Week null: Last words

As promised, here is part II of my last post.

i cringe at what i wrote a few months back "What I hope to obtain from CS3216". I suppose its similar to how you ask me as a child, "what do you want to be when you grow up?"

some of the things i did manage to fulfil is the learning how to use facebook's api, html5 (well, it was a good learning start). learning about other apps out there and having new ideas - well.. in some sense, i think assignment 2 did help with that.

"Teamwork:

• To learn how to assist each other in a project, and have a proper workflow process
• To learn from one another and build on each other's strengths
• To foster good friendships with team members that will last even after the module "

This point is really interesting. I really did learn much about teamwork. I also fostered great friendships with team members and I still keep in touch with them after everything is over. I'm so glad to meet new friends in NUS and I also hope that we will still keep in touch in future.

Some lessons learnt in CS3216:

I proposed an idea of a project without knowing if the combined team has enough time, skill and resources to succeed in it. first step to admit the mistake is done. now the next step is to learn from it. the next idea i proposed was more manageable, but the execution could be much better.

everyone's human. in the final project where there was only 3 of us, we were very open about our schedules and what we spent our time on. we knew which parts of the week were off peak for some of us. part time teaching, fyp, job applications and interviews. i believe these are all very important and it really helped as we knew what each other were going through. its encouraging when we ask each other how we are coping in various aspects. 

bugs. when it comes to nearing deadlines, most of the things that needs to be done is completed. the things left are bugs. but those bugs! wow they sure take a long time to solve. in this module, people can miss small bugs that is very hard to reproduce. but in the real world, its going to create mess and have consequences. test, test & test. as the developer of the code itself, i have this syndrome of being unconsciously selective of my test cases. in that sense, i am blinded by my own mistakes. this module has really taught me about my weakness and i will now consciously make an effort not to fall into such mistakes.

passion that what i do is what i want to do. out of all the coincidental things that happened this sem, here's one. after the external pitching session, i wrote in my blog that i was interested in doing the preschool app. fast forward a few weeks later, when everyone was getting into their final project groups, i found out that trung wanted to do the preschool app as well! really glad that trung, zhoubo and i formed a team after that and made this tissue paper pitched idea turn into reality. in the final poster presentation session, i was very happy to introduce what we did to all the people who came by to visit. i suppose my team's enthusiasm about our product and what it does rubbed off on them and made them vote us in as the #3 app in cs3216 (: i'm really happy that other people liked what we have worked on in the 6 weeks given.

im really thankful to my team mates, the teaching staff, and Colin, our cs3216 prof for this experience of a lifetime. 

and with this, my last post ends. thank you for reading my blog and please let me know anything by commenting on my posts.