Final Reflection

Final Reflection

The research practicum class by Dr. Jasmine Jones has opened up multiple horizons and perspectives for me. When I first joined the Computer Science major, I had no idea how diverse it would be. All I knew was software development, but the research practicum class focuses more on human-centered design and reverse engineering in computer science. At first, I was actually thinking of dropping the class when I got it, based on the workload, but when I found out that my best friend, Syakira Wijaya, had taken it and had a good experience, I knew I had to take it.

The class didn't fail me; it actually exceeded my expectations. When I first got into the class, I learned about lit maps, looking at references and citations, and that a research paper should be unique and novel. When Dr. Jones dove into the research paper's novelty section, I knew a good research paper should fall into one of the three novelty categories. Aside from finding the connections in each research paper, I also learned about affinity mapping and breaking down research papers for in-depth analysis. I never knew I would be in a position now where I can read a research paper, isolate its design features and components, and recreate them all using a single research paper that has no information about the codebase. But I did it after mapping out user flows, identifying components in each user flow, and creating a UML diagram to determine which classes and methods would be needed to build the app.

Aside from breaking down a research paper, I also experienced system design like never before. I have worked on the student software developer team and am familiar with the Agile methodology. But this research gave me the full experience of sprint planning, sprint goals, and product design routines. Without this careful planning, I will likely not finish creating a full app on time while staying true to the research and making the most of what I have. 

This class, aside from the software component, also involved the hardware component, and for us who are dealing with research components that are different between Trove v1.0 and Trove v2.0. We had to make tough decisions on what to choose. My colleague Joyce did an excellent job building the hardware, going to the wood lab to print our trove box, and sewing the trove bag by herself. I give kudos for her contribution to this research.  Aside from the hardware and software, Dr. Jones took us to the TEI conference, the conference on tangible, embedded, and embodied interaction, and there I got to see memory technologies that were unlike anything I already knew. It was certainly eye-opening. 

With that said, I would definitely take this class again for the sheer amount of experience and happiness I get from it. I am grateful to Dr. Jasmine Jones for her mentorship, to our marvelous TA, Nicholas Hamilton, for his insights, and to Dr. Stuart Gray from the University of Bristol for his guidance on closing gaps I couldn't figure out in the research papers.