Week 4.1

Studying Skill
A skill I tried this week was limiting my readings to the suggested times that were given and/or finishing each reading in under 15 mins (short reading) and 30 mins (long reading). I use this awesome 4 channel timer (Link) that I place next to my keyboard so I always know how much time I have left.  I type my outlines of the readings and this makes me focus more on reading the entire paragraph, summarizing it in as few words as possible, and not writing irrelevant details. These outlines help me write my blog posts so I can avoid rereading the readings for relevant details. I plan on rereading the actual readings later on my tablet. 

Week 4

o   Part One: Set Your Educational Goals

o   I want to gain skills that are useful in the current industry. I want to be able to build a foundation of skills that will allow me to learn any technology easily. I would like to train myself to think more like an engineer in a sort of "scientific method for scientists" (the scientific method would most likely apply in software dev as well).

o   Part Two: Set Your Career Goals

o   I want 3 things. I want to work on projects that have meaning to the world and make others happy. I would like to become a Product Manager at a large company with a short commute. I would also like to make an app that makes at least $60k a year of passive income.

o   Part Three: Take a wild guess of your percentile of the ETS Computer Science test

o   The 2015 Major Field Test Comparative Data Guide for Computer Science (https://www.ets.org/s/mft/pdf/acdg_computer_science.pdf) listed the mean score at 149.3 with 7,530 examinees with a median of 147 and standard deviation of 15.3. The minimum score is 120 and the maximum is 200. I believe I will get a slightly better than average score of about 160 which would put me in the ~75^th percentile. In the 3 main categories: programming/software engineering, discrete structure/algorithms, and systems architecture/operating systems/networking/databases; the category with the lowest score was systems architecture/operating systems/networking/databases (38% median 8.6 sd), discrete structure/algorithms (38% median 9.4 sd), and the highest was programming/software engineering (48% median 11.8 sd). With this information in mind, I would focus more on discrete structure/algorithms, and systems architecture/operating systems/networking/databases . I would also remember that the 2016+ test may have differing questions because of results from the last Computer Science Major Field Test.

·       Part Four: Keep Up With Your Learning Journal

o   In the "7 Career Goals You Need to Succeed", the author outlined 7 things all workers should do: self-assess, network, track accomplishments, know your worth, update your skills, negotiate, and allow for downtime. A few takeaways are that networking is important in finding jobs in recent times. You should always keep a list of your accomplishments with photos, video, emails and screenshots and have your manager review your performance. Those will help when writing an action/results based resume with metrics provided during the review.

o   There are 5 types of claims: fact, definition ,cause ,value, and policy. Claims of fact are centered on debates about subjects that are disputable. Claims of definition are centered on the meaning of things. Claims of cause are centered on cause/effect in order to analyze what led to the event and what the results were. Claims of value are centered on the morality of an event and the value systems by which people make decisions. Claims of policy are centered on the course of action we should take and policies we should adopt.

o   In the rhetorical triangle: logos, ethos and paths are the 3 main aspects you can appeal to an audience. Logos appeals to reason, and is the text of the argument. Ethos appeals to the writers character and is the credibility of the writer. Pathos appeals to the emotions which include sympathy, beliefs, and values.

o   When goal setting, we should set goals that are SMART: specific/significant, measurable/meaningful, attainable/action-oriented, relevant/rewarding, and time bound/trackable. We should set goals so we can create motivation and focus our time and skills on attaining the goals. In order to create a goal, think of the big picture events then break them into smaller targets and then into smaller targets. One should have lifetime goals and short-term goals (5 year, 1 year, 6 month, 1 month). A person would stay on task by creating to-do lists and modify it to reflect priorities and experience. The quiz reflected by goal skills accurately, I took it 2x when I thought I didn't put much thought into it. My scores are as follows: preparing to set goals (21/25=84%), forming goals (8/20=40%), motivation (11/35=31%), and achieving goals (6/10=60%). The overall score is 46 which is in the middle but closer to the lower end of the These scores accurate; I am good at forming long term goals but bad at implementing them.

