Overall Class Experience

I felt this class gave me a very good perspective on not only what to expect in this degree, but what facet of the degree I would like to pursue. It was very informative when all the teacher from different aspects of the degree came in and talked about this area of expertise. I also loved seeing the former CSUMB students who have graduated and went on to careers in their field. It was very reassuring and gave me a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. Besides being informative, the class also gave me skills in presenting that I will carry on to my future classes and eventually to my future job. Overall I enjoyed this class very much and would recommend it to anyone who is in the CSIT or ITCD program.

My presentation

I presented my topic on week 2. I choice to present on the new software by Google, Latitude. This is a product that is used to track people and be tracked from a mobile phone. I felt the presentation went well. I tried to be as calm, clear, and talk loud enough for everyone to hear. I also scanned the room and tried to look at everyone during the speech. Overall, I do think it went very well. If I had to do it over again, I would pick a different topic. One that is more complex and interesting. Something like the presentation Ricky did on augmented reality or Sara's on Microsoft surface.

Presentation Week 2

The second week of presentations brought up some very interesting topics. Ricky did a presentation on augmented reality. This was a very interesting topic for me that I had never heard of. It was basically about letting people see an augmented version of the world. He did a very good job presenting the topic. He was knowledgeable about the topic and seemed very comfortable presenting in front of the class.

The other presentation that I felt was very good was the presentation by Sara on the new Microsoft surface. This to me was an amazing topic. Again I had never heard of this specific item. The features of this product were one of a kind. Sara did a very good job presenting. She brought enthusiasm to the presentation and was very strong in her delivery.

Presentations Week 1

This week the students in the class started presenting to the class. We had some very interesting presentations. The one about Artificial Intelligence was very interesting to me. The future of Artificial Intelligence is a world of vast mystery at the moment, since there has not yet been a real breakthrough in that field. We also had a presentation on a sound program and a presentation on an Army Medical System.

One of my favorite presentations on the first week of presenting was the augmented reality presentation. I personally have never heard of this before and was very interesting and exciting for me to hear about it. The speaker (Richardo) seemed very knowledgeable and presented very well. Overall the presentations were very good in my opinion.

Returning CSUMB Students

This week some of CSUMB's old students graced us with their presence. It was very assuring hearing their stories of success. They all seemed to be going in different directions and all the outcomes were successful. It seemed like they all enjoyed what they do for a living and that their experience at CSUMB was not only enjoyable, but prepared them well for their future careers. Overall I enjoyed them stopping by and felt that it was a good boost of confidence and a glipse of the "light at the end of the tunnel".

Project Management

I never really knew how important project management was, but after Dr. Tao's presentation I feel I have a good grasp on how important it really is. One of the most important things I learn about project management was communication. The presentation started off with a good illustration on how you can tell multiple people the same thing and they all take it a different way. Communication is key in project management.

We also learned about tools used in project management. For example, WBS (Work Breakdown Structure), GANTT charts, and CPM (Critical Path Method). They key item taught in this presentation was to use S.M.A.R.T goals. Specific, Measurable, Agreed Upon, Realistic, and Time-framed. With these things in mind you can have sucess with project management.

Assignment 3

This assignment was to review a website that promotes effective study skills. I learned that no two people study the same way, and what works for one person may not work for another. There are some general tecniques though that help for everyone.

One of the first things they go through in this article is the value of a schedule. A schedule saves a lot of time and helps omit things that are not top priority. A schedule helps make every hour count and tells you exactly when to study, and when is the best time to study to help you get as much as you can out of the study time.

The article also goes through the process of studying, which includes where to study and how to use your time to your best advantage. Then goes through numerous strategies on reading, taking notes, getting the main idea and much more.

Overall this was a very informative article and will help me a great deal. I have a hard schedule to work around and after reading this article I will be able to get the most out of the time I do have for school and studying.

Assignment 2

This past week we had the pleasure of meeting some of the faculty of CSUMB in the ITCD program. I have to say, Sathya Narayanan did a very good job in his presentation. I have always thought I wanted to go in the software engineering field, but after listening to Sathya speak about network and security. I still have awile before I make my decision, but I am considering changing from software engineering and going into the direction of network and security.

One of the student portfolios that I really enjoyed was Alfredo's profile from 2008. It is very clean and presentable. It gives a lot of information on numerous majors, including a major I am fond of, programming. It tells about each major and even gives a link to the pathways side and class that describes what he is explaining. For example, under programming, he has a link to CST 231, which is a C++ programming class.

Another student portfolio that I enjoyed was also from 2008. This was Ammon's profile. Like the first one, it gave information on technology majors, but this profile went into depth on alot more information. Such as Core MLO's, Tech MLO's, and Advanced MLO's. This site, like the first one, was very neat and professional. I also read over his capstone project. I have to say it is a little overwhleming thinking that I will have to do this in the near future. Ammon's capstone was about bringing in more secure connection using SSL and TLS during transit. Overall I enjoyed reviewing these protfollios and cant wait do have my own in the near future.

Assignment 1 CST 300

Hello,

My name is Travis Faulkner, and I am a CSIT major as CSUMB. I completed two years of college and earned an associate degree at Hartnell College. CSUMB seemed like the best idea after Hartnell. With the new CSIT major and being so close to home, it was an easy pick.

I am 23 years of age and I work full time at Savemart Supermarkets as a Meat Cutter. I started off as a bagger when I was 17 years of age. It has been a good job as I work my way towards completing a 4 years degree. They have always worked around my school schedule as best as they could.

During this last summer I got married to my "High school sweetheart", as some would say. We started dating in 2003 at North High and we ended up getting married Sept 20th 2008. It was a very nice wedding at a winery up in the hills of soledad. After the ceremony we flew out too Hawaii for a week and spent our honeymoon over there. We had an amazing time.

While attending Hartnell, I took a programming class with a teacher named Joe Welch. It was very interesting too me and I enjoyed working on the codes, and ever since then I have been going into the direction of a programming degree or something equivalent. I have always knew I wanted to do something with computers, but after getting intoroduced to programming, I knew I wanted to program. Well that is all I can think so until next week, Goodbye.