CSC2125 Live

My first live-ish blog. Hope it turns out well.

Class in the GSU pub

This class we did a quick series of elevator pitches by each group, as a way to practice their presentation skills. The first few groups were pretty good. Subsequent groups had to take two or three tries at the pitch.

Mohammad and I both had to present. I got to stand on a chair because I'm too short and Greg likes to pick on me:)

The bar will not make Irish coffees.

The last week of classes is in three weeks. The demo day is supposed to be the monday after that, but that is easter. This demo day will be moved further into the future, either some other time that week, or the following monday.

Greg's token plot twist: do another lap of elevator pitches, but this time for thesis work instead of 2125 project. Grad students have to explain their topic, undergrads need to come up with a thesis idea on the spot. 2 minutes prep time.

My topic: Studying the effects of integrating unit testing into standard CS undergrad programs. Questions: can be determine a measure for unit test effectiveness, can we track testing improvement over course of career, and is RTO useful?

I got cut off after my 20 seconds :( Only had like 3 words left.

Everyone's job outside of class is to come up with a thesis topic for nick. The winner gets ice cream.

I'm willing to bet we're going to go around again to try to pear things down. I don't know how to modify my speech, though.

Yup. This time I was too short.

Now we're talking about consulting fees. Greg charges $150/hr plus expenses. Clearly, the undergrads have no idea how much to charge. They've never seen the Entrepeneurship 101 talk about this. You should discount a yearly salary for an employee doing the same job you're shipping out, and normalize it over the length of the project.

If you get some consulting work on the side, U of T Legal Services can look over any contract you may have. It's free, but not speedy (couple of weeks). See Jason Betcham.

Combined degree CS + Law = name your price. Too bad law is dreadfully dull.

Next round of interrogation: what special skills do you have that cannot be easily picked up by other CS grads? I don't think I have one. Maybe experience in ECM?
Speaking another language is a big one!
Also, having a well connected professional network is important.

Last question: if you don't have something special, what are you doing to fix that?

Go get Garth Gibson's PHD thesis: how do raids work? Really good communication.

Pay attention to email for info on last class.