Course 1 - Week 8

Part 1: Team Videos

Team1: Stack Otterflow

Autonomous Vehicles - https://youtu.be/mhwvHQ8KEgo

1. The Autonomous vehicles topic was very well covered, from a variety of angles.  It gave a lot of good insight to why they're important, challenges they face, and how they work technically. 
2. The presentation was very clear, everyone did a great job presenting their information and made it easy to follow along
3. The research was well done, especially around some of the more technical information, like different options for vehicle to vehicle communication.
4. The video was very well produced.  They used video backgrounds, which didn't seem to be too distracting and help to keep the view engaged.  Also audio was in sync across team members, no one member speaking too loud or too softly
5. The view was engaging, perhaps in part due to my ethical essay being on autonomous vehicles, but it kept me engaged through the whole duration
6. Each team member presented a section and seemed well familiar with the topics they presented.
7. This vide would be appropriate for technological professionals

Team2: Enhyrda Engineering

Generative AI in Gaming - https://youtu.be/5jrRYan6oOA

1. The topic of Generative AI in Game was very well covered for a technical audience.  They covered the topic from the perspective of users (gamers) as well as producers (developers).
2. The presentation was clear and they all did a great job presenting the information they researched.  It was easy to follow along the topics they discussed.
3. The topic seemed well researched, they covered how generative AI would effect different areas across gaming, from story telling/generation, to design, and gameplay mechanics 
4. The video production was really great, especially the custom text and graphic overlays they did.  The one distracting thing I found in the video was that some of the background stock footage they used didn't seem to apply to the topic they were current talking about
5. The video was very engaging, being interested in video games and the current state of AI it was a great combo for me
6. The team seems to have done a great job coming together and researching and presenting everything.
7. The video is very appropriate for a technical audience, they go into a lot of details both from the gaming side and AI side, for example talking about NPC (non playable characters) using AI to help flush out their acting and believability.

Team3: Super4 Web Solutions

Brain-Computer Interface - https://youtu.be/5f0hMCXJo0k

1. The topic was well cover.  I watched the general public video, and it did a good job of explaining very technical topics in a straight forward, simplified way that most people could understand.
2. The presentation is clear and straight forward, great for a general audience.
3. The quality of the research is very good, they were able to fit a lot in a short amount of time, and keeping it simple enough for middle schoolers to understand.
4. The video production was excellent.  They picked out live video to use in the background that was extremely topical and on point for the issue they were discussing, helping to enforce the message
5. The video was engaging and interesting, and for a 5 minute video it got me interested that I wanted to learn more and went and watched the full technical presentation
6. The team work is clear, each member gives a good presentation in the video
7. Yes, this video works very well for the general public audience.  They did a great job explaining the why and how of a brain computer interface in an easy to digest manner.

 

Part 2: Our Video

Professional: https://youtu.be/xRcDnYiPm48
General Public: https://youtu.be/XuCseqYcNAg

Going through the video presentation project has been a great learning experience.  I learned a lot more about a topic (augmented reality) that had interested me, and is now very topical.  It also helped me learn how to work on a presentation project like this across a group that's distributed, planning out meetings, and dividing up effort responsibilities.  Our team ended up mainly communicating over discord chat in an asynchronous method, and then used the voice/video chat for planned meetups about the project, overall felt it worked pretty well.  Next time, it might be good to have an google doc outline or check list of the work that's been divided up.

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OLI - Module 10 - Conflict Communication

Part 1 - OLI Summary

This weeks OLI was putting into action the skills we learned around active listening and assertion messaging.  We were given an activity to simulate a real world conversation and judge the best responses.  

Part 2 - Activity write up

This week we all got to pick our roles, 

• Marcelo was the note taker
• Vance was Graphic Designer
• Anwar was Game Developer 
• I was Hardware Engineer

During the activity, it was a bit unclear how exactly we were suppose to interact.  The OLI module described the situation, however it roles didn't have any information as to how each of us was suppose to react or attitude we should carry forward.  The role information was just general background.  So we act took those general roles, and kind of acted out how each of us naturally would have reacted in the stated situation.  Turns out we were all working pretty well together, we took time to listen what the other team mate was saying (actively listening) and then since we were all pretty much of the same opinion on action in the situation there wasn't much assertion messaging needed.

I'm not sure of the final point score.  In the ended we all ended up agreeing there was a lot of work to accomplish in two weeks, but we could tackle the challenge if we broke up responsibilities and made sure to check in and listen to one another. 

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Course 1 - Week 7

Part One

Our team collaborated over discord mainly. It allows easy asynchronous communication between the team members.  I've used the voice chat feature as it allows us to quickly discuss our ideas.  So far we've been using Google Docs and Google Slides for producing our video

Part Two

I watched a TED Talk entitled The Joy of Learning Random Things on Wikipedia,  It was a video about how the learning process should never stop, that even learning about seemingly mundane, random things can lead to thoughts on other topics.  That it's the process that's important.  I believe that's very true, how often have you been in a conversation or just in thought about one topic and seemingly out of no where a though pops into your head about an issue you where facing earlier.

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Course 1 - Week 6

Part 1: Capstone ideas

This week we talked a bit about capstone each of us brainstormed for our assignment last week.  It was interesting to hear the others ideas.  Some where unique takes on exist products, others were helping out a local community service by updating their tech.  It seems like a ways off, but I know it'll be here before we realize it.  It's better to start brainstorming or keeping an eye out for interesting ideas for the project.

Part 2: Keeping up

This week was a lot of keeping my nose to the grindstone by finishing the first draft of the ethics essay and then giving feed back on my peers essay.  It also gave me a chance to dust off my resume and freshen it up.

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OLI - Module 8 & 9 - Active Listening & Assertion Messages

What I Learned

This week's OLI modules were about learning how to listen.  How to show the person you're listening to that you're actually absorbing what they're saying, not just waiting for your turn to talk.  Showing them that you there for them.

Then taking that and being able to respond in an appropriate manner which ensures the other side is understood and feels seen, and then sets the proper tone to as to how to resolve the issue.

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Course 1 - Week 5

Part One

https://edwardscsjourney.blogspot.com/2024/01/week-4.html

https://nicholai-cs.blogspot.com/2024/01/cst-300-week-4.html

Part Two

Capstone idea 1:

Project in the Home automation/IoT space.  This would apply to the area I was interested in working in from the first essay.  It could be something like developing my own IoT device or sensor and integrates into an existing Home Automation eco system

Capstone idea 2:

Working with a local school or community organization to understand and help  with what software needs they might have

Capstone idea 3:

Some sort of game/social application that is designed to be used between a small group of friends.  My friend circle is a bit small, and most of my friends live across the country.  It would be fun/interesting if I could create some sort of passive game/interactive experience that kept us engaged with one another.

Capstone idea 4:

Project in the 3D printing space, not sure exactly how to tie computer science into the 3D print space, I enjoy 3D print as a hobby.  Perhaps with something like OpenSCAD, which allows you to programmatically design objects to be printed.

Part 3

This week has been a lot of focusing on developing our ethic's essay, so doing a lot of research and filling out of my outline.

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