Recently in Computer Science Category

The past month has been full of work, and severely lacking in spare time. That’s what I get for starting a blog with a month or so to go until finals! Well, the grades are in, and I live to learn another day.

But, more importantly, I am officially CCNA® as of this morning. I could have done it faster, and certainly better, but I’m happy with how that part of the semester went. Next semester will be studying for the four CCNP exams as an officially-sanctioned independent study. While this is not a Cisco Certification blog, I will be posting the study materials I come up with for myself and reviewing the commercially- and freely-available tools I use. There are lots of excellent tutorials, sample labs, and other study materials out there on the net, but that just means there’s more junk to sift through!

Other academic doings for spring include my capstone course and finishing my requirements up for both computer science and mathematics. I will also be tutoring CS170, Fundamentals of Computer Organization, for Old Dominion University’s Computer Science department. To see this semester’s work leading up to the capstone course, please visit the CS410 Green Team page.

Computer science. Just what is it? Webster says:

computer science: (noun) a branch of science that deals with the theory of computation or the design of computers.

Seems simple, doesn’t it? We use computers every day. And that’s the whole point—we use them literally every day. Your cell phone has a computer in it. Your car has a computer in it. You might swipe an ID to get in the door at work, before logging in to your computer and beginning your day. The office coffee pot might even have a computer in it, delivering freshly-brewed coffee at just the right temperature, directly into your cup. Computers are ubiquitous.

And yet, when is the last time you stopped to think about how something like that was made? How the computer got in your cell phone, or your car, or even your coffee pot? Or what goes on inside it? To most of the world, it’s magic.

And computer science teaches us how to make the magic happen.

Old Dominion University’s Department of Computer Science created the Computer Productivity Initiative (CPI) with the National Science Foundation in an attempt to bridge the gap between theory and reality for computer science students. Too many were graduating with a mind full of theory, but little to no experience actually doing computer science—making something. Or so the story goes, anyway. Other schools have similar initiatives for their computer science and computer engineering students, as a capstone to their education.

Since this is my last year in undergraduate study, I of course have to run the gauntlet too. I must prove I can use three years of education in computer science to actually make something. I must prove I can work with others in a collaborative effort (What? Computer science isn’t just nerds hacking away in their mom’s basement? I’ll cover these stereotypes someday, I swear). And above all, I must prove to myself that computer science is a tool—the means to an end, not the end itself.

What’s CS got to do with it? Everything.