Hello (world)! This is my first post on this blog that will be documenting my journey through the course CS373: Software Engineering.
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Austin, Texas in an area that’s a 20-minute drive up north from campus if there was no traffic on I-35.
What high school did you go to?
I attended Westwood High School. The school’s colors are identical to UT’s colors, so oftentimes while combing through the dozens of T-shirts I have accumulated over the years, I find it fitting that a large majority of them are burnt orange.
Why did you come to UT?
The factors that I weighed most heavily in my college choice decision were education quality, tuition, and location. While deciding between another school and UT, I found that they both had equivalently acclaimed computer science departments, UT’s tuition was significantly cheaper considering it was a state school and I would be paying in-state tuition, and the location of UT was in the heart of Austin, a city bustling with life and the place I had called home for the previous 7 years.
Why are you in this class?
What are your expectations of this class?
As one of the most famous upper-division electives offered within the department, I thought there was no better time than now to enroll and join in on the hype.
More seriously, I have heard over and over again from previous upperclassmen about how much they had learned through this class and how it’s one of the best courses offered in the department. Furthermore, I have spent most of my college CS career programming in Java – I lightly dabbled in other typed languages for Operating Systems and Computer Architecture (C++ and C respectively) but mostly stayed within the Java bubble. I hope to diversify my programming language portfolio through taking this course.
How did you feel about the cold calling?
My senses are heightened the moment I step into the classroom and the anticipation (or dread, those two feelings are basically interchangeable to me) wakes me up and keeps me alert through the entire 50-minute class which is exactly what I need at 10 AM on Mondays and Fridays (and Wednesdays). Although I’m very much not the biggest fan of cold calling, it’s definitely one of the most straightforward ways to keep a class engaged in the lecture and it works.
I look forward to the coming weeks!
– Lisa
CS373 Fall 2019: Lisa Yu 