Starting a Blog for Uni Study
I’m starting a blog for my uni study
Why? Well over the past few years I have been fortunate enough to work as a tutor. Firstly, I tutored highschool students (mostly maths and some physics) privately then I was fortunate enough to get a job at my university, UQ, tutoring Programming for Engineers (ENGG1001), an introductory programming course in Python and then Introduction to Computer Systems (CSSE2010), which delves into the basics of computer hardware and some embedded programming. Besides finding the work enjoyable, I realised that teaching and explaining really helped to solidify my own knowledge of these topics. Blogging about the things I learn in my studies is another way of summarising what I have learned and ensuring I can understand it well enough to explain to someone else. Who knows, optimistically it might even help someone else understand the concepts I am learning. But also…
I’m lazy
I mean not in a bad way! But, if you asked my teachers from primary school or high school, they would probably tell you that I didn’t like to do homework and usually I would just choose to do whatever questions I wanted in class instead of what was set. I would often talk to my friends in class about the content and we would question each other and try to really dig into the concepts. The thing is, this worked really well for me! I got really good marks and always felt like I understood the content very well without having to grind questions. I think the reason was because I really engaged with the concepts and asked questions. So some may say I was being lazy by skipping the homework but I think I was being efficient.
Too many notes
Something I have noticed over the past few semesters of uni is that I have began taking more and more notes in classes. Back in high school I was quite careful about the notes I took and really tried to only take down the important things I didn’t understand and some examples. Instead, I would spend most of the time listening to the explanation from the teachers, thinking about them and then thinking about how well I understood the concepts and what questions I had. So this semester I want to aim for a similar approach. I don’t know if I will commit to absolutely zero notes — that might be a bit too scary — but I would definitely like to reduce the amount drastically and instead focus on listening and understanding in lectures. Again, I would like to become more efficient.
Now with that out of the way…
What am I studying?
A cute robot from https://www.analyticsvidhya.com/blog/2023/04/robot-with-chatgpt-as-its-brain-unveiled/
Currently, I am in the second semester of my fourth year of a combined Bachelor and Masters of Mechatronics Engineering. So this semester I will be taking Robotics & Automation (METR4202) which I am probably the most excited for since I will get to learn more about how to create robotic systems with regard to perception and control with some ROS. The next most exciting for me is Control Engineering 2 (METR6203) which is the first masters course I will be taking in my degree and seems as though it will build on the basic PID and particularly state spacen control theory I have learned previously. Next is Advanced Dynamics and Vibrations (MECH3200) — the title says it all really. I found the precursor course for this quite difficult but fairly interesting so hopefully all goes well. I believe it will extend some of the SDOF systems I learned about previously into analysis of systems with multiple degrees of freedom. Finally, I am taking Professional Practice and the Business Environment (ENGG4900). To be honest, I have heard this course could be a little boring from people who have taken it but I’ll keep an open mind for now. I am interested in learning more about business but I don’t think I would enjoy learning too much about project management (although knowing a little bit about it is no doubt useful).
What’s coming?
While I don’t want to commit to anything too concrete since I am just starting to try this out, I do think it’s a good idea to set some basic goals. For now, I will aim to make at least one post each week for each subject (for a total of four posts minimum per week). I would like to make even more posts about other things like how I have tried to increase my productivity in the terminal with things like Neovim and tmux or other side projects or even posts about concepts from the courses I am currently tutoring that I could share with students but this depends on time and things can get pretty hectic on a full time uni load. For now, I want this goal to be achievable and I can always extend it if I feel it’s going well.
If anyone else reading this is also taking some of these subjects or just starting a new semester, good luck and I hope you find some of the content I post here in the future useful.
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