Hi Friends,
I apologize for my absence these past few months.
I was in the heat of college applications and as some of you may know, they can kind of consume you.
I learned quite a bit in my Computer Architecture class, but I did not get a chance to document it all for you. The class was a semester course and we made a Hz processor with wires and chips.
Apparently, my class was particularly unique. A few of my friends who are in college have told me that many college level courses are more theory based and do not emphasize hands-on learning.
Our class had a few lectures on the theory behind what we were building, but I found that I learned quite a bit of it on my own through experimentation. I learned many valuable skills including, proper form for documentation, how to draw schematics, and shortcuts in the seemingly endless process of debugging. My professor required us to wire up everything we made - logic without execution was not accepted.
Initially I found it tedious and frustrating when my breadboard would begin smoking or I had a short, but towards the end of the semester I learned how valuable knowing how to create what I designed truly was.
I never want to go out into the world or work in a team without knowing how to execute my vision. That would be catastrophic.
My professor and my computer architecture class taught me to value every step of the learning process. I found myself enjoying every day, including test days. It was just very rewarding and was a truly healthy environment.
In addition, there has been some discussion amongst my peers at school over the disproportionate number of females to males in advanced computer science courses. In fact there was an entire article about it in my school's publication, Wingspan. Many people have warned me that being a woman in a male dominated field is going to be hard and that I will be discouraged a majority of the time, but I am not someone who walks away from a challenge. I love computer science and I will do what I am passionate about.
As a young woman, I am incredibly supportive of women entering engineering fields. But, I must say that my Computer Architecture class had an equal number of girls and boys. We were equally represented. Maybe this was an anomaly but in a class of 10 students, exactly 5 of us were girls. Even in the beginning of the term many people dropped the class, but none of them were girls. We were all friends and we worked together, helping each other debug problems and understand concepts. It was never a matter of gender, we looked at each other as peers and we were all there to learn.
I am glad to say that it is possible for both girls and boys to work together and support one another in an advanced course. I saw it myself. I hope that this will not be the last time I witness this and I hope that everyone remains supportive of each other and excited to learn.
I really enjoyed my Computer Architecture class and I look forward to my Neural Networks class next semester.
Unit next time,
Ashwini
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