My hopes for the A-week activity was to have at least a completed circuit within a “cool” design of some kind. I have never done sewing before, and the last time I did any circuit work was in about 2016. With the help of the cohort and the teachers i was able to produce a skull design with an LED eye.
Fortnight 1
What did we learn?
Although I have a some software development experience, I still felt anxious about learning Python as I hadn’t used it for about a year. Additionally, the Python and general programming that I’ve had experience with hasn’t been used to (directly) interface with Cyber Physical Systems before.
While I was comfortable with the visual code editor environment, the command line interface and Python itself, Johan taught me about the “Conda” environments, and how they’re a simpler way to manage virtual environments. Additionally, the spatial and image output component of the build was new for me. I had assistance from James with the geometry mathematics to understand the process, while Myrna also provided me with a system that was simplified to understand the visual output process.
While I was assisting some other cohort members with their coding, I was also shown by Mena a simpler process to access nested objects within an array. Overall, even though I’ve had previous experience coding, I found it helpful to be transparent and ask for assistance when I need it, share ideas and concepts with the cohort and learned about some Python tips and techniques.
What would I do differently?
I was surprised by the due date and the due time. I didn’t realize it was due at 13:00 on the same day, as I assumed that it was going to be 23:59. In the future, I’m going to always refer back to the assignment details and or check the calendar rather than assume anything.
In terms of the content, I think I will switch to Conda for any future Python projects, and double check that the method I’ve used to solve a problem isn’t too convoluted.
