Spring 2008
IST 331 - USER AND SYSTEM PRINCIPLES (3)
Course Description: Interdisciplinary survey of topics related to the use and usability of information systems.
IST 331 was my introductory exposure to Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Design. The focus of the course was to study existing systems and consider why they were more successful than other systems. We also delved into psychology, learning design concepts like Gestalt Principles and analyzing different icons that are used to represent functionalities. Finally, we studied cultural design principles and how the same system is often designed differently for people of different backgrounds.
The course was divided into homeworks, quizzes, projects, and lectures. On a day to day basis, we were lectured and participated in group activities usually related to some popular system or another. Sometimes we would analyze the menu choices made by Apple for their iPod or the way that personalized identities would speak to us as though real people when navigating through Ikea's website. We would be quizzed on this material, often in open-ended sessions. We also had a number of homework assignments that basically focused around comparing one system to another and discussing the differences in design. One of my favorite homework assignments was when we studied Yahoo/Google against Ask.Com and clearly saw why Ask.Com has not been as successful.
The core of the course revolved around three projects that took significant amounts of time each. The first project, dubbed AngelX, was an improvement to Penn State's existing course management system called ANGEL. We worked in virtual teams using one of the College of IST's experimental chat systems called BRIDGE. Team members had no direct contact with one another, we could only chat through the BRIDGE software. The second project was a user study where we analyzed the way that a group of users performed a single task using a particular cell phone. This was an independent project where I interviewed my family members, analyzed their cell phone usage, watched them complete a few scenarios, and made recommendations towards how the cell phone's interface could be improved. Our final project was to take a social networking website (we chose Facebook) in a group of our choosing and to study how a group of users currently uses one of their functionalities, then to create prototypes to improve upon that system, and to monitor how users use the system with the improvements.
I learned a lot in IST 331. It was my first real experience with HCI, and I found that it was something I really enjoyed. I would like to explore it further because I really enjoy it and have a side interest in human psychology, but I am not confident that I would be prepared to enter a career in HCI yet. If I have any electives, I might choose to take another HCI course in the future.
IST Samples
Homework 2 - A comparison between CNN and BBC's website: HW2_331.doc
AngelX:
First Project - [Please see projects section]
Cell Phone User Study:
Second Project - [Please see projects section]
Grade: A.
IST 420 - FUNDAMENTALS SYSTEMS & ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION (3)
Course Description: Introductory course on integration of information technology into different venues, including the planning, development, and implementation of the integration.
IST 420 was a course that dealt with the implementation of real systems for real users. It follows the project lifecycle while introducing us to new technologies, challenging situations, and offering us the opportunity to deliver products to high-end clients.
During the course, we had weekly quizzes, labs, practice excercises, and readings. These revolved around different business process concepts such as use case descriptions and diagrams. We also learned XML as well as its counterparts XSL and XSD. At the beginning of each week, we were assigned a reading on one of these technologies along with a homework assignment. Once we learned the material, we were quizzed on it and had to complete a complicated lab to prove that we understood and could actually use the technology.
The focus of IST 420 was not learning technologies, however. The focus was a project that coupled us with Boeing Airlines' Commercial Airlines and Rotocraft Lean Engineering divisions and was supported by Adobe. The project basically dealt with requirements gathering for a number of manufacturing processes, documents those processes thoroughly, and designing templates in Adobe's beta-version Acrobat 3D to support the actors behind each of those use cases. For more information about the project and my role, please see the Samples section below.
IST 420 taught me a lot about working in real world business. Though I had already held internships and worked for big business, it was exposure to a new corporate culture and addressed a new perspective. I had a great time working with our client Boeing, leading my project team, learning new technologies, and delivering some end products that received excellent reviews.
IST Samples
Lab 3 - A comprehensive use case description and diagram: Lab420.doc
Boeing's 3D Data Delivery:
Overarching Project - [Please see projects section]
Grade: A.
CMPSC 473 - OPERATING SYSTEMS DESIGN & CONSTRUCTION (3)
Course Description: Design and implementation of computer operating systems; management of various system resources: processes, memory, processors, files, input/output devices.
CMPSC473 was the last of the courses in my standard set for Computer Science. It was an extremely informative class that talked about every single aspect of operating systems - memory management, file systems, I/O, process synchronization, and so forth. It was very detailed and considered some fairly low-level information. The course focused on Solaris and Linux OS' but also touched upon Windows, Mac OSX, and a few others.
CMPSC473 consisted of a lot of lectures and notes that culminated in large exams, but we also had the opportunity to share what we had learned through several homework assignments and labs. The homework assignments were straight forward book questions that tested our knowledge and understanding of fundamental concepts like fragmentation. The projects, which were much more in-depth, were immensely challenging; but I was able to complete each of them after a lot of time and effort. The four projects that we wrote were basically simulations of OS protocol. We did not have to write the entire programs; but instead, we had to fill in key functions that pertained to the subject we were studying. The four projects that I completed were: an analysis of Linux and Solaris system calls, a pthreads mutual exclusion protocol when transferring multiple threads from a client to a server, a comparative program that included worst fit, best fit, and buddy fit process algorithms, and a file management system.
CMPSC473 was probably my favorite Computer Science course at Penn State. Being someone who is extremely interested in management, I found that operating systems are my calling in the Computer Science field. I have a keen interest and natural intuition with synchronization, exclusion, and eviction algorithms. I look forward to trying to pursue further studies into the world of operating systems and hope that I can work with them some day.
Computer Science Samples
Homework Assignment, Process Scheduling: CMPSC473HW.doc
Mutual Exclusion Project: mutex.doc
Memory Allocation Project: memory.doc
Grade: A.
STAT 318 - ELEMENTARY PROBABILITY (3)
Course Description: Combinatorial analysis, axioms of probability, conditional probability and independence, discrete and continuous random variables, expectation, limit theorems, additional topics.
Grade: A-.
ENGL 202C - TECHNICAL WRITING (3)
Course Description: Writing for students in scientific and technical disciplines.
Writing Samples
Technical Manual, How to Made Homemade Wine: wine
Job Application Package: jobapp.doc
Grade: A.
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