How is everyone’s second semester going so far?

Marks have been up for most first semester courses in the past week and I’m more than satisfied with my marks. I did get one C and that was in data structures and algorithms in computer science, but all of my other marks were A’s and B’s. Yes, that includes computer architecture. I’m actually shocked that my mark shot up by 10-15% to a B+ after the exam, either that or the marks were normalized (or as most of you would say, bell curved).

My sessional grade point average (SGPA) for the Fall 2012 semester is a 7. That would bring my cumulative grade point average (CGPA, the one that actually counts for anything) to a 7.2, which is a 0.1 drop from 7.3, but at least I kept it above 7.

Grading system

The University of Ottawa uses a different grading system than most universities. Actually I’m not sure if I can make that statement because I haven’t really looked at the grading systems for other universities. We use a ten-point grading system, whereas most other universities I know of use a four-point grading system. However, you cannot simply multiply your grade point average by ten in order to obtain a percentage. Instead the grades are in brackets like this:

(Source: Academic Regulations, uOttawa).

So the fact that I have a 7.2 CGPA right now doesn’t mean my mark is a 72%, I’m actually near a 76% right now. Also with this grading system, there’s no difference between a 90% and a 100%, both give you the same numeric grade of 10.

I must also mention that an E is still a failure, but in some faculties it is redeemable. That means they give you a second chance to write the exam if you receive an E. There’s also other letters too, ABS for absent, if you skipped the exam, which is equivalent to an F. Or P, for pass, in the case of courses where you only pass or fail.

Anyways, now that I’m finished three semesters, only five more to go….

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If 90% = A+ and 100% = A+, does that mean 90% = 100%? Let’s just say that 90% ≤ A+ ≤ 100%.

And that’s my final grade for Introduction to Software Engineering (SEG2105).

Final mark for SEG2105

I must say that I’ve learned a lot in this course about software engineering, and it would have definitely helped me last summer when developing software for work. The textbook, Object-Oriented Software Engineering: Practical Software Development using UML and Java, is very well written (it was actually written by the professor), and overall the course was fun. The end task was certainly something I enjoyed working on.

I’m now anxiously waiting for the final marks of my other courses to appear on uoZone! Hopefully I passed economics!

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Hello everyone, how are you all doing in preparation for final exams? Or if you’re in high school, how are your culminating activities (end tasks) going?

I don’t have culminating activities. I have midterms, and they take place much earlier than the end of a course.

Actually, I can consider this assignment for my software engineering class a culminating activity. The combined weight of the assignment is 13% of the final mark, it sure feels like an end task. Of course there’s other courses that have assignments worth more, in my intro to business management class both assignments were worth 20%. But those assignments just didn’t feel like end tasks.

That really exciting end task

The assignment: You will develop a very simple application of your choice using a technology of your choice.

A modal popup dialog for completing a task. Shown running on iOS 6.

Seems pretty open-ended, right? The technical constraints of the assignment included the use of a client-server architecture and the use of Java, PHP, or Ruby on Rails (although this requirement can be waived by obtaining permission from the TA, I know someone who is doing their server-side code in Python.) And then there’s the other requirements of the assignment: developing realistic requirements, design, and use cases; a UML diagram, as well as other things that demonstrate knowledge of the material learned throughout the course.

Since it’s such an open-ended assignment, might as well make it about something interesting, right? So I put together: rink attendant + software engineering. What did I end up with? A software application to control some hardware mechanism to automatically flood a rink, sweep floors, and mop spills.

Right… Hopefully that would never become a reality, then I’d never get that job back! I actually ended up with an application for managing shift and task information for employees and supervisors. The program was kept simple due to the time constraints of this assignment, avoiding feature creep is key here. Read the rest of this entry »

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These videos were shown in my computer science class on Tuesday and I thought I would share them with you. What an interesting and cultural way to teach a technical concept!

I’ll also add an explanation of how each one works, well the technical concept anyways, not sure about the dance! I suggest watching a bit of each video to get an understand of what they’re doing (or just for fun, that works too.) My explanations probably suck though, so your best bet would be to watch a bit of each video or look it up on Wikipedia if you’re interested in knowing more about how computers sort things.

Bubble sort

With the bubble sorting algorithm, the program checks every number from the start, compares each of them in pairs, and the largest number is “bubbled” up through the list of numbers.

Insertion sort

The insertion sorting algorithm starts at the beginning of the list. It picks the next unsorted number in the list and moves it towards the beginning of the list (i.e. the sorted portion) until it is in the correct position:

Read the rest of this entry »

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