Winter '11 Quarter
An academic recap of my Winter ’11 quarter:
Stats 105 – Statistics for Engineers – Professor Xu
The course started off relatively slow and covered the basics of statistics, which I have learned on multiple occasions in high school and in college. The main focus was on hypothesis testing and being able to differentiate and apply the correct models to make a statistical inference. It’s a matter of knowing which of the formulas to apply under which situation and correctly working out the calculations. The exams were open book so it was unnecessary to memorize the formulas.
Engr 112 – Entrepreneurship for Engineers – Professor Bristow
The course focused on the various aspects of entrepreneurship, from formulating a business idea to the steps in creating a new business venture. The material is straight forward and it’s learn-through-memorization. This was the last of the three courses I needed to take in order to complete my technology breadth in technology management. There is a lot of overlap in between the three classes, which was very inefficient and waste of time. The course included a major problem that followed steps in creating a new business, starting with making an elevator pitch, to writing a formal business plan, to presenting the business proposal. I thought it was a good application of the material, but it would have been a even better experience if it was more effectively spread over the course of the quarter. The tests were multiple choice so it was a matter of memorization.
EE 114 – Speech and Image Processing – Professor Villasenor
The courses provided an introduction to speech and image processing. I thought this class was very enjoyable. The only thing I wished was that we had covered more material, which was entirely possible. I thought the pace of the class was slow, which is a rarity in EE. A lot of time was spent reviewing material that was taught in previous signal processing class. To make matter worse, a few students had difficult understanding basic concepts that were a prerequisites to the course. I wished we had gone more in-depth, especially in the second half of the course on image processing.
EE M171L – Data Communication Systems – Professor Dzhanidze
The lab focused on data transmission through wireless and wired medium. This was one of my least favorite EE courses taken because of the structure of the course. The material was disorganized. It was very difficult to find the necessary information in the lab manuals. The labs were pre-determined for the most part, thus involved no critical thinking. Limitations of the equipment also prevented us from completing the labs to the fullest extent. The lab reports had to be written in PowerPoint, but they were not presented, which was completely contradictory.The idea of PowerPoint is to create slides to complement a presentation, yet we were cramping in experimental data, formulas, analysis, and discussions on it. I didn’t understand the logic and reasoning behind using PowerPoint for lab reports. Other than a grade booster, I didn’t think the course had much value at it’s current format.
EE 184D – Independent Group Design/NATCAR
This was the second installment of a group design project, which I chose to be NATCAR. This project provided valuable hands-on and teamwork experience. The project is independent and flexible in the approach from beginning to end. I suppose that it would be very similar to a real-life process of working on a team project. I highly recommend it to anyone because it is the perfect opportunity to apply academia knowledge into a physical application.
Despite taking 18 units, I did very well and ended up with a 3.94 GPA for the quarter, the best that I have ever done in a quarter. Having a busy schedule kept me on my feet. I had to be efficient and effective with my time and there is no time for procrastination. It did get pretty hectic at times, especially adding in my commitment to extracurricular and maintaining a degree of fun/social life. One more quarter left to go.