What I hope to learn in CS3216

It is a big surprise for me get a position in CS3216. To get ready for the course, there is one key question I need to ask myself: what I hope to learn in CS3216? I can only understand my mission and responsibility in the course after this question is clarified. The following skills are what I have in my mind so far and hopefully at the end of the semester I find myself learning even more =)

Project Management

3 assignments and 1 final project all in 1 semester. It sounds a bit crazy but that is the challenge I accepted. In order to survive, I need to enhance my project management skill to improve efficiency and reduce the number of mistakes made. Correct me if I am wrong, I think project management is a mixture of planning, teamwork, communication and decision making. It required experience and knowledge to master such skill and CS3216 will be an excellent practice because I can not only manage 4 projects of my own but also observe how other teams manage theirs to double the experience learnt.

Time Management

It is known that the workload for CS3216 is very intense. If each semester can be imagined as a long and exciting game, by taking CS3216, I believe I have set the difficulty level to super hard. But the fun is maximized playing in hard mode. To handle such stress, I need to manage my time effectively to achieve maximum productivity. My plan is as follow:

1 day for CS module A

1 day for CS module B

1 day for Singapore study, physics and community service

4 days for CS module C

Hopefully this timetable functions as expected or I guess sleep will be optional.

Working with People

An interesting part of CS3216 is that students are supposed to work in dynamic teams. Working with different people with different personalities sounds challenging, but it can serve as a good demonstration of real working world where one cannot really control whom is he going to work with. I think the key is to find a common interest. For example, in CS3216 the common goal can be the success of the project. One team united with one goal is more likely to be efficient and effective. Moreover, different team members will have different strengths for me to learn. Another aspect of working with people is how to work with lecturer and TAs. I believe they have much to teach and they are more than willing to teach, but among all the students, how can I be one of those who learn most? This is another question I better figure out early this semester.

Hardcore Coding 

 As one of the coolest modules provided by School of Computing, I believe CS3216 is designed in such a way that students will improve their web development skills rapidly along the way. Hardcore coding skill is the fundamental for my future career so I am more than willing to enhance it whenever I can. So far I am more like a back-end guy, but I want to be involved in every part of the project (and I am likely to achieve it since each team is formed with only 4 people). As Steve Jobs said, "Don't settle.". I think I still have much potential.