This week marks the beginning of my Junior year of college at UNCC.It also marks the first time we have had in-person classes since my Freshman year. Covid-19 really did a number on us.

I never realized how much I missed in-person classes until it was gone. I am so excited to be back in person, even with all of the mask mandates and other restrictions. I can only hope that it stays this way, but with the Delta variant we can’t be too certain of anything. I perform so much better when I’m able to directly interact with my peers and coursework, and being online made it feel like I was missing out on the “college experience”.

Now that we have returned to in-person classes, I am dedicated to make the most of my time at college. Interacting and hanging out with more of my peers is a big part of that effort. I love meeting new people, and college will probably be the best opportunity in my life to do that.

My desire to meet new people is such a fascinating contradiction to my past self. In the past I was the stereotypical geek/nerd that kept to themselves and didn’t interact with those outside of their social bubble. I’ve grown so much since those days, and I’m overjoyed to be in this mind-state today.

I might as well talk about my classes this Fall semester as well.

Elements of Stats 1

This is essentially the intro to statistics course. You might be wondering why I’m taking an intro course during my Junior year, and that is because I switched my focus Sophomore year. I was originally going to pursue a Bachelors of Science in Computer Science with a concentration in AI, Games, and Robotics. However, I decided to switch to a Bachelors of Arts in Computer Science with a concentration in Information Technology. The former requires calculus while the former requires statistics.

Sensation & Perception

This is a psychology class related to my Cognitive Science minor. It’s pretty easy to guess what this class is about just by looking at the name. However, it does have an interesting focus. Almost half of the material in the class will be focusing on vision alone, with the other senses getting considerably less attention. While I was initially surprised about this, once reflecting I realized this makes a fair bit of sense. Our vision is so complex, and the different factors that affect what we physically see and what our mind interprets is quite vast.

Software Engineering

The first computer science course listed, and one I’m quite excited for. This is a course with heavy focus on SQL, python, web design and git. All of these play a significant role in the industry, and should play an important role in my future endeavors. I’m always willing to get a few more skills underneath my belt, especially ones that have relevancy outside of a single class. This course likely will have a bit of crossover with one of the other courses that you’ll see mentioned shortly.

Database Design & Implementation

This class is particularly relevant with my experience designing this blogsite. Early on I was attempting to decide on a database system that I could use. SQL and more specifically SQLite was the main option I was considering. However, after learning about GitHub Pages I decided to switch focus. This class has a heavy focus on SQL, so I’ll be able to learn how to use SQL anyways

Project Management

While this is a computer science class, it is ultimately not a programming class. This is a class with heavy focus on getting used to a corporate computer science work environment. Learning how to work in Agile is a key part of this class. Agile is all about working in sprints, which are short work cycles where you and your team complete an aspect of a larger project. One week is a fairly common length for sprints, but does not have to be the case. We will also have a large group project which will last for most of the semester. This is all part of the effort to introduce us to the corporate environment.