Two projects down!

I would like to take this time to reiterate how lucky I was to work with the partner that I did, especially since we found each other on the fly in class! We were both really dedicated to succeeding and had the skills and experience to accomplish that. Where I faltered, she filled in and vice versa. It was a great partnership and much more of a low-stress experience than I anticipated. We even finished early!

This week we also had a guest speaker from the Jet Propulsion Lab at NASA in Pasadena California. The two things that struck me the most from his talk were the abundant resources NASA has and the importance of HCI, user testing, and imaging software in their research. From the way he presented some of the projects he worked on, it seemed like his team was able to acquire an Xbox Kinect, a robot arm, and an Oculus simply to try out an idea and prototype a brainstorming session. And then the idea involving the Kinect was just discarded! It was so bizarre to get a glimpse of that kind of access to resources.

I was also pleasantly surprised at the level of user-centered design. Based on other courses I’ve taken and people I’ve talked to, I was under the impression that major engineering-centered companies trended toward “function over flair” and largely ignored the end user “as long as it works.” So hearing about how HCI-focused NASA attempts to be was incredibly refreshing and enlightening.

Tip of the Week: Ever wonder how to explain what you do to non-CS people or just need a review of the basics? Here’s 40 Key Computer Science Concepts Explained in Laymen’s Terms: http://carlcheo.com/compsci