Fall 2009 / Winter 2010, Soft. Eng:
In an effort to make up for lost time in my previous year, I decided that multivariable calculus would be a good addition to my course list, as well as force me to review material that will prove extremely useful in subsequent courses, such as CSC336 (Numerical Methods). It compounded the misery of a restless work term but is, for sure, a huge credit to obtain. With this credit under my belt, I can graduate as early as the end of Summer 2011.
I also decided that, while mildly interesting in a course-based setting, technical work (and especially engineering work) was not something I could see myself getting into after graduation. It will definitely be interesting to find out what a CS degree can do for me in a non-technical line of employment.
MAT235Y: Calculus for the Sciences II
PEY200Y: Professional Experience Year
Winter 2009, Soft.Eng:
Thanks to Professor Greg Wilson, my professor for CSC301, I had the opportunity to do project work for MIRARCO, a not-for-profit mining research organization in Sudbury. It was my first bit of exposure to Software Consulting. I couldn’t tell you if there was more to CS than Java or red-black trees three years ago, however I now had two main areas of interest that are not core to CS, but which CS has exposed me to.
The second was also the phrase I had been searching for back in CSC209: Embedded Development. That was the content of CSC372, which was taught by an Engineering professor. Besides providing no shortage of low-level material, there’s something about creating a design which interacts with the real world that made me tick.
The irony of being a former ECE student came full circle when I received an internship offer from MDA Space Missions for the coming co-op year, with the job description including design of mobile robots. I couldn’t pass the opportunity to get my foot in the door of the Engineering industry now that I knew what I was after. Maybe that Iron Ring isn’t such a far-fetched pipe dream…
CSC324: Principles of Programming Languages
CSC372: Microprocessor Software
CSC494/2125: Project in CSC/Software Consulting [MIRARCO, Paraview Plug-in Wizard]
Fall 2008, Soft.Eng:
I finally caught my academic stride fully this semester, though it didn’t end up being a total effort all the way through. This was the semester my grandfather passed away after putting up a half-year battle with illness. I also suffered through my own strange illnesses myself. I caught pneumonia the first couple weeks of class and so got behind right away, then was diagnosed with a staph infection near the tail end of midterms. The medication put me out cold for two weeks, so I was finally forced to drop two courses.
CSC301 got me especially excited, since it showed me that CS is not all about programming and math. My success in that course was in large part due to the fact that teamwork and people skills were so much more important than programming skills. It was actually a CS application of the interpersonal “skills” I had unknowingly developed working at the warehouse: the ability to cooperate with people from extremely varied backgrounds, working in a team to get things done efficiently, and how to organize yourself and especially others so that things get done right and on time. I felt I finally had an edge over everyone.
CSC258: Computer Organization
CSC301: Introduction to Software Engineering
CSC336: Numerical Methods (Late-withdraw)
CSC343: Introduction to Databases (Late-withdraw)
Winter 2008, Soft.Eng + 8hrs/week @ Canpar
This was the semester where I got inspired. It was thanks to Professor Karen Reid and CSC209. This course kindled my interest in CS and reminded me of the reason why I chose ECE in the first place. Though I proved to myself that I can hack through some tough math when I have to, it was really the low-level stuff I was interested in, yet not so far as the physics behind the hardware. I thought of it as the intersection between ECE and CS, but didn’t really discover what it was until later.
CSC209: Software Tools & Systems Programming
CSC263: Data Structures & Analysis
GLG130: Exploration of the Solar System
ECO200Y: Microeconomic Theory
Fall 2007, Soft.Eng + 8hrs/week @ Canpar
Still reeling from the burnout fest of yesteryear and the full-time labour of the summertime, I was determined not to go through the same nightmare again. I started out wanting to take MAT237Y (Advanced Calculus II) but dropped that and switched to MAT235Y (Calculus II). After a couple weeks passed, I couldn’t bring myself to spend another year in front of a math book endlessly solving problems. It was like I was there again, alone in my dim room with a calculus book, worried sick that my future was on the line. I finally dropped that too and picked up an extra Geology course.
