Blog

Summer Block 3

8/7/17

Today was the first day of my last block. I first watched the first video recorded by Ernie. After that, I got started on my first project which was the My SQL Syntax Guide. I worked on that for the rest of the day.

8/8/17

In the morning, I had morning documentation. The Shodor Scholars learned about workplace etiquette, how to give presentaions and worked on their websites. After I finished documenting and ate lunch, I continued my work on my SQL syntax guide and finished part 1. Then, I watched Mr. Ernest's tutorial on relational databases. I completed the activity and then worked on part 2 of the syntax guide and completed it. After that, I started on my Dice Roller Database project.

8/9/17

The first thing I did today was watch another video tutorial from Ernie. The video walked through how to use inner joins. Then, I continued working on my Dice Roller Database. I completed the basic skeleton of the database by the end of the day.

8/10/17

I started by working more on my Dice Roll Database. Then, when we went go take a break, the lights went out. We were unable to get power back until about lunch time. But, when it did come back, we were unable to access the internet. After lunch, everything went back to normal. We started a movie called "Code: Debugging the Gender Gap". When it was over, I worked on my website and copied all my newdev files and removed one of the copies from the newdev folder. This way, anyone who wishes to view them does not need to enter a username and password.

Code: Debugging the Gender Gap - 8/10/17

Today, we watched a documentary called "Code: Debugging the Gender Gap". The film is about the gender gap in computational science job fields. From this film, I learned in more depth the reasons why women are so heavily underrepresented in tech companies. I felt disappointed that their are so many stereotypes surrounding different groups of people. I feel that we can help this issue somewhat by introducing STEM early in school to stimulate interest at an early age and erode some of the "negative" stereotypes. When the entire class is learning about coding, stereotypes surrounding it will not exist. In the workplace, everybody should keep in mind that their are coworkers of other genders that will take things differently than you do. There should also be consequences if negative things happen relating to gender. This will help inclusion.

8/11/17

In the morning, I worked on my personal portfolio website. I finally completed it and I think it turned out really well. Then, I worked a little bit more on my dice roller database. I then started helping prepare for the SSP presentations and had lunch. I had documentation for the presentations in the afternoon.

8/14/17

Today, I first helped move chairs back into their place from the classroom. Then, I completed the finishing touches to my dice roller database. After that, I started on my quality assurance process for my website. I had to fix a lot of spelling, grammar, and code errors. When I finished the quality assurance documentation, I changed the order of my blogs. Towards the end of the day, I researched bootstrap and created a full website with it. It has all the content but I want to play around with it some more.

8/15/17

The first thing I did today was help Caroline redesign her website. After that I tweaked my website a little. Then, I fixed some things and made some parts better in my AgentCubes and Vensim models. At the end of the day, I played around with some things in my website.

8/16/17

I felt that my background for my website was way too busy so I decided to change it. I found a background that I like but I couldn't find any color combinations that worked well with it. I finally settled on another background. I messed with the fonts, layout and colors a little after that.

8/17/17

I changed my website some more today. I changed the fonts and colors so that the website would look generally cleaner. Then, I edited some of my project websites from past blocks. Today was Leanne and Ritviks last day so they presented they're summer work. After that, I had my block meeting with Levi. At the end of the day, I added some animations to my website and used an animation library.

8/18/17

Today was the very last day of the apprenticeship. Over the past year, I've learned so much and have had a very enjoyable time. This morning, I had reception. After lunch, We had a little bit of time to work before presentations started. At two, presentations were supposed to start. I chose to present first. I presented my graphic designs, my responsive website, my calendar program, my dane joe program, and my dice roller database.

Summer Block Two

7/25/17

Today was the first day of my second summer block. I started by watching the video for Day 1 Morning. The project assigned in the video was a document regarding the syntax for common programming concepts in JavaScript, php, and a language of our choice. I completed the first part of it for JS and php but have yet to complete it for the language of my choice. Then, in the Day 1 Afternoon video, Ernie walked me through on creating a simple coin flipping program using php. After that, I learned how to embed php in HTML and how to render HTML in php.

7/26/17

I started today by watching Ernie's tutorial on forms in PHP. After completing that, I started on Krista's PHP projects. I first completed the Random Hex Code Generator and got started on the Calendar program. After lunch, I had documentation for the the afternoon workshop. When it was over, I completed my documentation document and uploaded the pictures I took during the workshop.

7/27/17

Today, I started by working on the Dane Joe program. After completing that, I worked on the Dice Statistics program. I thought I was finished with it but unfortunately there is a bug I need to fix tomorrow.

7/28/17

This morning, I started by finishing up my Dice Statistics PHP program. Then, I watched Miguel's tutorial on PHP Dynamic Websites. After completing my own version, I started on part 2 of Krista's projects. The first one I chose was the Background Selector. When I completed that, I began work on the XML. Unfortunately, I didn't complete it. I have reception ODAA tomorrow, which I look forward to.

7/29/17

Today, I first worked on my XML blog that I started yesterday. After completing that, I worked on the calendar program. I got a good bit done before lunch. It's reception for the rest of the day for me!