o   For example, if I want to get a job in Software Dev; I should know SQL. In order to learn SQL I can read books and do something easy like codeacademy.com. I will do codeacademy.com one time a week until I finish the modules until I am familiar with its most basic concepts. I will buy a SQL book then read 1 chapter a week and do their problems. Then I will think of projects I can make with these skills. I will ask others (mentors/teachers) if these projects would showcase my skills or be of skill level for a Junior Dev. I will choose the projects that pass, choosing the most important one to focus my time on. Then I will make a plan of the project on paper or chart it out on lucidchart.com. I would make a roadmap of when and what I want to get done based on the software development life cycle (planning, implementation, testing, documentation, deployment/maintenance, and maintaining via waterfall,v-shape, or incremental models (https://www.techopedia.com/definition/22193/software-development-life-cycle-sdlc)). I would then reward myself for achieved blocks of work with something I want but rarely get like going to a not fast-food restaurant or Starbucks Frappuccinos.

Week 3

Part I: Visit Time Management and Study Strategy 

     Outlining Textbooks is an area of improvement I need to work on. A note taking technique I can use is the 2-6 method. Two columns are made with the red line as the border. 6 inch column is for class notes and the 2 inch column is for main headings and points. This is essentially the Cornell system but without a summary at the bottom. This reminds me of something I used to do in college for memorization based classes. I would what is essentially the 2-6 method on every right page. I tried to get every important detail on the page as was mentioned in class or on the powerpoint. Then on every left page, I would condense that material to a mnemonic or clearly written and numbered list. Now, I don't do any handwritten notes. Everything I have is typed. In future classes that have more concepts and connections to be interpreted; I will probably go back to handwritten notes.

Part II: 

     In the readings and assignments this week, I learned about CST 363,CST 336, and CST  370. I'll learn about the rest when my teammates are done with theirs. We all had a unique approach to answering the question which may lend some insight to their thought processes and level of prior knowledge regarding the various languages.

     I took a Professional Ethics course at CSU Bakersfield. Some concepts are still familiar such as utilitarianism which is still my most favorite ethical theory to date. I am most likely a rule utilitarianist. The various forms of ethical theories: deontology, utilitarianism, rights and virtues. Ethical theories are a part of the decision making foundation when ethics are in play. These represent the viewpoints of people when they make decisions which can be using the same info and rules. A few ethical principles: beneficence, least harm, respect for autonomy, and justice.

     There are clear differences between ethics and law. Ethics is a moral philosophy where a person makes a moral choice. Law is a legal system with rules that govern a community controlled by a political authority. The two can work hand in hand to prevent the misuse of computers, prevent crime and create a healthy society. Sometimes, unethical things do not break the law and sometimes they do. They are simply a philosophy one can use to make moral choices and create a better society through their use.

date	time approximations	activity description	how I feel	duration	value	water (90oz is normal)
13-Sep	5pm-7pm	study	sleepy	2h	high
13-Sep	7pm-10pm	study+meeting	tired	3h	high
13-Sep	12am-5am	internet/tv	tired	5h	low
13-Sep	5am-12pm	sleep	sleep	7h	low	60oz
14-Sep	12pm-3pm	networking workshop	energized	3h	medium
14-Sep	3pm-6pm	lunch	tired	3h	high
14-Sep	6pm-8pm	nap	sleepy	2h	low
14-Sep	8pm-10pm	study	energized	2h	high
14-Sep	10pm-3am	dinner/internet	tired	5h	low	40oz
15-Sep	3am-230pm	sleep	sleep	11h	low
15-Sep	230pm-930pm	family time	tired	7h	low
15-Sep	930-1000pm	homework	tired	30mins	medium
15-Sep	1000pm-4am	internet/tv	awake	6h	low	50oz
16-Sep	4am-2pm	sleep	sleep	10h	low
16-Sep	2pm-5pm	homework	waking up	3h	low
16-Sep	5pm-7pm	gym	awake	2h	medium
16-Sep	7pm-8pm	homework	awake	1h	medium
16-Sep	8pm-4am	dinner/internet	sleepy	8h	low	55oz
17-Sep	4am-2pm	sleep	sleep	10h	low
17-Sep	2pm-5pm	homework	awake	3h	high
17-Sep	5pm-7pm	homework again	tired	2h	medium	12
17-Sep	7pm-8pm	cooking	tired	1h	low	16
17-Sep	8-9pm	homework	tired	1h	low	16
17-Sep	9pm-12pm	dinner/internet	tired	3h	low	30
17-Sep	12pm-5am	homework	relaxed	5h	low	74oz
18-Sep	5am-11am	sleep	asleep	6h	low	20
18-Sep	11am-2pm	womens entrepreneurial conference	learning	2h	medium	20
18-Sep	2pm-6pm	lunch and internet	asleep	4h	low	16
18-Sep	6pm-12am	homework	work work work	6h	high	56oz

