I became a software engineer for two reasons. One, I enjoy solving problems and applying critical thinking skills. These skills will be developed over the course of the class, even if you may not apply the subject matter directly. Two, I enjoy building things that other people will use. I’ve worked on numerous projects for work and for myself, and it never gets old. Certainly, it’s frustrating at times, but extremely rewarding.
Google has a concept called “20% time”, where on Fridays, engineers work on an internal project of their own choosing. Since ICS 141 is a math course, I cannot ask you to spend 20% of your time in class writing code, as there’s a lot of material we need to cover. However, I will offer up to 20% extra credit (the equivalent of an exam) for those that choose this option.
The breakdown is as follows:
1% of extra credit per week (up to 10 weeks) you show demonstrable progress on your project. This typically means showing me the code you wrote in the past week through a code repository like Github.
5% for working on the project for 10 weeks and finishing it. This means having something demonstrable that you can share with the class. Business people might call this a MVP, or a Minimum Viable Product.
5% for participating in a hackathon. There are two hackathons that I typically have some involvement in (Node Knockout and Startup Weekend). If you want to participate in another hackathon, by all means do so, but please talk to me about it.
Your project can be anything of your choosing, but you must talk to me about it (this can be your first week of extra credit). I’m open to having two people work on a project, but your progress on that project will be tracked individually (meaning, if your partner does work on it but you don’t, only your partner gets credit for that week).
If you haven’t coded before, I expect the first few weeks will be spent learning some technology. I can give you some pointers and make sure your project scoped accordingly so that you can still finish by the end of the semester.
I hope that many of you take me up on this offer, and I’m excited to see what some of you build.