Alumni Panel Reflection

Today, I attended the Alumni Panel for CSA. At the panel, various AP Computer Science students shared their experiences about the classes, and how they impacted their career and college journeys. I learned many new things from the alumni panel, but most of all I connected with their answers to the question about how they overcome the struggles they have faced in their respective computer science journeys. One of the panelists, Colin, discussed how he struggled the most with making errors when writing code. His solution to this is to have discipline and continue to persevere. He recommended using Google and other classmates as a resource to solve such issues. I connected with this because I face similar problems occasionally, and this gave me an experience to relate to. Another interesting thing that Colin mentioned was how he applies computer science to his mechanical engineering major. He mentioned that he had a project where he had to cut down build materials and mirror components and he made a script to do so. He also said computer science is helpful for editing g code and the manipulation of commands. It is also used for material simulations. He also said that it has helped him in all projects such as where matlab is used (can program stress tests and print 3d models, optimizing things). On a similar note, Allison believed that CSP gave her the inspiration to major in cognitive science. She also mentioned that psychology majors need to take R programming courses and use matlab. I thought this was an interesting takeaway because it was cool to see how computer science is applied in majors that are different from it. Another point that Allison mentioned is her struggle with motivation in computer science. She suggested to go above and beyond in the assignments, instead of just chasing bullet points. I can relate to this because I think I do the best each week when I challenge myself and go beyond just the requirements in the assignment each week. I also liked how the panelists discussed the application of PBL in college. Mabel said she uses PBL to work with others in big classes where teachers can’t answer all questions. She also said that there are many projects in college that are PBL (agile flow, scrum methodology help). This was a good takeaway because it allowed me to reflect on how my current work with PBL will apply in the future. Overall, I learned many new things in this panel, and the panel had many great takeaways like how PBL will apply to my future work and how to deal with the various challenges I will face on my computer science journey.