Part III: Reflect on the Reading
What a Computer Science Student Needs to Know Reflection

  

       Yes, I agree with the article. There are many things students should know in order to find employment. At times, school studies will not be enough to learn the real world skills or the technologies used will be just plain outdated. For example, I know someone in engineering at UC Merced. His Engineering Computing class last year taught Matlab and Fortran. He's taking it again this year, and its finally been changed to something more relevant: Matlab and Python.

         I attended an informational session hosted by EJ Gallo, for a local wine company's internship program. They informed us that in order to be competitive for this internship, we should have leadership positions whether it be on campus in a club or at work. We should also have projects where we can talk about the skills we have learned. This knowledge coincides with the articles argument that a portfolio is necessary for a computer science student.

A Project Management Primer
Idea 1: ten axioms for success

• o  know your goal
• o  know your team
• §  spend time in promoting trust and ensuring everyone contributes
• o  know your stakeholders
• o  spend time on planning and design
• o  promise low and deliver high
• §  build confidence
• §  buy time in case something happens
• §  generate positive vibes
• o  iterate, increment and evolve
• §  break down the problem
• o  stay on track
• §  learn schedules and budgets
• o  manage change
• §  flexible choice that can absorb change
• o  test early, test often
• §  test often to eliminate errors
• o  keep an open mind
• §  dont get locked into an ideology
• §  dont get blinded by methodology
• §  focus on the minimum viable product? but like, a good one.

 Idea 2: Scope triangle

• o  a scope triangle: time, cost and quality tradeoffs in any project. In a normal situation, one is fixed and the others are inversely proportional to the other.
• §  add time
• §  add cost
• §  cut quality
• o  scope creep is the tendency of a project to accumulate new features. This is good early on in order to add more features. Decisions will be made to trade off time, quality and resources.

 Idea 3:the critical path

• o  The critical path is the minimum but critical set the project must include to travel in order to complete the project on time.

Other

  I attended the 2nd Women's Entrepreneurial Conference for two hours here in Merced hosted by the UC Merced Venture Lab. I learned about the importance of getting a mentor and choosing the right partners for a venture. I learned about the new mentoring program with UC Davis and of resources through CalTrans for small businesses who have minority owners. I spoke with Margo Souza, a former CEO, and with the program coordinator for the Modesto Venture Lab. 

     I experimented with Zotero, an open source reference management tool, as recommended by Matthew R. It integrates with Microsoft Word very nicely and can even save the web page for quick referencing. It doesn't usually read the author or date in web articles but I was lucky enough for it to get every detail correct when I used a DOI article.  Here is a video on how it works. 

     Next week, I will definitely preview every assignment in case something is due on Sunday again. 

Week 2

·       Part I         . Review and Reflect Learning Strategy

o   top 3 items I am good at

§  surveying, questioning, listening

·       I can scan books, powerpoints, and videos easily to find the most important pieces.

§  extracting important details

·       I can easily read a paragraph and find the important details.

§  getting the main idea

·       I can find main points with ease.

o   top 3 items I am weak at

§  reviewing and revising

·       I dislike seeing or reading information more than once at the same place.

§  where to keep notes

·       I tend to lose notes unless they are in well bound notebook.

§  outlining textbooks

·       I have a hard time reading lots of text at once.

