Week 8 - CST 300 Final
CST 300 - Review
This week is the last week of CST 300, also known as Major ProSeminar.. I learned many things through the eight weeks of the class.
In addition to this post, the following posts discuss material from CST 300:
APA Formatting
In CST 300 we used APA formatting. In high-school and community college I used MLA formatting, but I had never used APA formatting. Many of the core concepts are the same, such as in-text citation and having a references page, but the syntax and formatting are different. It has been a long time since I have used MLA, but based on what I remember I think I like APA formatting more. I remember MLA feeling more tedious than I have found APA.
Academic Writing
Academic writing is one of the primary focuses of CST 300. We wrote two essays during the class.
In the first, known as the Industry Analysis, we analyzed an industry, a company of our choice in that industry, and our plan to prepare to enter that company.
In the second, known as the Ethics Argument, we discussed an issue of our choice relating to computer science by analyzing two stakeholders, presenting their arguments on the issue, and finally stating our own position on the issue.
In writing these essays, we learned about:
AI Prompt Engineering
While writing the Ethics Argument essay, we had the opportunity to use AI. We learned about the uses and ethical concerns of using AI in academic writing, and how to effectively engineer prompts for AI. My discussion on these topics can be found in this post.
Career/Education Planning
One of the focuses of CST 300 is career and education planning. Multiple assignments had us plan our education and the early portion of our careers. My discussion on my education and career goals can be found in this post.
Related to career and education planning, CST 300 also taught us what skills companies expect new hires to have, as well as how to effectively write resumes and cover letters. My discussion on these topics can be found in this post.
Team Skills and CollabU
Team skills is one of the primary focuses of CST 300, as well as the entire program I am attending. CST 300 has us practice team skills through group projects, but the primary way CST 300 taught us team skills was through CollabU. CollabU is a third-party resource focusing on teaching team skills. During the class, CollabU taught us:
- The different ways people approach group work, such as being task or people oriented.
- The elements that make groups more efficient.
- How to recognize conflict.
- The five strategies for dealing with conflict:
- Accommodating
- Avoiding
- Collaborating
- Compromising
- Forcing
- How to listen actively.
- How to address and resolve conflict.
Quantum Computing Presentation
This week we turned in our video presentations, one of the final assignments for CST 300. We made two different video presentations, one targeted at professionals and one targeted at general audiences.
Video Presentation for Professionals
The presentation targeted at professionals is about 9.5 minutes long, and covers the basic principles of quantum computing, its history, its applications, the challenges it is currently facing, and its future prospects.
Video Presentation for General Audiences
Video Presentation Reviews
In addition to finishing our own presentations, we have been asked to watch and review the videos from three other teams as a follow-up assignment.
Biomimicry: Nature's Blueprint
Video for General Audiences | Video for Professionals
The first team, called Replicant Collective, discussed biomimicry, which is a branch of science that aims to improve technology by studying and replicating nature. The presentation discusses early, modern, and potential future examples of biomimicry, and how they impact the world.
The presentation covers the topic of biomimicry well, as both a definition and several examples are given. Both the visuals, such as b-roll and text, and the audio, such as voice-over and music, are clear and understandable. The video was also well-researched, as many examples and prospects of biomimicry were given. Although, sources for the covered topics were not given. The combination of video, music, and voice-over gave the presentations a documentary-like quality, making them very engaging to watch. The presentation shows clear teamwork, as multiple team-members performed the voice-over. Both videos, one targeted at general audiences and one targeted at professionals, were appropriate for their target audiences.
AI Companionship
Video for General Audiences | Video for Professionals
The second team, called Prime Solutions, discussed AI Companionship. Together, their videos discussed the potential uses, positives, negatives, and ethical concerns of AI Companions.
The first video, the one aimed at general audiences, focuses on the uses and positives of AI Companionship. The video used AI generated voice-over, which helped showcase AI to the audience. The video utilized music and visual aids, such as videos and photos, to keep the video energetic and fast-paced. The topics the video covered were well researched, although sources were not provided. The video was also short, and could have been longer to be able to cover topics more in-depth.Overall the video has good production quality. However, many of the slides with text are hard to read because they do not stay on screen for long enough. This video does not show clear teamwork other than in the credits, as the team-members did not voice the video, and it is unclear who edited the slides. This video is appropriate for general audiences, as it is very straightforward and easy to understand.
The second video, the one aimed at professionals, focuses on the history of AI, the uses of AI Companions, and their positives, negatives, and ethical concerns. The video covers these topics well, and it is well researched. Overall, the visuals, such as text and images, are clear and understandable. However, there are some minor issues with the visuals, such as images clipping out of the screen, or text not fitting in some of the slides. The voice-overs are spoken clearly. This video clearly showcases teamwork, as multiple team members are involved the in the voice-over. This video is appropriate for professionals, as it covers many topics related to AI Companionship in detail.
Brain-Computer Interfaces - Past, Present, and Future
Video for General Audiences | Video for Professionals
The third team, called Lutra, discussed brain-computer interfaces.
The first video, which is aimed at general audiences, discusses the premise, the brief history, uses, and ethical concerns of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). The video covers the premise and uses of BCIs well, but it could go into more detail about the history and especially ethical concerns surrounding them. The video was short, so it could have spent more time to cover these topics. The visuals, such as images and video, and the audio, such as the voice-over and music, were clear and understandable. The visuals helped keep the video engaging. However, the video used text-to-speech for the voice over, while having a human do the voice over would have been more engaging. The video does not showcase teamwork, as the video does not have voice-over from, or credits for, the team members.
The second video, which is aimed at professionals, discusses the premise, history, uses, and ethical concerns of BCIs. The video covers these topics in-depth with quality research, although sources were not provided. The visuals, such as images and video, were clear and understandable. Although, the video could have included more text to make the topics clearer. The voice-overs were spoken slow and clearly. However, the voice-overs were sometimes obscured by the music in the video. This video showcases more teamwork, as multiple teammates helped voice the video.
Team Collaboration
As mentioned, CST 300, as well as the entire program, focuses on team skills and group work. Indeed, we are paired with the same group for the majority of the program. Over CST 300, I have gotten to know my group. So far, we have been using Discord for messaging, file sharing, and voice calls. Discord has proven to be a very valuable and versatile tool. Using it, we can create separate posts for each module, meeting, or even assignment, helping with organization. When we have to edit the same document, we have been using google docs to create and share documents.
One thing that I think our group can improve on is our communication through messaging. There have been several small assignments which could have been easily discussed via messaging, but were instead discussed over voice call. When our group only has smaller projects this is fine. When we also deal with larger projects however, it has lead to the smaller projects getting forgetting or delayed. I believe that getting used to discussing projects over messaging more would help this problem.
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