About me

A former molecular biology lab personnel in a State University, I had witnessed an ever-expanding application of information technology in all corners of a science lab in the past five years. Intruments were purchased with advanced and customizable software. New data parser and analysis tool were developed in-house to accomodate the growing volumes of laboratory services. The laboratory information management system and website received frequent updates and additional functions. Databases were developed to allow researchers to share genomic information of species of interest.

I think the demand for more powerful, reliable, and intuitive software is unlikely to cease anytime soon. Personally I wrote a few simple MS Excel macros and templates to save some time dealing with data tables. My supervisor also gave me the task of writing protocols for the liquid handlers to suit the needs of the lab. This is when I took a personal interest in programming, thinking that one day I can become a proficient programmer. Not only can I build tools for myself but also for those who don't have the knowledge or time. Thus, I made the decision to enroll in BCIT's CST program for the knowledge and professional guidance in software development.

List of courses I'm taking

• COMP 1100 - CST Program Fundamentals
  
  The course covers topics of importance to new and continuing students on how to balance school and related activities to enhance chances of success in their academic careers. In this course students will learn a variety of different techniques to improve study habits, note taking, and time management skills. The class will also present other topics of interest to CST students and will introduce students to various support systems at BCIT.


• COMP 1113 - Applied Mathematics
  
  Comp 1113 is partially discrete mathematics, partially an introduction to linear equations. The purpose of this course is to give a strong foundation for future technical and programming courses. The course is divided into three parts: (1) Boolean algebra and design of logic circuits; (2) number systems and data representation; and (3) functions, linear equations, vectors and matrices.


• COMP 1510 - Programming Methods
  
  This hands-on course is the foundation for all future programming courses and complements COMP 1536 and COMP 1910. This course introduces the fundamental concepts of programming including design, development, testing, debugging simple programs, as well as error-handling, and problem solving.


• COMP 1536 - Intro to Web Development
  
  This course is a web design and programming course with an emphasis on good planning, interface design, multimedia, client-side scripting with JavaScript, server-side scripting, and best practices. COMP 1536 will provide students with a solid understanding about how web applications are constructed and deployed. Students will be taught to use client-side RAD tools in order to enhance their productivity. Students will complete a number of assignments and exams as well as one larger project.


• COMP 1712 - Business Analysis and System Design
  
  Business Analysis and Systems Design is the study of concepts, processes and tools that professionals use to plan and develop information systems to industry standards. Students learn how to ask implicit questions, to create and document communication plans and to make better decisions prior to creating a software system. Beginning with an introduction to the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC), students work in teams to initiate the system process, analyze problems, discover requirements and create a logical design. Topics include: techniques used in the discovery of business requirements, traditional approaches to data and process modelling, entity-relationship diagrams, and an introduction to relational database normalization. Agile life cycles such as Scrum are also introduced and compared to more planned life cycles such as waterfall. By the end of this course, successful participants will be able to use tools and methods commonly used in industry to analyze, design, and implement information systems as confirmed by a term project.


• COMP 1930 - Projects 1
  
  Students learn to work in a collaborative environment and complete a small-scale software project: a web app. Design and managing of implementation concepts will be introduced: User Experience Design (XSD) and Agile methodology. The course takes students through the UX design process which includes creating and administering surveys & interviews, creating personas and user stories, designing wireframes, and performing user tests with a developed implementation that is based on the UX design process. Students will use the Agile methodology to manage the software process. Software management workflow also includes using version control, version control basics, utilizing web technologies (JavaScript, CSS, HTML, data persistence via NoSQL data technologies). Some of the JavaScript topics include DOM manipulation, event handling, web storage, AJAX calls and using JQuery in order to create a rich web app.


• COMM 1116 - Business Communications 1
  
  Information technology professionals spend time each day communicating orally and in writing with their supervisors, colleagues and clients. As problem-solvers and entrepreneurs in industry, you need to communicate quickly, clearly, and effectively. This course will teach you how to be a professional and efficient communicator at work. You will write effective business correspondence and instructions and deliver a formal oral presentation to your set. The first term establishes the principles and basic patterns on which you will build more advanced applications in the second term.