CST 300 - Week 2

(1) Learning Strategies Learned:

Top 3 things learning strategies I am good at:

1. When to study: I know I study best earlier in the day while I still have energy, and when I have had something to eat.
2. Asking questions: I often read problems and ask myself questions as I solve them. This helps me better understand the topic.
3. Setting a schedule: I keep a general schedule with dedicated study time and set breaks often to keep my mind fresh.

3 Areas I need to improve on:

1. Taking notes: During live lectures, I find my notes to occasionally be messy, or confusing at a later date.
2. SQ3R Method: While I ask myself questions and answer them, stopping to recite information and review it at the end would help me learn the material more efficiently.
3. Reading aloud. I occasionally read aloud and never considered it to be a bad habit. 

(2) Time log for my day on Saturday, May 4th, 2024.

This day's schedule was messed up because I was trying to complete my Industry Analysis essay.

(3) Project Management Basics

The first video went over the basics of project management. Every project has a start and end with several phases in between. The phases consist of initiating, planning, executing, monitoring control process, and closing. There are many projects that fail due to factors, such as poor time management, cost management, scope management, and quality management. The job of the project manager is to ensure a project is going smoothly. A project manager needs skills such as leadership, communication, information technology, accounting, purchasing, and problem-solving.

The second video explained what a work breakdown structure was and how the decomposition of the work to be executed for a project can be organized by breaking it down into smaller tasks.

The third video was about the Gantt chart. The Gantt chart is a visual demonstration of project management. It's useful for breaking down the tasks for complex projects.

(4) Previous Capstones

MRC Volunteer System was a really cool project. The project provides a system to easily manage volunteers for the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC)  The developer seemed knowledgeable on the matter and the application seems to look well made. The presentation was also done well. The voice was engaging and the content was concise and easy to understand.

High Sierra Electronics Camera Integration. The project was to develop a solution for an end-of-life PTZ camera used in road safety applications. It provides real-time on local weather activity and allows remote access and control of the camera. I love this idea and learning about IoT devices. The presentation was very well made and the presenter was engaging and knowledgeable. 

What Can We Play Today? The project is a web application that connects to the gaming platform (Steam) and provides game recommendations based on what you and your friends own and can give a list of recommended games to play. I liked this project as it can sometimes be difficult to find games for a big group to play together. For the presentation, I think they should have gone over the development process more, but otherwise, it was fine.

(5) Week 2 Summary

The second week felt faster-paced than the previous one. Perhaps it was because of the writing lab, which took a lot of time to research. It was a lot to write in a short time, but my outline helped me form my ideas. We also started doing these Collab-U modules that discuss certain team dynamics and what makes the best team.

In addition to the main material, we watched a few videos and read an article on software engineering.

The video is only 22 minutes long but the speaker talks and presents statistics about the abundance of resources and developing technologies. He first covers "Computation Abundance" which is the increase in computational power, which accelerates the advancement of technologies and is making computers cheaper than ever while being more powerful. He then goes on to speak about innovation reducing the time we have to spend doing basic things. And the abundance of capital allows crowdfunding and venture investing, which all accelerate technological developments. Overall, new technology is advancing at a rapid rate. Things are getting cheaper as time goes on, internet, computers, etc. Network infrastructure is improving and billions of new people will have access to the internet in the future. Companies are investing in new medical technologies to expand human life. 

Next, we read a quick article on the Future of Software Engineering. This article discusses some of the current trends in the software industry and what the future may look like. The author mentions some of the biggest challenges, including the time it takes for a concept to become a functioning product, the additional time needed to maintain or update suboptimal products, privacy concerns due to companies having users' sensitive data, and the talent shortage for skilled senior developers. The author further discusses the current trend of AI and whether it could replace software developers. The author believes that we may adopt AI to improve our workflow, but because AI lacks critical thinking and creativity, it cannot completely replace a software developer.

Lastly, we watched this video on the introduction to project management.

The video lays out what a project is. A project is "a temporary endeavor undertaken to create a unique product, service or result." A project has a defined start and end date, unlike daily operations, which have no end date. For something to be a project, it must have a start and end date, a goal (product/service/result), and a unique scope. In addition to the time and scope, cost must be factored into the project. To keep projects on track, project managers work within the time, scope, and cost constraints set by leadership and are thus held accountable when projects deviate from the plan.