CST300 - Week 5

Part 1: Support and Comment on Teammates' Goals

My comment on Cody's blog. 

My comment on Claudia's blog.

Part 2: Capstone Ideas

    I've seen two projects in Week 2: DriveDiary by Christopher McMichael & Jeremiah McGrath and Out of Mana by Nathan Simpson. These two interested me as ideas for a capstone project -- a web app for a project, and a video game. 

   The third project I viewed was Cue Tracer by Kyle Absten, which was a database of sourced audio log files. This one stood out to me as a good project that has a much wider audience than the standard computer science audience -- in this case: videography, filmography, broadcasting, the music industry, and others. Creating a searchable database that catalogues a specific hobby's published material can also be a good idea for a capstone project.

   Three possible capstone projects for me are:

1. A web app for an in-development tabletop role-playing game written by me. The web app will streamline the player's character creation by creating a searchable list of skills and items that can be dragged to a slot on a digital character sheet. There will be a digital dice roller to make rolling dice faster and easier to keep track of.
2. A video game for educational purposes, conceptually a mix of MBARI's FathomVerse and Neko Atsume, two mobile games. The purpose would be to educate the player of the role that detritivores play on the environment, and to help identify these animals in the wild.
3. A video game for educational purposes, similar to Pokémon. This game will also feature the role of detritivores in the environment. There will be at least 30 creatures to help the player in the restoration of a wasted environment.

    These first two projects are easier for me to conceptualize in my head, for the third I am less sure on the execution of the project.

Part 3: Keep Up With Your Learning Journal

    This week, I learned how to use generative AI to produce an essay to analyse, and report on how I felt about the process. I can tell how easy it is just to copy and paste the output of AI into papers, and can tell it can stunt researching skills in students looking for shortcuts.

    I have been thinking of applying for an internship to MBARI for some time now, so once I have worked at my part-time job for over 6 months I plan on applying to that. MBARI's internships are open in the summer, but next year it may be harder to plan around because my family wants to visit Korea during that time.

Part 4:  Industry Expert Interview

     I decided to interview Julie, my boyfriend's mother. She is a retired team lead from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), working with them for 35 years. LLNL is one of the world's leading laboratories in research and development. She managed the custom engineering group within the Center for Micro and Nano Technology. Even though she is not directly involved in the computer science field, I believe that her experience in team management, technology, and design is crucial to learn from.
    Julie started in electronics at 16, during a progam in high school. At the time, she worked on the wires for stoplight controls at Multisonics. During her time working with wires, technology evolved to replace wires with PC boards, a new skill she had to adapt to. She then worked as a contractor for 4 years in LLNL, then transitioned into a full career there. 

    Her most significant challenges at LLNL included building a good team, and scheduling. Since the work at the laboratory was cutting-edge and difficult, processes were followed to make it easier to manage. As a woman in the industry, she had to code switch with specific individuals who she worried would be offended if she spoke to them too bluntly. In some cases, she needed to be more flexible in her own methods when others wanted to be more stubborn with their methods. Despite some of these minor conflicts, mutual respect was easier to find in the laboratory, because in her terms, "the quality of people are higher."

    Team management is the focus of this interview. As a team lead,  Julie managed a rotating team of about 3 to 6 people at a time, and juggled from 10 to 15 projects at once. To manage everything, she created a detailed process sheet for the team to follow, which was flexible for any team member that needed a change. The nature of research and development meant that processes can fail, so updates to the process sheet were needed. If other people on different teams had less work and were willing, Julie would bring them onto a project as well. The process sheet had to be exactly detailed for some projects, like NIF. To Julie, being able to communicate freely with team members is a must for a team to work together effectively.

    According to Julie, to succeed in the research and development field, one must be socially amicable. Knowing a multitude of software languages -- and spoken languages as a bonus -- is also key to success. Being able to interface software to specific hardware is also important to know in this field.
    Julie states that the emerging trends in the research and development industry are AI, CAD design, 3D and laser printing, and cybersecurity. During her time at LLNL, Julie watched the development of DNA testing into a working process. She has also seen the creation of the first 3D printers at the lab. AI is used in many aspects of the lab, including process streamlining, initial hiring filtering, and data interpreting. Cybersecurity is a massive undertaking for LLNL because of how classified some research can be at the lab. Students with a focus in cybersecurity are encouraged to apply to the lab due to this.
    
    Julie emphasized that the most important step a student can take to get started in the industry is to get experience, like an internship, contractor job, or volunteer work. Having the experience will make a student stand out from other applicants that only have an educational background. Tailoring a resume to a job application's key terms is also important when applying to large companies, because the resume is screened by an app first. 

    The high-end research and development industry is very competitive, so learning that I may have an edge over the competition by having a year of work experience in the field is important for me to know. With this, I will attempt to apply to both MBARI and LLNL in 6 months.

    The importance of team composition that Julie has discussed here will be something I will keep in mind for the future. I have been told that I am amicable at the very least, so I am not terribly worried in this regard. I do wish to work more on my own scheduling and self-pacing on projects. Having a time block for specific tasks is a good idea, I think, to get things done in a timely manner. I need to commit to this block better.

Isopod Update: It's starting to get hotter, especially with last weekend. I'm going to move the boys to a cooler room soon, since we don't let the AC run during the hottest hours. I should also be misting them every other day now. I plan on going to the San Jose reptile show on June 21 or 22! Fortunately the tickets are a lot less expensive than the ones from the Daly City expo.