What did you do this past week?
This past week I spent time studying for my Computer Networks exam, worked on Algorithms homework, and began working on phase 3 with my SWE group. I also finally decided my summer 2020 plans which means that recruiting for me for this season has finally come to a close; I’m glad that whirlwind has finished and it feels like I can breathe easier now. I also helped coordinate an event for WiCS on Friday and I went to the gym for the first time since getting sick. I feel that I have almost completely recovered from being sick and the only thing that is lingering is a cough. I’m also attending HackTX this weekend so I hope that I get a lot of work done! I do have many personal qualms with hackathons, but if anything, they are are a great environment to feel compelled to be productive because we’re essentially surrounded by tons of other people grinding away on projects.
What’s in your way?
My SWE group members have fairly conflicting schedules for the next few days so we need to coordinate well so that we can finish phase 3 on time by Thursday evening. However, almost all of us also have Algorithms exams early in the coming week we all need to study for as well. Mine is on Tuesday and I really need to hunker down and really study for it efficiently since a lot of topics that have been taught this time around I find are much harder to wrap my head around as we’re diving into more advanced topics that weren’t covered in the Discrete Math class. I need to be strategic with my time so I can study for that exam successfully while also putting in time into phase 3.
What will you do next week?
I will study for my Algorithms exam as well as work on phase 3. I hope that both are successful endeavors! Now that I’m done with recruiting and many WiCS activities are wrapping up, I can finally set all of my sights on getting my grades up (as I have definitely put studying on the back-burner for this semester) and truly understanding the content being taught in class. I also have two events for WiCS this week that I hope will go smoothly. After these two events, I will be done with planning the corporate WiCS events for the semester!
What was your experience of SQL?
I feel that I picked up SQL more quickly than Python. SQL has always been something I’ve been meaning to learn more about but never got the chance to and thus I’ve felt that I’ve been more engaged in these lectures since I feel a personal motivation to get a good grasp on the language. The HackerRanks have definitely helped me gain a greater grasp on most of the keywords and how we would write them and when to use one over the other.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My pick-of-the-week is the Google acquisition of Fitbit. The announcement caught me by surprise but the motivations behind the acquisition did not. I am interested in following the news regarding this announcement and see how Google leverages this product and technology they now have in their hands. Google now has even more to resources improve their Wear OS technology now that they have successfully acquired them and they have an even deeper reach into the wearables/smartwatch industry, one that is definitely on the rise and a strategic move to go into at this point in time.
CS373 Fall 2019: Lisa Yu 