Thesis Wrap-Up

After finally finishing the project and presenting it at the showcase, there are definitely things I would have done differently. First of all, I think I would have picked a different project. Now that the showcase is over my type of experience project is over with it. Its hard to put something like that in a portfolio and have it impress future employers. I would have also spent more time learning something new, as opposed to using my current skills to make something that looks nice. Although I did learn things along the way, I could have learned a lot more if I had realized earlier that my thesis project wouldn't really matter after the showcase.

If I was able to talk to a future IMM Senior, I would tell them to try to do a project that would interest the specific company that you are hoping to be employed by. I feel like being able to show a company something that you had a lot of time to work on that is very relevant to what they do would help your application immensely. I would also tell them that the IMM program in general is what you make of it. Same with thesis. You can skate by doing almost nothing but that would just be a waste of your time. You need to be motivated and want to have something impressive not just for the showcase, but for your portfolio.

I learned a lot about virtual reality, Unity Particle Systems and audio data while working on this project. I also learned that I really hate dealing with particle systems. I hope to be able to continue developing virtual reality projects in the future, and also work more with audio visualization.

During the showcase a lot of people were impressed with my project, although I didnt learn all that much from the show unfortunately. The set-up for the show was very stressful so I think the most important lesson is that if you have an important presentation, dont wait until the last minute to make sure everything is working, set it up as early as possible.

Now that thesis is over with, I dont have any future plans for my project. It is what it is at this point and Im happy to have done it, but its time to move on to other ideas that Ive had in the past year when my time was devoted to thesis.