So this was largely a miserable semester since I wasn’t really taking any courses that would further my progress. And the CS courses I was taking were just as miserable. At Christmas, it occurred to me how much I enjoyed GLG103 and perhaps, just maybe, Mineral Eng would have been the way to go.
GLG103: Geology in Public Issues
GLG110: Introductory Geology
CSC236: Introduction to the Theory of Computation
STA247: Probability with Computer Applications
ECO200Y: Microeconomic Theory
Winter 2007, 1st-year Science + 18hrs/week @ Canpar
In ECE I had 5 courses, and about 30 hours of class. In my second semester of CS I had 5 courses but only 16 hours of class, with Tuesdays and Thursdays completely off. No comparison in difficulty, right?
Now consider that Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, I would start class at 9am, come home around 3 or 4pm, eat, maybe do some reading for a while, then work a 6pm-12am shift at a warehouse. I then would come home dead tired, shower, sleep, and wake up around 11am the next morning, sore from the night before. So, all things considered, that amounts to 34 hours of school and labour a week. Repeat for 14 more weeks.
I worked my ass off. By March I was one step from dropping everything cold. I don’t know where I found the resolve to pull up my grades the way I did and continue to work that job. By the first week of exams, I was running on nothing but nervous energy, and by the day I wrote my last exam, I was sick with exhaustion. For a month after that, I couldn’t shake the sharp feeling that I should be studying somewhere in isolation with blinds drawn and lights dim.
CLA160: Introduction to Classical Studies
CLA204: Introduction to Mythology
CSC207: Software Design
MAT137Y: Calculus!
ECO100Y: Introduction to Economics
Fall 2006, 1st-year Science + 20hrs/week @ Canpar
And so began the year of torture. My parents insisted that I keep working to save up as much money as (in-)humanly possible. After dropping out of one program the year before, I came perilously close to not making it into CS. But driven by the fact that it would be curtains if I didn’t give it everything I had, I somehow got the grades I needed. But not before failing term tests and barely passing exams. I scored 27% on my CSC148 midterm. At Christmas I was failing MAT137Y and doing very poorly in ECO100Y.
CSC148: Introduction to Computer Science
CSC165: Mathematical Expression & Reasoning for CS
MAT137Y: Calculus!
ECO100Y: Introduction to Economics
Winter 2006, 1st-year Science + 20hrs/week @ Sobeys
The closest thing to ECE in the Science faculty was CS, so I chose my courses based on that. Geology never occurred to me, and so I never took any of the core Science courses like Biology, Chemistry or Physics. I soon realized I would be screwed if I didn’t make it into CS since I had no prerequisites for anything else.
I spent this semester and the following summer bent over backwards working. By the end of the summer I was working 55 hours a week, splitting my time between a grocery store, an industrial flow meter repair depot and contract wiring work for two area hospitals.
CSC108: Introduction to Computer Programming
MAT223: Linear Algebra I
Fall 2005, ECE + 15hrs/week @ Sobeys
Little do most people know, my adventure started off in Electrical Engineering. I didn’t last too long because I couldn’t afford it, and so my intuition (rightly) warned me of trouble ahead even though I was doing alright.
Looking back, the question I ask myself is: WHY ON EARTH DID I CHOOSE ELECTRICAL ENGINEERING? In terms of the environment, the lack of decent people was the biggest problem. I would have been so much better off in Industrial, or especially Mineral. I’m passionate about the outdoors anyway, that would have given me the chance to work out in Western Canada, up in the Territories or some other remote place. I could have switched into that, taken a year off or something, instead of switching out of Eng completely. In a blind panic that came down to a yes or no question of if I wanted to drop out, I said yes and hence took my chances of getting into Science. All I knew was I wanted to get the hell out of ECE, that was the best decision I chose. As far as I was concerned, anywhere was better than there, though I feel that dropping out of Eng itself may have been unnecessary.
None of these courses are on my transcript, they are a figment of my imagination.
CIV101: Structures, Materials & Design
APS111: Engineering Strategies & Practice
ECE190: Discrete Mathematics
MAT196: Calculus A
APS105: Fundamentals of Computer Programming
