore, I need to start reviewing the material for the upcoming test. I feel as though the next test is going to be harder than the first so I definitely need to focus on studying.

What will I do next week?

I need to figure out the best way to approach the next test. I feel as thought there is quite a bit of material that I need to touch up on so I don’t want to put it off (as I usually do).

What’s my experience of the class?

Our discussions in lecture have been reinforcing what I’ve been learning in software design this semester. I am glad I have had the opportunity to take both at once because I feel like they go hand-in-hand. It’s useful seeing Professor Downing refactor the programs over the past few lectures as I have been able to get a better grasp on some design patterns and how they are implemented.

Tip-of-the-week

I found this site to be a good source of information, visuals, and examples for various SQL joins if you are having trouble with those.

Week Twelve

2017-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

This past week was not as busy as previous weeks. Actually, it was quite difficult staying motivated to do work with such an empty week. However, I did my best to keep up with the readings for this class and work with my group for how we will be approaching the last phase of the project.

What’s in my way?

The phase 3 deadline is fast approaching and my group has some work still to do. The search will likely take some time to fully implement so it would be great if we can wrap that up well before the deadline.

What will I do next week?

I will work with my group to flesh out the site-wide search feature along with some other front end changes. I also need to balance my time between two other group projects so I will need to manage my time wisely.

What’s my experience of the class?

I am looking forward to the self critique part of the website as it is a good chance to take a step back and examine what we have done so far and where we are headed for our site. I’ve always been interested with how websites are designed to optimize user experience and I’m glad we will have the chance to get involved with user experience.

The content we are covering in lectures also complements what I’m learning in software design so that is a welcome change to the course content.

Tip-of-the-week

The D3 wiki has a lot of useful information for the visualization process of this phase, including tutorials and examples!

Week Eleven

2017-04-09T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

This past week was quite busy. I had a test in software design that required studying design patterns so that combined with working on phase 2 of the project took some time.

What’s in my way?

My group would like to finish strong for the last phase of the project so getting a head start will be very beneficial. It will also help to spread the work out more evenly over the next two weeks compared to waiting to the last minute and rushing to make sure everything is working.

What will I do next week?

This upcoming week I will work with my team to start the third phase of project. We will have to brainstorm ideas for the data visualization and get search working so, again, I’d like to start early on this.

What’s my experience of the class?

The lectures have been pretty interesting, although I’ve already been taught some basic SQL so much of what we have done so far has been review. On the other hand, it has been some time since I’ve actually used SQL so it’ll be a good refresher, especially on joins. I am also interested in how my group will visualize another group’s project.

Tip-of-the-week

CodePen is a useful way to test front end web design.

Week Ten

2017-04-02T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

I had a good bit of work to do in other classes so that took up a majority of my time this past week. During my downtime, I was able to create a new page for our technical report as previously it was just slapped onto our about page.

What’s in my way?

With the deadline for phase 2 of the IDB project quickly approaching, I will have to coordinate with my team to ensure we get everything done. There are some design choices we’ve made involving the handling of our data grids so this will need to be handled sooner rather than later. I also have a big test this week in another class so I will have to balance that as well.

What will I do next week?

This upcoming week I will work with my team to complete the second phase of the class project. We did pretty well on the first phase and we were able to complete that on time so I hope that success carries over to this phase. We have made some progress on the backend but there is more to do regarding our templates.

What’s my experience of the class?

This past week, I attended a talk by Atlassian. They discussed their products and technology but what really caught my attention was their discussion of company culture. They stressed the importance of teamwork and how that affects their day-to-day life and I thought it was valuable insight. After using their products for work for the past two summers, I can clearly see the benefit of having a well composed team that is constantly on the same page. I used to think that working by myself was the best approach but after working in a team setting it’s hard to justify working by myself.

Tip-of-the-week

For those working with React on their project’s frontend, you may find this useful. It’s an extension for Google Chrome that adds React debugging tools you may find useful.