7/31/17

I finally completed the calendar PHP program today! After finishing the calendar program, I got most of the Syntax document done.

8/1/17

I started today by working on my Programming Concepts Syntax Document. After completing that, I began looking at the interview presentation. Then, I started validating several of my PHP programs. I have yet to finish this and will complete it tomorrow. I had to leave early today for a volunteer activity.

8/2/17

Today, I had morning reception so I was at the front desk the entire morning. After I had a quick lunch, I continued working on validating my PHP programs. I completed all the validations for Krista's projects but have yet to finish all of the programs in my newdev folder. Then, I decided I wanted to start remodeling my website. I have a beautiful website planned.

8/3/17

I finished all my HTML validating today and started on my form validating. It took me a while to solve one of the warnings for my calendar program. After that, I worked more on my new portfolio website.

8/4/17

I first worked on form validating all the necessary programs. After that, I continued on my new portfolio website. At around 11:00 AM, Divya, Chris, and Gustavo presented for their summer blocks. After lunch, we had a guest speaker come in named Rene Daughtry. When the presentation was over, I continued to work on creating my new website.

Guest Presentation - Rene Daughtry

On August 4th, we had a guest speaker come in and present. His name was Rene Daughtry and he worked for Cisco. The first part of the presentation focused on what his job involves. He talked about perception, which lead to the discussion on how you are perceived on social media can harm you. He explained how college or other recruiting processes will view your social media profiles. Then, he began discussing job opportunities and how the need for information technology jobs is increasing. Mr. Daughtry then presented several examples to explain why this is happening. Then, he moved to the topic of opportunities at Cisco and what they can hold for us. He gave us many examples of great outcomes for former participants of the program. Ending the presentation, Mr. Daughtry taught us how to make ourselves look good professionally to anybody that is interested. We learned that connections and communication is essential for this as well. Overall, I enjoyed the presentation very much and gained a lot of knowledge.

Summer Block One

6/19/17

Today, we first went over the basic outline of how our summer here at Shodor is going to look like. We also went over our Other Duties as Apprentices (ODAAs) and what each duty involves. We then immediately got introduced to our first project. The project is a system model, an agent model, and a website for the models. The topic of the project is up to us. After brainstorming an idea, we pitched it to Ernie who then gave us permission to create our HLDs. Today I got to the point of pretty much finishing the HLD. I am a little bit behind so I plan to finish it at home tonight.

6/20/17

We started by going over all the projects we would be given over the first summer block. Then, we began working on our modeling project. Today, I got my HLD completely approved by an apprentice, an intern, and Ernie. I started on my Vensim model first. I have it mostly finished. Tommorrow I hope to finish my Agentcubes model and touch up my Vensim model.

6/21/17

I started working on my AgentCubes model today. I got a good but of it done. In the afternoon, I was assigned to do workshop documentation. This was my first ODAA. I took notes on the class and took several pictures. After the class ended, I did a documentation write up and sent an email attached with the document.

6/22/17

Today was solely a work day. I first worked on finishing my AgentCubes model. After that, I tidied up my Vensim model. I also created a website for this modelling project.

6/23/17

This morning, I took a placement exam for math. I missed the first two hours. Ernie went over inkscape while I was gone so I had to watch the video uploaded by him to catch up. After finishing several graphic designs, I exported them as PNGs and added them to my portfolio.

6/26/17

This morning, we started with a demonstration in GIMP. We made a collage of turtles with a background of a nebula with Ernie's guide. Then, we were let loose to make our own collage of images and mess with pictures of Ernie and Aaron using GIMP. In the afternoon, I had reception, which was not very eventful.

6/27/17

I started by creating my two image logos today. Then, I messed with pictures of Aaron and Ernie. I put their faces on the guitarist Slash and a baby, respectively. I also scaled and edited the quality of a picture of a bird.

6/28/17

Today, I first created 6 banners from my previously created logos. I exported them and then put them on my website. Then, I started polishing up my AgentCubes model. I encountered some bugs that I didn't know were there and I fixed them. The AgentCubes model is now fully finished. I received an email from Aaron saying that I did not upload the pictures from my documentation session last Wednesday. I got the camera and uploaded the photos to the designated Google Drive Folder. Next, I polished up my Vensim model, making sure the numbers corresponded with those in my agent model.

6/29/17

Today, I first solved some problems in my website. Some of the pictures I uploaded had huge blank spaces that I had to get rid of. After I did that, I added to my beef cattle models website. Then, I tweaked a little bit of my Vensim Model. After lunch, I did my responsive website tutorial. I finished the video but there is still a bug in my code that I need to fix tomorrow.

6/30/17

I finished my modeling project today. I was met with some bugs in my modelling project website today that I fixed. I can't wait to go to China tomorrow!

Spring

2/4/17

Today we started the new unit on programming. We started off today by listing the programming concepts that we learned from a couple months ago. Then, we looked at an online predator prey model and accessed the code to change it into a disease model. Aaron went over the code line by line and helped us understand the use and function of each line. We used Atom to edit the code. We learned a lot of the useful components of Atom.

