Summer 2023

Howdy! Hard to believe the summer is coming to a close. In this life update post, I detail what I've been up to over the past few months, what I am currently working on and planning for, and what I am excited about for the Fall.

Summer Class

I just completed my first Harvard Extension School course: Wearables and Computer Vision (DGMD S-14). I will be putting out a full course review regarding specifics on what the course covered and my thoughts as a whole in the coming weeks. However, a brief summary was that I loved my experience in my first HES course, and found the course to be incredibly rewarding. I am able to leave the course having obtained knowledge that I can directly apply to the work I perform at my 9-5, which is a great sign both for my interests in the program and the value of the courses HES offers. There were definitely some long nights with 4 hours of sleep while working full-time, but I came away with an A in the course and a great deal of new found knowledge which is exactly what I was hoping for.

End of Summer Plans

After taking a bit of time to relax and recover from the busy summer semester, I am taking a bit of vacation time with loved ones to enjoy the last bits of summer sun before the fall semester begins. So looking forward to a mini beach vacay 😂.

I also recently celebrated by 25th birthday🥳! Kinda hard to believe that I'm that old and already more than a year removed from college, but at the same time I am definitely feeling like I am at that stage of maturity and adulthood. I feel ready for the world and more adept and flexible to deal with the many challenges of real life. So I take that as a promising sign haha.

Fall Semester

This fall, I have the opportunity to enroll in CSCI-95: Compiler Design and Implementation. I am very excited to be taking this class, as it will be the first class I get to take on Harvard's campus, and it's a new area of lower-level computing that I've been interested in for a while. Since my undergraduate education stems from the world of front-end development and UX, I did not end up having the opportunity to do any work with compilers or the C language. The course will definitely be a challenge, and I have been doing some preparing in my free time prior to the course starting, but I am excited and encouraged by this upcoming semester. Dr. Frankel sounds like a great professor, and the feedback from past students has been promising, so I know my efforts will be well worth it.

In parallel, I will also be taking my Critical Reading and Writing Skills Test this fall in order to apply for acceptence as a Software Engineering ALM degree candidate.

Beyond my Masters' progress, I am continuing to work full time, and have been making continued progress in my prowess as a UX Engineer. I have had more opportunities recently to draft wireframes and conduct user elicitation sessions, which I have greatly missed from my undergraduate days. I am also feeling notably more confident in my development skills. TypeScript has evolved into a technology I am confortable with, and I am finding more opportunities to expand my experience with Python as well. This time, coupled with my side efforts to slowly learn Rust and C through my Fall course, are lending well toward shaping me into a more well-rounded engineer.

Final Thoughts

• For Track and Field fans, the World Championships are going on now!!
• Million.js is looking pretty cool
• Best of luck to all students going back to school this fall! You've got this!

Always happy to chat with anyone interested in having a discussion or if you have any questions. Reach out to me at nia997@g.harvard.edu if you want to chat!