CS371g Summer 2021: Kyzer Polzin
What did you do this past week?
Academically, I’ve been working on the Collatz project. This is my only summer class this session, so apart from attending class, I’ve been able to focus on working on the first project.
I spent a lot of time relaxing with my friends and girlfriend. One of the ones I watched was In The Heights (as recommended by Professor Downing himself) and I enjoyed it! Apart from that, I worked a little bit, but mostly loafed around as I am dealing with a minor foot injury and I was trying to rest so that can heal.
What’s in your way?
Right now, optimizing the Collatz project has been in my way. I’m stuck on passing the third test on HackerRank even though I think I’ve implemented many of the optimizations we talked about in class. I might also have to deal with a couple of edge cases because I could be failing the third test because of a few things I don’t consider in my code.
Aside from that, my foot has been in my way. Makes it difficult to go outside and go play tennis, hike, play quidditch, etc. which are some of my favorite activities.
What will you do next week?
This next week, I am obviously going to work on finishing the Collatz assignment. I will probably try to get ahead on the other assignments and complete those a bit earlier in the week as well so that I don’t get stressed about due dates and working it into my work/quidditch practice schedule. I’m also going to have to work towards finding a partner for the next assignment, as I don’t know too many people in this class yet.
If you read it, what did you think of the Paper #2: makefile?
Makefiles are still a little daunting to me. I don’t quite understand how to write them myself, but reading through this paper allowed me to grasp how the makefile works. I still have to leave some comments and questions on Perusall, so hopefully getting those answered will help me understand further.
What was your experience of assertions, unit tests, coverage, and IsPrime?
I enjoyed learning about all of these this past week! I have been using assertions for a while now, but it was cool to learn about their weaknesses in class. Unit tests and coverage were completely new to me, but learning about how to utilize these tools to write better, more thorough code is something I am very appreciative of. IsPrime was a little rough this past week. My group and I were a little confused about the format of the exercises, so we all kinda did our own thing for a little while. Fundamentally, the exercise wasn’t very difficult and we still passed by a healthy margin, but the process itself (and running out of time) was a little stressful for the first time around. I think I understand the process of these exercises better now, so hopefully, future ones are met with ease.
What made you happy this week?
Mainly just spending time with the people I care about. I was able to go out and meet people at a small get-together and that was a nice change from the usual stay-at-home every single day routine I developed because of COVID.
I also did well at quidditch practice today and became aware of a few things I need to work on still. I’m improving each week and the general betterment of myself and my skills is always something that excites me.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My pick-of-the-week is this tech community that gives monthly-ish chats about how to be a better worker/applicant in tech, whether that be providing information on writing a better resume, building impactful side-projects, becoming a more effective engineer, etc. They have a Slack workspace and a LinkedIn page and it’s a great community to learn from and network with!
