Blog
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Oct. 8th 2016
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Today was my first day at Shodor. The first thing that we did was a tour from Aaron which was helpful. I met all of the other apprentices and learned about the workspaces that we wil be working in from next week on. We got our notebooks, pictures taken, and our mailboxes. I am very excited to see what we do next week and after that.
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Oct. 17th 2016
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This week lived up to what I was hoping for from last week. We got to meet Dr. Panoff for the first time and I hope he can teach us more. His teaching style was very interactive and interesting. We also got to work in the apprenticeship lab for the first time which was cool. Mr. Broadnax gave a presentation about being appropriate in a workspace. It was entertaiining and informational at the same time.
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Oct. 22nd 2016
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Today we got to learn more from Dr.Panoff which was awesome. We learned basic modeling in Excel and looked at past models made by Shodor employees. We also got a presenation from Mrs. Martin which was very interesting. She has been teaching about computer science for 40 years at multiple colleges. She also was a programmer for NASA during expeditions to the moon.
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November 5th 2016
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Today we did more cool things in Excel. We learned a lot about Programming and concepts to use while programming. Using those concepts we could make Simulations in Microsoft Excel. One thing in particular we did was use Excel to show Heat transfer. We got this idea from Dr. Panoff and a trailer he had a class in when he was in high school. It was cold and all the heaters were stored on one side. Today was a good day at Shodor and I hope we continue to learn fun but informational things.
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November 12th 2016
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Today we learned about a bunch of new concepts, such as Successive Approximation, and worked in Excel and Vensim. It was really fun to learn about Successive Approximation because it was really easy to understand and put the concept to use. Also, Dr. Panoff told us that was a lot of what we would learn in Calculus which is reasurring. Hopefully we can learn more on this concept in the future.
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November 19th 2016
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Today we started using a website called Agentcubesonline.com. I really enjoyed working on that website because it was fun and interactive. We used it to make Agent Models, which are models that represent a story. It was challenging but very satisfying and it taught me a lot. Hopefully we can use that website again, I hope to learn about more interesting things we can do using the software.
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December 10th 2016
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Today we worked on our Projects in Venism and on Agentcubesonline. It was really satisfying to finish with help from Jim. I enjoyed the work we did today a lot, even though I was in a group, the work felt independent and that was really fun. Also, I helped Mihir and Ritvik with their Venism models, that was fun because I can't help other people that often on some of the topics we cover. Next week we are presenting the projects we finished today.
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December 17th 2016
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Today I put the finishing touches on the Venism Model that I started working on last week. I made my graphs look beter by changing initial values on my Sharks, Fish, and Plants. Also I changed my equations for all of my rates to work better with the new initial values on my main box variables. We were planning on presenting but we ran into a few problems with our Agent cubes online model so we are going to present next week.
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January 14th 2017
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Today I put the actual final touches on my Vensim model for my Group project. I thought I was done but my graphs were showing that all my populations were growing way too much and would not stop. Also I added my Portfolio to my website and successfully linked all of my projects that I have done so far while working at Shodor. I get to present my Projet soon which I am excited about.
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February 4th 2017
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Today we resumed learning about Programming Concepts. We talked about ones we remembered from the beginning of the year, and then discussed new concepts. After that, we put this new knowledge to use by learning about and working in javascript and html. As a we changed a predator-prey model to a disease model by going into the code and changing it. I enjoyed today a lot and I hope to learn how to do more things in the languages we started working in.
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February 11th 2017
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Today we briefly summarized the Programming Concepts that we resumed learning about last week. After that we continued working in Atom on changing a predator-prey model to a disease model. I am enjoying this project because it is teaching me a lot about code and it will teach me more in the future. The way we are doing this is great for learning because we discuss what we are changing before we do it, so it teaches us and helps us complete the project.
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February 18th 2017
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Today was the last day that we are learning about javascript and working with it. For the past 3 weeks we have been taught how to use javascript by changing a predator-prey model to a disease model. This was the third and final week and we are using what we have learned this month next month on our partner project where we are given starter code and have to make a functioning fire model in javascript. I know this will be challenging but I look forward to working on it.
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March 4th 2017
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Today we starting our partner programming project, where we are turning a predator-prey or disease model into a fire model. Me and my partner, Mihir, chose to start out with a predator-prey model. We got a good start, we got rid of all the unnecessary functions in the code like reproducing, or eating because those things aren't used in a forest fire model. We have all the right agents, main variables, set up so now all weh have to do is make the fire work correctly, and make the first start.
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March 11th 2017
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Today we continued working on our partner programming project. Sadly, my partner wasn't here and all our work from last week was on his computer. Despite the setback I still got a lot of work done and finished our model. All we have let to do is rearrange some text boxes and a little bit of touching up of the colors on the model.
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March 18th 2017
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Today was our last day of working on our partner programming projet where we turned a pre-existing predator-prey model into a forest fire model. I think Mihir and I's model turned out really well. Last week we got our model finished and completely working. So this week I put the made the webpage for our project and made css for it and the model itself. I am excited for next month where we learn different types of programming.
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April 1st 2017
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Today we started learning about Parallel Computing. This method of programming was a lot more complex than I thought and has a lot of thought behind it. At first when I heard about it I thought it would just be doing a bunch of things on different computers, but today I learned only certain tasks and data in a model are Parallelizable. This was an interesting topic and I look forward to learning more about it.
