Aug 30, 2021
CS371p Fall 2021: William Crawford
*preface: I took swe last semester, so some of my answers will be very similar
You can find it here
1 — Where did you grow up?
I was raised in Forney, Texas. It is about 20 miles East of Dallas. It was a small-ish town, but is now growing quickly. I remember when we didn’t have a Walmart, and now there is a large shopping district, amazon warehouse, and it seems like a new school is built each year.
2 — What high school did you attend?
I attended Forney High School. I excelled after a mediocre freshman year, and I graduated Valedictorian with enough dual credit for an Associates, and more AP credits than I need.
3 — What was your favorite extracurricular activity in high school?
I spent most of my after school time with UIL. I competed in CS, Computer Applications, Science, and all of the Math events (as long as they didn’t conflict). I led the UIL CS team and encouraged the need for adding an AP CS class to the school. My favorite activity was playing board games with the strategy club. Some of my favorite games are Pandemic, Tortuga 1667, and Werewolf.
4 — Why did you come to UT?
My father attended UT before me as a EE major. I applied to UT because it has the best CS program in the state. I applied to other great schools, but they were all just a little out of my reach.
5 — Why are you majoring in CS?
I’ve always been attached to computers. I got a computer at an early age to share with my sister. My father had to install a sound card so that we could play games, and that sparked my interest. My mother bought me a snap circuits kit, and I assisted my grade school teachers with tech problems. I didn’t get into programming until 6th grade. My high school offered one easy class in python, and I tried to get an AP class taught there.
TLDR: It is who I am.
6 — Why are you in this class?
I enjoyed having SWE with prof Downing last semester (spring). I picked this class because I know what to expect from it and think it will teach me a new way to think about some programming problems.
7 — What are your expectations of this class?
I just want to increase my skills with C and OOP. I presume that the class will require the same effort as SWE, but I’m not sure what to think about grading.
8 —How much C/C++ do you already know?
I guess enough to build parts of an OS for operating systems. I feel comfortable enough looking up documentation for the libraries.
9 — How did you like the first lectures?
Very similar to the beginning of SWE. I might have zoned out a bit when we started talking about docker
10 — How did you feel about the cold calling?
The cold calling does not seem to add stress to the lectures. I think of it as a discussion between two peers, and it makes the class easier to understand. Some of the questions asked during the cold calling are the same ones that other students would ask.
11 — What made you happy this week?
My family finally brought up my second cat, so now I have both of them here in Austin, plus I got a bunch of move-in stuff done and I’ve been working on a Minecraft server.
12 — What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
At the beginning of each SWE project, it is imperative for you to setup a loose/vague schedule of when you want features implemented and in what order as well as keeping track of what is already done. Scheduling is definitely something that would help you make an A. Trello.com is a cool tool that can organize what you want done into cards, and it feels nice when you check something off.
