COMP715/815GB:2014 Eric


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Info

 * Planned Meeting Times:
 * Wednesdays 4:30pm - 5:30pm


 * Group leader:
 * Eric
 * Students:
 * Chris
 * Stephen

Week of Sept 22nd
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda: Discuss the first part of the first homework. Discuss the class in general.

Discussion

There was not all that much to talk about for the first homework assignment. No one had any trouble finding the program or getting it to run. With the hard part next week, the coding, it was understood pretty early on that there was not much depth to go into yet.

Instead we spoke about what we would want to get out of this class, if anything, along with how it might help us in the real world. Not everyone thought this was important, but we will see how that goes throughout the semester. At this point we also had Pauline and Erol join us for one big group discussion.

We got to know each other better and what we do for a living or just what we do to make ends meet while we're going through college.

Surprisingly I am the only person who wants to walk for graduation, no one else seems to care.

We also spoke about Programming Languages and compared it to this class in terms of difficulty and workload, and the different things we got out of the class for those who had attended.

Finally we talked about whether or not the capstone class was worth it, and while some said it was they also said to skip it if you have the choice. Fortunately I have the choice.

Next week's discussion should have more substance to it.

Week of Sept 29th
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda: Discussion Questions from Homework 2 - See where everyone is and go over any difficulties.

Discussion

This week we discussed the first homework that was due today. I realized that I probably over thought the question based on feedback from Jonas, making the numbers go into the encryption as their actual value as opposed to their ASCII value. I'm not worried about it though, it just made it more interesting. The others seemed to do it just fine and didn't have any questions or complaints about it.

We talked more about the class and where we thought it would go, along with whether or not it was going to get more difficult later on or not.

Week of Oct 8th
Meeting Time
 * Met over the weekend via emails back and forth among the group

Agenda: Discussion Questions from Homework 2 - See where everyone is and go over any difficulties.

Discussion

There was quite a lot of discussion this time about the homework now that we had the lab in class. There were especially a lot of questions about exactly what the professor was asking for in regards to the bike lock question. Permutations seemed to be the key, as they are made specifically for this type of equation, but it wasn't clear to everyone how they should be implemented. Personally I discussed the way I approached it and gave my advice to Chris and Steve, and waited to hear back about their own approaches.

There was not as much dialog as usual due to it being online, but this is also somewhat my own fault. I had to travel across the country the following week instead of meeting at school just before class, so we had to make do with what we had. I was also distracted with my preparations for the same trip, but made sure the others could reach me if they had questions.

Next week I will be able to meet them on time and discuss what happened the week prior, as I missed that class entirely. It's times like these that I appreciate having a 'forced' meeting time every week so that anyone who misses out on something will have the ability to catch up. With the mid-term only a week away there will be plenty of discussions between now and next week as well.

Week of Oct 15th
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda: Discuss the prior week and the current homework.

Discussion

The majority of the discussions today took place around catching me up from what I missed last week. Rula was kind enough to provide me notes ahead of time to copy down into my notebook so I was not totally unprepared for the discussion, but Stephen and Chris helped me understand what happened more than what was written down. One thing that seemed particularly interesting was that we apparently had tried to do 3DES in class during the lab, something I would have liked to have attempted. It was around this time that it was mentioned that homework was actually three weeks out instead of the usual two due to the midterm coming up.

We talked about potential questions coming in on the mid-term, our own experiences with past tests with Professor Jonas, and what he might be focusing on. The overall consensus was that if the teacher did not discuss it, it was not going to be on the test. This makes the most sense, as if the teacher does not mention it why would it be considered worth knowing in the context of the class?

We also spoke about the solution to the lock problem which everyone got wrong. I was not able to get the specifics on how it was actually solved but I would do so later on from someone else who had written that part down. Near the end of the hour we spoke about different programming languages such as Visual languages, Scratch being an example.

Week of Oct 22nd
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda: Mid-term Prep

Discussion

No detailed discussion to record. It was basically just this group and anyone else in class who wanted to talk about the mid-term and what we think might be on it. It was quite useful comparing notes and talking about it beforehand. Specifically I had forgotten to check my finished homeworks for possible questions, so that was helpful that someone mentioned it.

Week of Oct 29th
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda: None

Discussion

There was not a lot to talk about at this meeting as there was no homework assigned nor was the project assigned as of yet. The only thing we were able to talk about that was on point was the mid-term from the week prior. We were not very clear on some of the questions that were asked, in particular the Master Lock question.

We unanimously agreed that it was not a fair question. It was mentioned in class for less than a minute and was not written on the board, so therefore it did not seem very important. Perhaps an interesting footnote on the topic, but not something worthy of a question on a mid-term.

Week of Nov 5th
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda:

Discuss the homework.

Discussion

Unfortunately I was the only one to have attempted the homework by this point. I gave out vague hints on what to look at, specifically to look carefully at the data given to us, as there is a pattern there that we should take advantage of to make things easier. Other than that there was not too much to discuss since we shouldn't be giving away answers or techniques at this point. Next class we will be able to talk about them with the class, and it is not exactly a competition anyway.

We also talked about ideas for the project since the proposal is due next week. Neither Chris nor Stephen have grouped up with anyone yet. I personally feel they should not group with each other, Stephen agreeing, because we should be able to talk freely and openly about our experiences in the class in our group sessions. If one of them has a problem with a partner I want to be able to talk about it here, but if they have issues with one another they no longer have anyone to talk through the problem with nor find a reasonable solution to the issue.

The Spring internship fair was raised in discussion again, and I encouraged Rola (Who had joined us again) and Chris to attend since there were plenty of opportunities and that was where I had found my current position. I gave brief advice on what to wear, that Jennifer Landon helps with resumes, and general tips that got me through fairs in the past that seemed to work rather well. The idea of talking to employers you will definitely not be interested in is always my favorite, as it helps you get over your nervousness and gets you into the rhythm of how to speak with a potential employer.

Week of Nov 12th
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda: Homework Wrap-up Discussion

Today we went over all of the answers we found in the homework and the techniques we used to get them. Since we turn our homework in before our meetings it isn't really an issue in my opinion. Marcel and Rula were actually able to join us again as well which was nice. Marcel of course found 11 which was crazy, when the rest of us only found 7 or 8.

We also discussed the project further. Neither Chris nor Stephen have found a partner yet which is somewhat troubling. I'm not sure exactly how Jonas will react to so many people not yet having partners, but I'm sure it'll be sorted out at some point. It would be easier if there was a list of available people for them to work with, because otherwise no one has the contact info for anyone else they're not usually talking with in this class.

Week of Nov 19th
Meeting Time
 * Thanksgiving Break!

Agenda:

Discussion

No meeting!

Week of Nov 26th
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda: None Discussion

Today we talked about the lab portion of the homework, and how we found ways to break the code. We all successfully used 'brute force' of using the analyzer and substituting letters until we figured it out. I was the only one of the group to actually take one of our other homework assignments and substitute code to have the program encrypt and decrypt the cipher text successfully.

This discussion took up most of the time, but there was not much else to talk about. Chris and Stephen had finally found partners which was good, and we are all a little nervous about the final exam next week. Next week's meeting will be dedicated to studying for the exam before class and throwing out random questions to see if anyone forgot anything obviously important that could be on it.

Week of Dec 3rd
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled

Agenda: None

Discussion

Week of Dec 10th
Meeting Time
 * Met as scheduled - Last Meeting!

Agenda: Discussion about the overall class Discussion