Cohort 23 CS Online Journal

 Part 1: Final Video Project Reviews Group 7: Software Solutions -  Marco Lara, Rawley Lizarraga, Madison Nolen, Cristina Pizano Topic - AI Agents: Digital Workers     Review: The presenters' voices are clear and easy to follow. The presentation is a bit dry, but thoroughly explains how AI agents work. The topic is thoroughly researched and provides how AI agents work, why AI agents will matter in the future, and examples of current applications. The inclusion of real-world applications of AI agents give the topic more relevance to the audience's daily lives. The presentation does include the pitfalls of AI agents, and what developers can improve upon in the future.   Group 6: DigiPlants -  Serena Ngo, Matthew Blanco, Bug Plowman Topic - Spacial Computing for Tech Professionals      Review: The video is engaging and is edited professionally. It feels less like a student presentation, and more like a professional advertisement. The...

Group 8: Otter Consultants Cody Hopkins, Ysabelle Kim Drones: Friend or Foe? Drones: Friend or Frenemy?

Part 1: Final Research Video Project Planning      Our group has met three times this week to get work on the video project done. With this time, we are able to get the presentation ready and begin recording. All we should have left is just video editing, so I believe we made good use of our time for the project.     Our main tools were Google Slides, which is a collaborative slideshow creator that we can both work on at the same time and give suggestions. We host audio meetings on Discord for discussions and source image sharing. For the recording of the presentation, I used Microsoft Stream's service to capture my microphone and the presentation. Since it saved videos in .webm format, I had to use an online service to convert the .webm file into a more widely used .mp4 file. I then sent the videos to the group's Discord for editing into a single one for the assignment. Part 2: Lecture Review     The computer science-related TED Talk I watched was "Th...

Team Meeting Discussions      On Saturday, we discussed our capstone project ideas. I have two main ideas that I like: a web app for a tabletop game and a simple educational video game. Cody had the idea of looking back at his previous projects, and iterating on one of them for a capstone project. This way, he says, he doesn't have to remake a database from the ground up for this project, which I think is a great idea.      We also discussed how to start the final video project, which for us at Group 8 will be about autonomous drones in war. We researched some articles about their history, beneficial usage (not war-related!), and detrimental usage. Reflections      This week I recapped my knowledge about Java, since that is what CST 338 - Software Design will be mainly using. I also had fun making a website with Weebly! (Well, for the most part, until I figured out how limiting it is...) I learned a bit more about prompt engineering, but stil...

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: A web app for an in-development tabletop role-playing game written by me. Th...

Week 4 has been busy! I have gotten work done a lot later than I would have liked. Part 1: Education Goals My educational goals would be to expand my knowledge about Javascript. The most tangible project to put this in practice would be to create a simple interactable website, possibly using React as a frontend. One of my ideas for a capstone project would be to create a website for a tabletop game I am developing, so the practice would be great for it.   The first step would be to learn about networking -- CST311: Intro to Computer Networking and CST336: Internet Programming would be where I hone these skills. Before these classes, I would like to create a single-task web app as a practice. It would have a starting list of about 20 items, and allow the user to arrange them into 6 specific item slots, like a digital pin board. Then, once I am in these classes, I will look back at this project and see what I can do differently or what I have learned since then.   My web develop...

Part 1: Time Management & Study Strategies      I checked out the topics that I was interested in reading first. The public speaking section really needed more than just the "relax and take a speech class" tip. This really felt like the section was added to cover a base, but not to actually give advice.      The Golden 20 tips are generally useful, with many of them I already use. Having a partner for studying is extremely useful, in my case. I am able to bounce ideas and concepts off another person, and do the same with them, which leads to both of us understanding the text better.      Much of the university life tips are not relevant to CS Online students, it seems. However, the first few points about university social life is still applicable. I still feel a bit detached from the rest of my cohort, but that is something that takes time for me. Part 2: Module 3's Learning      I learned the difference between em dashes, ...