My Software Engineering Timeline
23 Jan 2025Past
Starting off as a Mechanical Engineering student, I discovered my passion for software while working on research in system automation. At the time, I was primarily working with Python and C, both of which were new to me. I quickly realized that I enjoyed programming more than I had expected, which motivated me to transfer to Computer Engineering. Since then, I’ve learned a great deal about different types of software, both inside and outside the classroom.
Initially, I was particularly interested in system automation because it was both practical and rewarding. During this time, I also became familiar with markup languages like HTML and CSS for creating dashboards. Although I enjoyed working on dashboards, I realized that web design wasn’t my area of interest. My focus gradually shifted toward Machine Learning, particularly TinyML, which I find fascinating. I’m not only curious about different machine learning algorithms but also about optimization techniques that allow models to be deployed on embedded systems.
Present
Recently, I’ve been working on a personal project where I developed an iOS app for Apple products. For this, I had to learn Swift, a high-level general-purpose programming language that I was unfamiliar with. The process of trial and error while building the app was incredibly rewarding, and I learned so much along the way. While I don’t consider myself an expert in Swift, I’m confident in my ability to navigate the language and develop functional apps. This experience reinforced one of the things I love most about software engineering: the abundance of open-source resources and tools available to learn any programming language.
Future
Looking ahead, I’m eager to explore more programming languages that I’m not yet familiar with and apply them to practical projects. During the ICS 311 class, I hope to learn how to develop a fully functional web app and make it easy to update. My goal is to design it in a way that ensures future maintainability, so an outsider can easily understand the source code and make updates as needed. One of my long-term aspirations is to become proficient at quickly picking up new programming languages by simply reviewing their documentation.
Resources: ChatGPT for grammar checking.