CS Learning Journal

  WELCOME TO WEEK 2 Learning Journal - CST 438 In Lab 1 on JUnit, we used a Mock to simulate parts of the application, like a database, without actually connecting to the real one. A mock acts like a stand-in for something real, such as a database or web service, and helps us see how our code responds without needing to use the actual system. This is helpful in unit testing because it keeps the focus on the specific piece of code we’re testing. If there’s an issue, we can be confident it’s coming from our code and not some outside system. It also helps tests run quicker and more consistently since they don’t rely on anything external.

  WELCOME TO WEEK 1 Learning Journal - CST 438 Before starting this course, I wasn’t really sure what to expect. I figured it might be a mix of planning, coding, teamwork, and maybe some tools or processes, but I didn’t have a solid idea of what software engineering actually meant. After Week 1, I see now that software engineering is more about keeping code maintainable and being able to handle changes over time. The reading made me realize how important things like scalability, testing, and planning ahead really are. I also thought Hyrum’s Law and the idea of shifting left were interesting because they show how small decisions can affect the bigger picture later on. This week helped me understand that software engineering isn’t just about getting something to work, it’s about making sure it keeps working as things grow and change.

  WELCOME TO WEEK 8 Learning Journal - CST 462S For my Service Learning project, I completed my hours by mentoring students at Alisal High School in the Salinas Union High School District. I helped guide them through their virtual internship, where they built a robot that followed a line using Arduino code. It was a great experience seeing students apply their coding skills and gain confidence. The most impactful part was helping them troubleshoot and seeing their excitement when their robots worked. Separately, for our research project team, we focused on gathering interviews and building our appendices. Overall, the research went well, but one thing I would improve is communication and time management. Since we depended on each other to meet deadlines, I recommend future students prioritize clear communication early on to avoid delays. A challenge I faced was balancing Service Learning and research responsibilities along with other classes, but staying organized helped. My advi...

  WELCOME TO WEEK 4 Learning Journal - CST 328 This week we focused on learning more about low fidelity wireframes and spent time searching for an app we would like to redesign. We also had a beginner tutorial on Figma, which gave us a good introduction to how the platform works and how we can use it to create our wireframes. For my project, I decided to redesign an airline app. I took inspiration from several different airline apps that often feel very cluttered and overwhelming. My main goal was to make the new version more user friendly and easier to navigate. I created five pages for my design: Home, Flights, My Trips, More, and a User Login page. One specific change I made was separating the Home page from the More section. In the original app, these were combined, and I felt it made the interface feel too crowded. Separating them gives the layout a cleaner look and makes it easier for the user to focus on one section at a time.

  WELCOME TO WEEK 4 Learning Journal - CST 462S This week, we continued engaging with our site and supporting the virtual internship. I worked with students as part of the program, helping them apply what they've been learning. In addition to site work, our team focused on conducting our research and writing the Appendices section of our paper. We developed a set of interview questions and began gathering responses. Each team member was responsible for interviewing one person either at our site or within the target audience. We also started compiling the data in a shared Google Drive folder for easy access. Most of the team has received responses and shared their notes or transcripts. Unfortunately, one teammate is still waiting to hear back from their interviewee, but we’ve decided to move forward and work with the responses we have so far. Overall, the research has been going well. It’s been interesting learning from the different perspectives people have shared, and we're ...

    WELCOME TO WEEK 3 Learning Journal - CST 328 This week was really interesting and fun for me. We had to create a level of a game in Unity. For my level, I made it beach themed, where the user has to collect golden coins, like searching for treasure. It was really fun learning how to use assets and seeing how we can apply them to the level. After creating the level, I also added bunny ears and a tail to the character. It took a long time working in Photoshop, but it was really entertaining. Afterwards, we had to record a video of us playing the level. I tried adding background audio while the user played, but I had some difficulties with the recording, and the sound didn’t transmit properly. Overall, I really enjoyed working on game design during these two modules.