CS373 Spring 2021 — Matthew Bianchi
Week 13
What did you do this past week?
This past week, much of my time was spent catching up on some other projects. With the semester coming to a close, projects are wrapping up, and that means lots of things to do with little time to do them all. I have started to look into the other group’s data and see what sorts of visualizations we can make from it, but other than that I haven’t had a lot of time to work on this class.
What’s in your way?
As mentioned above, other projects will take up a chunk of my time as the semester comes to a close. As these projects wrap up, I will be able to finish out the semester strong in all of my other classes. In addition, I am planning to move into a new apartment this coming week, so that will keep me busy for a while.
What will you do next week?
This coming week, I intend to meet with my group and work on visualizations for our project. I will also start to prepare for our presentation, which should be fairly straightforward. Ideally, our group will be able to finish our visualizations this week for our website and work on the presentation the weekend after.
If you read it, what did you think of the What Happens to Us Does Not Happen to Most of You?
Although I have not been on the receiving end of any of the stories mentioned in this article, I have heard stories of others who have been in situations like that. I want to treat everyone I encounter, regardless of who they are or what they look like, as a person. If I encounter someone who is not doing the same, I will call them out on it. I want my workplace to be inclusive to all people, and I hope that more people will also take up the mantle of inclusion.
What was your experience of joins and refactoring?
Joins were a new concept to me, and they seem to be a very powerful tool in implementing and reading through databases. Databases in general are a very powerful tool in retrieving data, and this is another tool to put in the toolbox.
Refactoring is something I have done to my own code on occasion, but have rarely actually taken the time to understand the best way to do it. In class, Prof. Downing explained the benefits and reasons for refactoring to increase readability of code, which has been the reason I have done it in the past. Moving forward, I will treat the readability of my code as something significant, ensuring it can be modified and read easily once I have written it.
What made you happy this week?
This week, my Game Development Capstone team published our beta for play-testers, and they gave us very good feedback. The majority of them enjoyed our game, which was very rewarding for us to hear since we’ve been putting a lot of work into it over the course of this semester. We will continue to polish our game through the end of the semester, and I am very proud of the work we have accomplished.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My tip of the week for students returning next semester is to make the most of your time at college. As a senior, I unfortunately had the better part of 3 semesters taken away from me, and it is something I would love to have back. For the rest of you coming back to college in the fall, make the most of it. Enjoy your time here. Do what you love, and hopefully you’ll be able to create great memories during the rest of your time here at UT.