·       Part II. Preview Time Management Skills

date	time	activity description	how I feel	duration	value
9-Sep	6am-4pm	asleep	asleep	10h	high
9-Sep	4pm-12am	homework	incredibly stressed	8h	high
10-Sep	12am-7am	dinner and movie then internet	not tired	7h	low
10-Sep	7am-3pm	sleep	n/a	8h	high
10-Sep	3pm-7pm	internet	tired	4h	low
10-Sep	7pm-10pm	relax but also missed meeting	bad	3h	low
10-Sep	10pm-2am	cook and eat	late dinner-rushed	5h	medium
10-Sep	2am-4am	internet	not tired	2h	low
11-Sep	4am-11am	sleep	asleep	7h	high
11-Sep	11am-3pm	homework	stressed	4h	medium
11-Sep	3-7pm	EJ Gallo Internship info session	inspired	4h	high
11-Sep	7:30pm to 10pm	homework	rushed	3h	high

Part III. Project Management Basics

o   Video1What is a project manager? : A project is a temporary project that makes unique products and is ended eventually. It has many phases of the project life cycle: initiating, planning, executing, monitoring/control process, and closing. Not all projects are completed and not all of them are the same as when they were started. Failures are common: failure in scope management, and failure in quality management. The project manager has skills: leadership, communication, IT, accounting, purchasing, and problem solving.

o   Video2: What is a work break down structure? PMI 4th edition. The guide to the project management body of knowledge. The work breakdown structure is "a deliverable hierarchical decomposition of the work to be executed by the team to accomplish the project objective and create the required deliverables." This is done in order to "organize and define the total scope made of the deliverables." The project can have subprojects. For the deliverables, the work is executed by work packages.  To me, this means that the project is broken down into smaller digestible tasks that can be given to varying workers. Those tasks become the deliverables which are part of the project.

o   Video3: What is Gantt Chart? This is a type of complex bar chart that is a visual representation tool of a product schedule, a part of project management. This tool lets PM's know if their projects are going smoothly. This chart has the start and finish dates of the "terminal elements and summary elements" of a project. They are the work breakdown structure of the project and the relationship between activities; some tasks can be done at the same time but some can only be done after the predecessor is completed. They have 3 time estimates which combine to create the expected time (Optimistic time+4Mnormal+Pessimistic)/6.

Part IV. Check Out Previous Capstones

o   Project 1: Monterey County Rape Crisis Center

§  what was type of the project? 

·       website redesign

§  was the project well done?

·         I liked that she made the website responsive. Many people only view websites on phones or tablets.

§  how do you like the presentation? 

·       She was well spoken and empathetic

§  can the project and presentation be improved?

·       She did a good job on the presentation but it was hard to see the website pictures and how it was improved.    

o   Project 2: Eagle Eye Ag Tech Graphic Identity Project

§  what was type of the project? 

·       a new business

§  was the project well done?  

·       He did a very good job on the logo, they look amazing and professional.

§  how do you like the presentation?

·       He didnt speak as clearly in the presentation as the first project I viewed and read from a paper.

§  can the project and presentation be improved?   

·       He should work on practicing his speech so he doesn't need to read from a paper.

o   Project 3: Open Source Management Tool: Ceres

§  what was type of the project? 

·       management tool

§  was the project well done? 

·       Yes, it solved a problem the organization had

§  how do you like the presentation? 

·       There was few words so I had to focus on the words of the speaker.

·       I like that there was a joke. It made the presentation more engaging.

·       The speakers also asked the audience a question, making it more interactive.

§  can the project and presentation be improved?   

·       I wish that they focused on some difficulties they had or which novel functions or data structures they had used. These presentations seem like they are for investors or laypeople.

Part V. Summarize Your Week on Your Learning Journal

o   This week, I learned more about the APA format. I learned that sometimes, the entire date is used (Articles) and sometimes only the year (other sources). I learned a little about project management. I think that I may be interested in a project management career in the future. I learned about faux pas people sometimes make when writing such as using incorrect definitions or wordiness. I also learned about some of my weaknesses and strengths when studying such as my weak revising and reviewing. I learned how to sync my csumb calendar with my gmail calendar so it will appear on my widget so hopefully, I don't miss another meeting. I also learned about the various capstone projects the communication design students have done. I can also view the computer science projects in the same place.