[CS3216] First week of the first assignment

The module got intense just in the first week. Because I was not in Singapore in my first week, I was randomly matched with other fellows for my assignment 1 . My team includes Hiep, Thang, Thien and me. Surprisingly all of my teammates are my well known friends, so I think it will be easier for us to cooperate. We immediately started our project after our team is formed.

In my view, it is a pretty good team. Thien and Hiep are very familiar with React front-end framework while I and Thang gain some experience with back-end. The drawback of full tech team is that we might not have proper design and comfortable user experience. To handle it, we carefully discuss with each other for every upcoming feature so that we can have different perspective and find the best way to make our users enjoyable.

Our first task was to think about what application we should build for assignment 1. After coming up with many creative and unique ideas, carefully considering the feasibility and usefulness of each one, we all agree on photo joining application. The concept is about combining 2 photos, one from the user and one from his friend, into a special photo that can be later shared on Facebook. This idea will very interesting because of its sociability and doesn't require much work to be delivered.

What I hope to learn in CS3216

CS 3216 is a very renowned module in SoC faculty because of its high applicability and challenge. From this module, I expect to achieve:

1) Entrepreneurial knowledge:
This module is a very special when its main target is for developing a useful real life application. The diversity of students varying from Computer Science, Engineer to Business and Science majors helps increase the creativity and applicability of the products. Besides, students can learn from each other, so they can update their knowledge in non-tech fields. It is significantly helpful when we start our own business.

2) Improve my technical skill:
I have been interested in web application for a very long time. Even I had some internships with backend work before, I did not have deep insights in end to end web development because the codebase is always already existed inside the companies. As a result, my job scope is always limited and I did not gain enough exposure about web application. Taking this module will fully equip my fundamental understanding and help me form a good team to start a promising web project.

3) Challenges:
Beside the super excitement this module offers, rumour from many previous CS3216 batches also tells that it is super heavy. It challenges students and put them to limit, so they will work extremely hard to catch up with continuous deadlines. Therefore it will teach us to learn and do things faster, get used to pressure, adapt to the stressful real life work.

In conclusion, even this module is very hard, I find it really valuable for my future career. I believe that I will have a memorable experience in the upcoming CS3216 journey.