Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Answers to Questions From My Last Two Blog Posts

Hey guys, Thank you for all of the questions and comments on my previous posts! This entry will be addressing mostly the questions from my last two posts: “Road to CogSci – Question Answers” and “Touching on CogSci Classes”.

The first article “Road to CogSci – Question Answers” had a lot of good questions. A majority of the questions were about what I would do if I continued my education with a masters degree in Human Computer Interaction. I have recently (since my last blog post) talked to Damian Schofield who is the head of Oswego’s HCI program. Through him, I have been told so much more information about what HCI entails as well as some of the many projects from the real world that actual Oswego students are working on. One of the more interesting projects took place in Brazil where a team is developing a 3D avatar that is to read the subtitles on a TV and perform sign language to deaf people who are unable to read the subtitles. This is a successful project that is still in production and the cool thing is that Oswego students were actually able to help with the development of this! I have also found an interesting video which defines HCI very well and shows modern day HCI-related projects as well as some potential future projects which I encourage you to check out:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43384144/vp/44978595#44362956

The second article “Touching on CogSci Classes” also had some good questions. To answer Paige’s question: it really depends on what kind of computer-related job you have. If it is simply using computers, then programming will not help you very much; however, computer programming is definitely a plus to have on a resume when applying for jobs as it simply shows your level of computer literacy and that you are well rounded.

Dan and Yaritza’s questions about the Computer Science classes can be answered simultaneously. Computer science absolutely requires much more application than it does memorization. It is actually the application of the material you learn in class that allows you to begin to fully understand the substance within the material. Essentially, Computer Science is more difficult because there are a lot of rules to know and understand that must be applied to every program that gets created in order for it to be compiled and run without errors. It is this that makes the computer science classes more difficult to understand. However, if you keep up with the classes and work to not only complete the application aspect, but to understand it, you will realize that these classes will be absolutely manageable and you’ll find that they truly aren’t all that difficult, but can possibly even be fun!

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