New Semester, New Challenges

The first week of the fall semester is over and I am definitely in for an exciting semester. I have more classes, extracurriculars, and work than I can even list, but not more than I can handle. This will probably be my only weekend where I actually have some time to relax.

There are only two classes (I suspect) I have that will have a large amount of homework in. This isn't to say that my other classes won't keep me busy, it is just a matter of magnitude. Those are ECE 412 Computer Interfaces (which is being renamed Microcontrollers) and CECS 550 Software Engineering. 412 will require about 20 hours a week in open lab when it gets going full speed. However, the difficulty of this class isn't the reason for the amount of time dedicated to this class, it is simply that the labs are very long. In the end this class will be very rewarding since it is the first time I will have programmed in assembly language. 550 will be interesting because it is a capstone class where we are required to develop a complicated piece of software in a team. Tentatively, my group is planning on developing a piece of software that will allow for the creation of student seating charts. While this isn't very glamorous it will definitely be challenging.

As for other things that will keep me busy, Speed School Student Council is high on that list. I am still the Director of Administration and as such have lots of paperwork (actually everything is digital) and other logistical concerns that keep me busy. Luckily I was able to accomplish a lot this past summer by improving the website so I should not be overloaded with council tasks.

I will continue to work part time for GE. I'll be doing the same thing I was doing at the end of my last co-op so it won't be that stressful. Actually, a lot of what I'll be doing is documentation, so that will interesting.

Lastly, I will be helping out in the calculus classes. This also ties into the work I'll be doing with STUG this semester. There is a brand new group of wide eyed freshmen with new Tablet PCs and lots of questions and confusion. I'm doing my part to help make things move smoothly. I will also be publishing new episodes of Tablet Tips when I find the time. I will also be continuing work on the DyKnow Panel extractor software that I wrote last fall. I will also be presenting the paper I co-authored on that topic at WIPTE 2009. I am also working on a web based version of this tool. The web based version will be more of a guilty distraction from everything else I need to do.

That about covers it for the beginning of my semester. Hopefully I'll be able to keep up my weekly habit of blogging. I didn't have anything interesting to blog about this week. Hopefully that will change very soon as I start to do some interesting things.