Week Nine

2017-03-26T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

This past week I spent most of my time getting caught up with school. I didn’t have a lot of time over spring break to contribute to the first phase of the project so I also devoted most of my time to that. I’ve been working with the front end for the project so I feel as thought I am getting a better grasp on JavaScript, particularly React.

What’s in my way?

I have a couple other group projects that I need to divide my time between so it will be tricky finding the right balance. I want to dedicate enough time for phase two of this project as I don’t want it to come down to the last minute. Furthermore, I will need to work together with my team to figure out how we will approach this second phase.

What will I do next week?

I plan on getting a head start on the second phase of the project. I will need to iron out some issues in our current front end related to styling. Also, we need to figure out how to integrate grid cells and sorting/filtering so that will take some time.

What’s my experience of the class?

I enjoyed completing the first phase of the project. I think that I learned quite a bit and my team was able to work together to create a deliverable from scratch in a limited time so that was pretty satisfying. I am interested to see how the next phases of the project will build upon itself.

Tip-of-the-week

Mozilla has detailed documentation available that is useful to leverage for the type of work we are doing.

Week Eight

2017-03-12T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

This past week was not as busy as previous ones, surprisingly. As such, I had some time to wrap things up before going on Spring Break so now I feel pretty good about getting some stuff done over the break and when we come back. Also, our group decided on a topic so now we can move forward with the project.

What’s in my way?

My group will need to coordinate to get some things accomplished for the first phase of the project, especially since we have a week off for the break. I think it would be beneficial if we divided up some of the work based on our strengths.

What will I do next week?

Outside of doing some SXSW events, I will work with my group to get some work done on the first portion of the project. I will also focus on getting ahead in some other classes if possible.

What’s my experience of the class?

I am interested to see how the content/pace of the course changes as we get to new material. It seems as though we are wrapping up the python lectures so I’m excited to get to some new material. I am looking forward particularly to content about Javascript and SQL as it seems really beneficial to our upcoming projects and I am interested in learning more about these in general.

Tip-of-the-week

Flask has its own API so you could do some meta-programming or other interesting things involving Flask.

Week Seven

2017-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

I spent most of time studying for the test in this class. I am glad I started relatively early as I tend to procrastinate, especially when it comes to studying for tests.

What’s in my way?

My group needs to solidify our proposal for the upcoming project. We have some good ideas so far but need to pin down how we are going to represent our models and make sure they are fleshed out enough. I also have another test coming up this week so I need to balance time spent studying for that as well.

What will I do next week?

I will work with my team to complete our project proposal. I am pretty excited about the upcoming project as I get a chance to work with some interesting technologies that I haven’t been exposed fully to so I think this will be a good learning experience.

What’s my experience of the class?

The test was not what I had expected to be. I was thinking there would be a few implementation questions as those were the types of exercises we did in class. I had no problem with the multiple choice, however. Some parts were tricky but I think it was a fair test. Also, getting feedback immediately after completing the test was nice.

Tip-of-the-week

yUML is a simple, online tool for creating UML diagrams. The rendering can get a little funky if you have a lot of classes and associations but overall it is a nice tool.

Week Six

2017-02-26T00:00:00+00:00

What did I do this past week?

I was mostly focused on studying for my software design test. There is some good synergy between this class and software design. I also look forward to applying what I’m learning in software design to the projects in this class.

What’s in my way?

I need to pay more attention to the readings. I think there may be some concepts that I need to go back and review so that I’m prepared for the upcoming test, which I also need to prepare for.

What will I do next week?

I am going to focus on studying for the upcoming test. I feel as though I have a good grasp so far on the content in the course but there are some little things that I need to practice. I need to reinforce my understanding of the various types and operators as I forget some of the specifics at times. I think reviewing that material and practicing implementations of the classes and functions we’ve covered in class will be good preparation. That combined with drafting test questions and working on other people’s questions will make me much more comfortable for when I have to take the test.

What’s my experience of the class?

My group for the upcoming project has been formed and I am interested in how we will approach the project. The project seems to be open ended so I’m glad we can choose what content our website will have.

Tip-of-the-week

MindSumo is a coding challenge website that has relevant tasks run by various companies. The challenges are interesting and are great practice as well.