Hello everyone,
It has been a while, hasn’t it? The summer is gone and a surprisingly sunny Autumn welcomes us in Manchester. A lot has happened over the summer and I think I might bore you to death if I get into too much detail so I will try to keep this short (as much as I can).
I have begun my final year (hopefully) and surprisingly for me the transition from work to uni life has not been as difficult as I had imagined. In a way I feel like my placement year has been a dream. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten too much during my time away and I will be able to successfully complete my degree.
The year started pretty normal by selecting course units and finalising my final year project. Selecting the course units has been quite difficult this year because I feel like there is not enough credits for me to take all the modules I would like to do. In the end I chose Agile Software Engineering, Cryptography, Advanced Graphics and AI and Games. Unfortunately for me I couldn’t get on the Documents, Services and Data on the Web – the waiting list was too long, which is a shame because this is a really good module. I might occasionally pop into the lectures nevertheless. My final year project has officially begun and I can say while I am quite excited and eager to work on it, I am fully aware of how stressful it will become soon enough. But I am making progress so hopefully it should be okay. 🙂
(It’s quite a nice view 🙂 )
One of the modules I have really enjoyed so far is Agile Software Engineering since the workshops are not only fun but they also demonstrate important software engineering concepts quite well. I am quite happy that this is a module which encourages teamwork and incorporates the student’s feedback quite nicely. I am particularly excited for Advanced Graphics as well and mainly the lab where we have to create something unique using Particle Systems. I have been brainstorming for ideas and I hope to start working on it soon. The lectures have been great fun as well!
(Cause we have never really looked at broccoli that way! 🙂 )
Apart from all the stress related to uni I am quite happy to be back in Manchester. I would really like to continue and be active like I was last year. I have already become a proud member of the dance society and I have even attended a Martial Arts session – which was quite interesting and fun. I would love to do some more tennis this year, swimming and also try something new and exciting but I am yet to find it so I will keep you updated on this one.
On another note, I have been chosen to be a PASS leader this year, something which I am quite excited about and I am hoping I will be able to motivate my ‘PASSlings’ to attend by making the sessions useful and also by bringing home-made cookies from time to time 🙂
(For any PASSlings reading this – there will be more! 🙂 )
Another quite cool thing this month has been the Open days we held in the university. I was lucky to be working on both of them and while it was exhausting it was quite a good experience. It was great seeing so many people motivated in interested in computer science. Plus defusing a bomb in record time on the oculus rift wasn’t too bad as well. 🙂
Finally I would like to say that although the work is pretty stressful I am happy to be back in uni. I have met some amazing people in the past few weeks and I am excited for the remainder of the year.
Cheers,
Veneta Haralampieva