2/11/17

We continued working on changing the code of a disease model so that it will act as a predator prey model instead.

2/18/17

Today we worked on changing the disease model into a predator prey model. At the end of today, we finally completed the process and had a fully functional predator prey model instead of a disease model

3/4/17

Today was a really exciting day because we were assigned our second group project as apprentices. The task is to create a forest fire model out of the disease or predator prey model that we already have. My partner Caroline and I got started immediately and made great progress.

3/11/17

Today was purely a work day for our forest fire group projects. We got a lot done and by the end of the day, Caroline and I had the model working and our website up and running. We just need a script for our presentation, which we will complete next Saturday.

3/18/17

I was excited for my project presentation today. First, Caroline and I tidied up our project website. We then wrote our script. We were picked to present fourth. I feel like we did a decent job of presenting and a great job on the project.

4/1/17

Today, we started working on our Parallel Programming Notebook. After we all made copies, we first discussed parallel computing versus serial computing. We then completed the first section of the notebook, where we analyzed the difference between these two types of computing through a coin flipping model. Next, we simulated parallel computing. We first were assigned a number which was distributed by Aaron on a sticky note. The sticky note also had specific parameters for a forest fire model that only one person would run and record. The distributing of the numbers simulated the message passing that computers do when computing in parallelism. By distributing the work evenly among the apprentices, we were able to gather the data much faster than if only one person were to run each parameter by themselves. We next completed the activity called Domain Decomposition. With this, we were also introduced to dependencies. The next activity was parallel recipes, containing materials, instructions, and dependencies that we created on our own.

4/8/17

We started by searching for careers that use high performance computing to learn about how what we're learning in class could be applied in real life. After that, we explored the top 500 list of supercomputers. We engaged in a discussion about supercomputers and about the list itself. Two computers we focused on were LittleFe and Blue Waters. The next part of the notebook was shopping for parts for our own LittleFe computers.

4/22/17

Today, we created our own virtual computers using Virtual Box. We first changed the many parts of our computer such as the hard drive and operating system. We chose the Linux operating system. We used the to perform and execute a couple of programs and explored how many cores we could use. This taught us about parallel computing.

Fall

10/8/16

Today was the first day of my apprenticeship at Shodor! Coming in, I was excited to get started. We started off with some introductions to help us get to know each other. We then went into a brief description of Shodor itself and some of the things we would learn in the apprenticeship program. Then, we changed our passwords and got our emails. After lunch, we looked over policies and rules of the program. This part was called the "doom and gloom" by Aaron. We were then assigned our first project and got our mailboxes set up. That concludes my first Saturday as an apprentice.

10/15/16

We started this Saturday with some interesting questions to help us explore knowledge. We were introduced to the levels of knowledge and the difference between sufficient and necessary. We did this with jars, math equations, and many other very intriguing questions. Next, we explored ethics in the office. We learned what was right and what was wrong behavior in an office. Ron demonstrated proper attire and improper attire with a fun skit. Then, Dr. Panoff discussed different models with us. We explored several types of model and talked about what models are and can do.

10/22/16

Today we simulated coin flipping with Microsoft Excel. I learned several commands that you can use inside Excel. We ran the program and collected our data together and analyzed it in different ways. This helped us understand statistical data better and what different statistics mean.

11/5/16

Today we dove deeper into Excel and its functions. We created a model of the number of pets. The equation we had was pets = cats + dogs. We utilized variables for this. We created a second model in Excel to find the slope. In this model, we added a scroll bar and check boxes. I also made a working clock and diffusion model.

11/12/16

Today, we started off by making a model in Excel. The model shows the number of rabbits in a habitat with a graph and numbers. The factors of the population number were birth rate, death rate and carrying capacity. We also made another model with Vensim. This was my first time working with Vensim so I was eager to try it out. I love how it gives you a clear visual representation of a model. We created a model to represent healthy and sick people interactions.

11/19/16

Today was my favorite day so far. We started off by reviewing Vensim. We were then introduced to a brand new software that allowed one to create agent-based models called AgentCubes. The first model we made in AgentCubes was a model where a thing moved randomly around a world. We then added a window to the world that allowed the things to escape. The second model we created was one that modeled sick people and healthy people.

11/26/16

We were given our first group project today. My partner Michael and I brainstormed ideas for the subject of the project and decided on "The Population of a Mall". We started working and got a good chunk of the Vensim and a little of the AgentCubes finished. We first brain-stormed ideas and decided on the mall idea. We then built on it and added in factors that would be a part of the mall and thought about how we would incorporate the into the model.

12/3/16

Today, we continued working on our group projects. We completed most of both models and only need a little bit more time to finish it completely.

12/10/16

The class had a late start today due to ice on the roads. We were supposed to present our projects today but due to the ice, we did not. Ernie decided that we would just continue working on the projects and wait until a later date to present. Michael and I finished the entire project today.