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April 8th 2017
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Today we continued to learn about Parallel Computing. Just like last week, today I realized there is a lot more about this topic than I thought. One activity we looked at a career that used Parallel Computing and I found a lot of jobs that use this method that I would never think would. We also spent a lot of time looking at Supercomputers because they do Parallel Computing to compete in the Top500 list for Supercomputers around the world. Today's class was fun and I am excited to do hands on work with Parallel Computing next week.
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April 22nd 2017
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Today's class was all about building upon what we started last week. We got to do hands on parallel computing which was really cool. We started off using an application called VirtualBox where you basically make a virtual computer that you can use. The reason we did that is so we could use a different operating system, linux, then the current one on the computer. Aaron taught us the basics of VirtualBox and how to use it, then we started using linux. We used linux to parallel compute, we started off with a galaxy simulation and we would use eachothers computers to run the program faster. After that we worked with a disease model. It was really cool to use all that we learned about Parallel Computing in hands on work.
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June 19th 2017
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Today was the first day of our Summer Apprenticeship block. It started off with us getting instructions about what we are going to do doing the Summer Apprenticeship and the differences between that, and the school year classes. These differences are ODAA, other duties as assigned which are jobs we will be doing over the summer. After the introduction we started going over the projects we will be doing, which are modeling review projects, graphic design projects, and a web design project. I got a good start on my modeling project, I already finished the agentcubesonline.com part of the project, and I already started the vensim model which I will finish tomorrow.
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Today was the second day of the Summer Apprenticeship program. We continued working on our first project for this block, which is a modeling project similar to ones we have done in the past. I am basically finished with the project, I made my agentcubesonline & vensim models and made my website for the project. All that is left is finishing touches. So I will start working on our graphic design projects for the block soon. So far it has been fun but it is a lot different from the classes during the school year.
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Today was the third day of the Summer Apprenticeship program. I put the finishing touches on my modeling project and finished making the website. Some of the touches was adding more to the descriptions on my website for the project. And I changed my Vensim model to give it better data, and make it look better on the graph. And because of that change I had to update the screenshots of the model on my website. Tomorrow I am going to start working on the graphic design projects for the block or the web design project where we are making a website that works on computers and mobile devices. So far the summer has been fun.
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Today was the fourth day of the first block of the Summer Apprenticeship Program. So far it has been fun and challenging. Today I did the very long and tedious Responsive Web Design project where we watch a tutorial on how to make a website that works on computer and it optimized to work well on mobile devices as well. This is important because website browsing is become bigger on mobile devices then it is on computers. It was hard but it was satisfying and it expanded my knowledge in html and css greatly and I now feel better about having to make changes on my own website. I also added more features to my agentcubesonline model for our modeling project. Tomorrow is the last day of the first week, it is going by fast.
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June 23rd 2017
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Today was the fifth day of the first block of the Summer Apprenticeship Program. I had morning reception, which was where I sat at the front desk and picked up the phone, and greeted people when they came in. This was my first experience with ODAA, which is work around the office that everyone does. It was pretty slow but it wasn't as bad as I expected. Also today we started doing graphic design in Inkscape which was fun but challenging. I made 5/7 icons we have to do for the project so I am almost done with that section of the graphic design projects.
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June 26th 2017
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Today was the sixth day of the first block of the Summer Apprenticeship Program. We are already past halfway through the block which is crazy. Today I finished up all the inkscape work for the first block. And I started working on the gimp work. I finished the cosmic turtles, the other collage with the given pictures, and the messing with Ernie/Aaron Assignment in Gimp. I really like these gimp assignments, graphic design is very fun for me.
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June 27th 2017
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Today was the seventh day of the first block of the Summer Apprenticeship Program. I got a lot done today, but I ran into a lot of problems on the way. I had a lot of trouble with exporting files between inkscape and gimp for our Graphic Design Projects, which I finished up today. For the rest of the block, the main things I have to do are adding to my current website, and polishing my models for our modeling project. I thought I was done but I think I can do a lot more with them and make them more complex and try to break them which is a requirement for the models.
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June 28th 2017
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Today was the eighth day of the first block of the Summer Apprenticeship Program. I did what I wanted to get done today. I fixed a few problems with my graphic design images on my portfolio. And my main goal was to add complexity to my models for the modeling project. I added a way that polluted water became clean, and made other tweaks to just make it better such as when one part of a body of water gets polluted or clean, it spreads to the whole body of water. I also added a few agents and updated my website with the new changes I made.
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June 29th 2017
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Today was the ninth day of the first block of the Summer Apprenticeship Program. I continued working on my model project to add complexity to it and make it better overall. I made a new world in my agent cubes which was much larger. And I changed the shapes of some of the agents in the model to increase visibility and make it less cluttered. My website also got changed a lot, like the link color for improved visibility. And I moved around a lot of things to make it easier the website easier to use and better looking. Tomorrow I will present because I am only able to do one block this summer.
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June 30th 2017
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Today was the last day of the first block of the Summer Apprenticeship Program. And it will be my last day at Shodor. I presented the work I did this block today because I won't be able to present in the last block like everyone else. It went well and I think I did a good job. Before the presentation I just polished things I was going to present, I changed my website, and my website specifically for my modeling project the most. And I would have changed my agent cubes model a bit, probably the graph and add more simulation properties, but agent cubes was down the whole day which was unfortunate. I really enjoyed this experience and I know I will benefit from having the skills I learned here.