Blog 5: Intro to IDB Project
1. What did you do this past week?
This past week, I caught up on lecture material and reviewed the expectations and requirements for the IDB project. I am really looking forward to this kind of project because I had a great experience with my OS team, and I have not had another project of this scale since.
2. What’s in your way?
Currently, I need to meet with my project group and figure out the approach we want to take for the IDB project. Luckily we have plans to meet very soon to address this to-do list item. Other than the IDB project, I have to start work on a programming project for another class.
3. What will you do next week?
Next week, I will meet with my group to establish our ideas for the IDB project and submit our project proposal. I will also begin work on a programming project for my other computer science class, and I will also begin to prepare for pre-spring break midterms.
4. What did you think of Paper #5: Single Responsibility Principle?
I thought Paper #5 was very interesting and applicable to our upcoming project, but still left room for some confusion. With the upcoming IDB project, the scale seems to be great enough to warrant a larger number of classes compared to previous projects. In order to determine what responsibilities should be placed in separate classes, we will need to utilize the skills introduced in the paper. I also thought that the paper was a little vague when it came to examples of separating single responsibilities. I did not see an easy translation of the examples listed to what I have worked on before, so I am looking forward to the future papers, hoping they elaborate on what was introduced.
5. What was your experience of types and recursion?
I felt very familiar with recursion from previous classes and just needed a quick refresher on the approach to solving the problems — start with a base case and then address the recursive case. I am still figuring out the intricacies of types within Python, but I feel much better than I did last week. I am hoping to reach my goal comfort level after further review next week.
6. What made you happy this week?
This week, I had a great time taking a break from work on Friday and seeing all of my friends. The past week had been a little crazy and I was able to temporarily escape from the madness. I really want to make an effort to finish my work more efficiently so that I can have more time with my friends before graduation in May.
7. What’s your pick-of-the-week?
This article by Susan Dominus covers the recent experiences of a recruiter for tech companies. Given the extremely high demand for experienced tech workers spanning all industries — from cybersecurity to data science — recruiters are finding their jobs to be more stressful than ever. The recruiter recounts when applicants would go out of their way to get attention, delivering flowers, candy, and thank you notes. Recruiters used to hold all of the power. Now, they are struggling to meet the demand for the best and brightest. Tech industry applicants have so many opportunities available that recruiters must further “sweeten” their own offers in order to stay competitive. Unemployment for the tech industry is currently around 1.7 percent — a whole 2.3 percent below the national average. The job market is incredibly hot for new and future graduates, so computer science students have a lot to look forward to upon graduation.
