Week 6: 30 Sep – 6 Oct

note: my previous posts’ weeks were off, so I skipped numbering this my 5th blog post so I could be on the right week: 6.

What did you do this past week?

This past week I crammed for my Algorithms exam, took my Algorithms exam, ran directly to the airport right after the exam, and flew out to Orlando, Florida to attend the Grace Hopper Conference. Right after landing, I traveled straight to a dinner held by the company that sponsored my attendance for the conference. I spent my Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings and afternoons attending the career fair and interviewing and in the evening, going back to my hotel to work on the software engineering project due on Friday (after Professor Downing pushed it back). On Friday, I flew back and surprised a friend for her 21st birthday. It was definitely one of the busiest weeks of the semester.

What’s in your way?

All the classwork and material I missed out on because I was at the Grace Hopper Conference is definitely something in my way. I will need to catch up on reviewing class notes and slide decks. I also spilled soy sauce all over my backspace key on my laptop so now I must figure out an efficient way to fix my typos and other mistakes. I also hope that since soy sauce has tons of salt in it and salt is a conductor of electricity, my laptop doesn’t unexpectedly short circuit on me at some point.

What will you do next week?

I will catch up on learning the material I missed as well as begin working on phase 2 with my group. I will also be continuing recruiting and waiting to hear back from various companies. I’m also facilitating another WiCS corporate event with an FoCS company so I hope that goes well and that there’s a good turnout!

What was your experience in learning about the different Python containers, iteration, comprehensions, and map?

Because I was attending Grace Hopper, I wasn’t able to attend the Wednesday and Friday lectures. I will definitely be reviewing the missed material on my own time so I can catch myself up to speed. However, learning about Python containers was very informative for me. There were many semantics and things to note within each one to consider when using them or choosing which to use so I think that’s important to know.

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My pick-of-the-week is the newly announced Microsoft Duo phone. It’s Microsoft’s venture into pushing a dual-screen phone into the market, though it’s not supposed to be released to the public until winter of 2020. They announced it early so that developers have time to begin developing apps for the new platform. I am curious to see how developers will go about designing for this new interface and will be earnestly keeping up with the release to see how successful it turns out to be.

My non-technical tip-of-the-week is that when you can, always book a direct flight. Having layovers added lots of unnecessary stress to the itinerary as many times, you could miss your connection or have to run across four terminals to make your connection.