Blog 4

What did you do this past week?

This past week has been fairly busy in terms of academics. Our weekly iOS assignments continue to grow in complexity and always take up a chunk of my time mid-week. On top of that, our SWE project was due this past Tuesday. Fortunately, I was able to complete it last weekend ahead of schedule, so my time this week for that project was just spent double-checking requirements and making sure I didn’t miss anything. On top of that, I had another paper to write for my non-CS class. Fortunately, I find the topic pretty interesting, so it’s not too difficult to come up with content. Finally, I’ve had to grade a lot of homework for the class that I’m an undergraduate proctor for.

Outside of school, I was able to fit in time to watch 1917, one of the nominees for Best Picture. It was a really entertaining movie that was shot in an exciting way, and I’d highly recommend it. Also, the score was incredible.

My SWE group and I met up today to discuss the details of our project, and we were able to figure out our topic and find some data sources as well. It’s an interesting idea, and I’m excited to work on it this semester with my teammates.

What’s in your way?

The first deadline for this SWE project is coming up, and there are a lot of tools and frameworks that I need to familiarize myself with before submission.

What will you do next week?

This next week I hope to make significant progress on our SWE project. Although the first submission isn’t due until the following week, I’d like to start early, since I know we’ll encounter challenges that will inevitably push us back.
Outside of SWE, my iOS team and I need to formalize our project idea and begin work on that as well. I also have a little bit of work left to complete for my Data Mining class.

What was your experience of Project #1: Collatz?

The Collatz project for SWE was a little overwhelming at first. I was unfamiliar with many of the tools that Prof. Downing wanted us to use, so there was a steep learning curve with that. However, the algorithm itself to solve Collatz was very easy to write, especially with the hints that Prof. Downing gave to us in class.
I think Collatz was a really good first project, both because it gave us experience to tools we’d encounter in industry, but also because it offered a good glimpse of what this class would be like for the rest of the semester.

What made you happy this week?

This past weekend, a couple of my friends came into town, and another one of my friends celebrated her birthday. We were all able to hang out and get food together, which is always a nice experience.

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

I recently learned that double-clicking the power button can activate Apple Pay on my watch. I was initially very hesitant to adopt mobile payments simply I didn’t want to go through the trouble of adding cards to my phone. However, when I realized how easy it was to access and pay from my wrist, I quickly became a mobile payments power user. I think making usage of a product as seamless as possible is one of the most effective ways at encouraging adoption of that product. Once I realized how little friction there was in accessing Apple Pay on my watch, it became my first choice method of payment.