CST300: Major ProSeminar, Week 6

Part 1: Help Your Teammates to Develop Capstone Ideas

Out team (Claudia, Justin, and I) started tossing around capstone ideas this week on Discord. It was very informal, but a fun way to start thinking about what we might want to build. 

Claudia mentioned a few cool ideas right away. She suggested building a firewall, creating a social media platform, or developing motion-tracking software for athletes. The last one sounded really interesting, although it might be a challenge depending on how complex it gets.

I shared a few animal-focused ideas:

• A Pet Adoption Matching App that works like a dating app to connect people with their ideal rescue pet.
• An Animal Shelter Volunteering Coordination System that helps scheduled volunteers, track hours, and lets them upload photos or log walks.
• A Home Pet Care App to keep track of vaccines, vet visits, medications, and health records.

Claudia was especially excited about the pet adoption idea, which gave me a good laugh. I already have access to a lot of photos and pet info through the animal shelter I volunteer with, so it could be fun to turn that into something real. Of course, I have no idea how to build it yet, but that's part of the challenge.

Justin came in later with some unique ideas too. He's interested in using cameras and AI to track flying insects or birds and possibly predict their movements. He also mentioned creating a forum site, although he's still figuring out the audience. At one point, we even talked about tracking bird migration patterns, like with geese, which could tie into his interest in nature and tech. 

Nothing is set in stone yet, but it was great to see how different our ideas are.

Part 2: Keep Up With Your Learning Journal

This week, our team started researching how search engines work to help us figure out a plan for the content in our final video presentations. We've been learning about web crawling, indexing, and how algorithms rank search results. It's been really helpful to get a better understanding of what's happening behind the scenes when you type something into Google. 

We also spent time working on professional development, including updating our resumes and writing a cover letter. It was a good opportunity to think about how to highlight both technical and soft skills. My updates resume (and cover letter) is included below. 

In addition, we watched a mock interview for a software engineering position. Watching it reminded me how important it is to stay sharp with problem-solving and coding. It was a good reality check and motivation to get back into the groove of practicing regularly and keeping my skills fresh.

Overall, it feels like we're off to a great start!