At first I was disappointed that EM-TECH had to fall on a Saturday because this term it was just supposed to be a two day a week class. But since it was already my last academic term I sticked with it, and since last term I had IPDIMED with sir Chu, I guess EM-TECH would be fun too. I had somewhat of an idea to what this course was going to be, based from the course name. Emerging technologies, a subject that will not be at all boring because it deals with stuff that has yet to be perfected or invented, unlike other courses that deal with history and the past.
The term started of with different reports assigned to certain groups to present in front of class. Topics which of course dealt with different ideas and aspects that has to do with emerging technology. My favourite ones were the first two ones the Emerging techs on hardware and the one on software on the web. Primarily because these were topics I am interested in and these were new things I could most probably use in the future. Our topic was the last; it was on emerging technology innovative applications in constrained environments. This at first seemed hard to conceptualize, but given time and researched it proved very interesting and we got to make a decent report. But due to conflicts of schedule, we weren’t able to report in front of the class.
After all the reports, we were assigned to conduct a seminar, to look for our own professional, to reserve and look for a venue and basically handle everything. It was actually pretty cool and challenging at the same time. To be able to meet new people, gain good connections with people in the IT field. All if not most of the seminars were pretty awesome. I really liked most of them especially the Wi-Tribe seminar. This is because it’s something that sparks my interest and probably something that I would be able to use in the future. That seminar really grew in me, it got me to research Wi-Tribe and 4g and learn more about it. Although, some groups were not really “thinking”, of all places to hold a seminar, they picked the ISR, no offense, but it does not look pretty. I felt somewhat embarrassed because of the ugly venue and faulty projector. One of the speakers that spoke in the Yuchengco building even said he was impressed with the room, the hallway and the equipment; I wouldn’t want to think what the speakers in the ISR were thinking. Unfortunately, at the night before our turn to conduct a seminar, we found out that our speaker was not feeling well, he had the flu. This was such a panic for us, of all days to get sick, it had to be this one. He actually pushed for it and said, he’d go anyway, but we said that we would just reschedule. But rescheduling did not work, so what we did was send his materials to our class for them to look at the presentation themselves. This was very disappointing, especially when we saw his presentation; it looked so professionally made and very interesting. I really wished that seminar had pushed through.
During the term we had to earn “social credits”, to go around Gokongwei building and look for lower class men that needed help in their computer related subjects. This sounded like such a hassle but served as a great opportunity to gain new friends in the same field. With the help of one of my lower class man friend I got to find people and from them I got to find more. That was a very interesting and fulfilling experience.
To end our term, we had to learn a new programming language, we were hesitant to pick, and we wanted to have the same language as our other half of the group. But we ended up getting Silverlight and they got Android. For our project, I wanted to make something very interactive and new, since for me Silverlight looked like a hybrid of html, flash and java. So I tapped into Silverlight’s use of webcam, I wanted to use microphone as well, but there was not enough time and I had no idea how to incorporate it. But in the end we were successful; other groups commended and really liked our project, trying it out themselves.
EM-TECH was really interesting and I was glad it was one of my last subjects in my academic life. It was fun, interesting and very fruitful.
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