CST 300 Module 8

Part I:
Amazon Prime Air:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKdgt_MPFU0&feature=youtu.be
I really enjoyed this presentation overall and felt that I learned quite a bit about the subject. I believe that the topic was covered well, and that it was particularly interesting to include information not only on Amazon’s service, but also similar competitor’s services like UPS. I had a little trouble keeping up with all the information presented during the “Concept of Operations Complexity” slide, but overall I really enjoyed the pacing and look of the presentation. It seems that the team put a good amount of research into their topic and worked well together to create this piece. The quality of the production was very nice, and it helped to keep me interested in the subject matter. Overall, their presentation was geared to a professional audience, and I believe that it provides a clear look at the innovation occurring in the drone delivery sector.

Virtual Reality:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkuoFz0YPrk&feature=youtu.be
I really enjoyed the virtual reality presentation by the Logistic Solutions team. It was engaging, fun, and informative. Their presentation seemed geared towards professionals, giving a decent overview of the virtual reality products and their applications. The topics discussed were clear, and the teamwork was evident in the creation of the presentation. The research quality seemed quite good, and they covered a wide variety of topics during the presentation. I do think their video presentation was interesting and engaging, and I believe that the team worked well to create a presentation they can be proud of.

Data Loss Prevention:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRlL9boscyg&feature=youtu.be
I found the data loss prevention presentation quite interesting. It definitely was geared towards professionals, and quite often delved into specifics of preventative measures for data loss. The quality of research seemed quite high, and the quality of presentation was good. I felt like perhaps more work could have been invested into the slides and ensuring they matched what the topic being discussed was. I also noticed that it seemed to cut off the speaker at the end of the video, and I am unsure what they were going to finish with. While the teamwork is evident, I also thought that the program was not extremely engaging, and sometimes I felt somewhat lost during the technical overviews.

Part II:

Personally I believe that we communicated relatively well for this project, and the course on a whole. With this project in particular the hardest part for collaboration was to have everyone submit their work in enough time for two of our teammates to create the slides and voiceovers. I enjoyed learning with my teammates, and I am very glad that I was placed in a good team. Overall, I enjoyed my first course at CSUMB. I learned a bit about ethics and the video game industry, and about how the future coursework will be structured. I am looking forward to my future courses.

CST 300 Module 7

On the final research video this week we seem to be collaborating well. The workload was divided up so that we each took a 2 minute slice from the total video and worked on adding that to the presentation. Using google docs to collaborate on our slides and scripts, we were able to easily add our parts and work together to edit and improve our parts of the projects. I personally worked on genetic engineering, and had a good time learning about the new methods for transformations.

In Anthony Goldbloom’s presentation, “The jobs we'll lose to machines -- and the ones we won’t”, he discussed how jobs will change in the near future with the advancement of machine automation. It was interesting how he started with the story of his young niece Yahli, pointing to how the job market will be severely different when she is in college from when even he was in college a generation before. He uses this thread as a way to delve into his discussion of how virtually any task that requires repeatable and measurable actions can be given to a computer that can be trained to perform these tasks. In the end he points to how Yahli will probably need to study areas which require novel task solving capabilities, something that machines are not as good as humans at, and suggests that these will be the areas where jobs will still remain even with automation.

Trevor Timm highlighted an interesting question in his presentation entitled “How free is our freedom of the press?” He begins his discussion by introducing us to a writer who discussed the unauthorized government surveillance. Apparently, in search of the whistleblower in the government who leaked this information, they looked though the writer’s emails, phone calls, bank records, and other information and eventually placed the blame on one Jeffrey Sterling. He points to tools that are now being created in order to bypass the ability of the government to find whistleblowers through their communications with the press. It was very interesting to see how he pointed to the importance of press freedom towards the end, and highlighted the need for these services by showcasing an instance where whistleblowers were severely prosecuted.

I particularly enjoyed the “Life After Death” presentation by Don McMillan. His use of humor to illustrate the “don’ts” of powerpoint presentation made the lessons memorable and fun to watch. The general point I gathered from his presentation is to avoid overuse of add-ons in powerpoint presentation. In other words we ought to be moderate in our use of animations, powerpoints and graphs, using them only when we need them and not constantly. The Toastmasters website had some interesting tips for presentations as well. They suggested that you should be prepared, confident, and conversational when delivering a speech. It was also important to maintain eye contact with members of the audience while avoiding insincere gestures.

CST 300 Module 6

I.
During our team meeting this week, we all discussed our ideas for possible capstone projects. It was really interesting to hear what ideas my teammates were considering, and to discuss the various aspects of their possible capstone projects. I enjoyed hearing some of the thoughts my team had on my ideas for possible capstones.

II.
We learned a lot from the career guides this week. In particular it was interesting to learn about the importance of networking and meeting more people in order to look for opportunities. Creating a future cover letter and resume was a nice task, and it gave me some insight into what exactly I should tailor my resume to look like. It was particularly interesting to take a look at the next course, CST 205. I enjoyed brushing up on Python and am looking forward to the course. I was able to review two of my peers’ ethics paper drafts, and found them both well on their way to completion. Both papers were fun to read, and I felt like I got a new perspective on some issues I was not fully aware of previously. This week we also discussed the three possible topics to submit for the final presentation project, and it looks like we will be discussing human enhancement for our project.

CST 300 Module 5

Part One: Support and Comment on Teammates' Goals

1. http://agotter.blogspot.com/2017/01/week-4-of-class-no-1.html

2. http://hmutwakil.blogspot.com/2017/01/week-4-cst300.html


Part Two: Possible Capstone Ideas:

I have always wanted to learn more about front-end development, and I think it might be interesting to provide a service to either an up and coming business or some sort of non-profit by creating a mobile and web app for them.

Working with robotics has always been interesting, and I think a project with that could be very engaging and rewarding.

Automation is also a very unique field, and writing programs that could do certain tasks autonomously, either on time tables or through certain “stimulations”, would be quite interesting.

Part Three: Keep Up With Your Learning Journal

This week we continued by learning about previous capstones and contemplating what we may do for our own capstone project. It was particularly interesting to learn about graduate school this week, and it is interesting to consider continuing my education in order to gain the knowledge and prestige that comes along with extra study. Another aspect that caught my attention was our reading on loaded words and, after reading about it, realizing how often they are used through our world in order to sway opinions. I continued my work on the Ethics Paper, and am enjoying the process of explaining and forming my argument. I submitted my progress report, in which I stated how overall I believe I am on track and plan to have a good draft by next week. It was also very nice to read up on my team mate’s goals, and I hope to aid them during our time together at CSUMB.