WEEK 3: ETHICS AND INTEGRITY

Time Management & Study Strategies

    In the section about tips on research essays, the article says that you should "write freely" for your first draft. That is normally how I go about it. However, it does specify to follow an outline closely. I have a bad habit of writing freely without any direction and then organize my ideas later. Creating an outline organizes ideas beforehand so then your freely written ideas at least have some sort of direction now.

     I could also work on anxiety reduction. I am coming back from a year's long break from school so I get anxious thinking that everyone else has to have more knowledge than me because I assume they've been consistent in their studies. I can calm myself by reminding myself that some things are just out of my control and stressing myself about what other people are doing is only going to make me feel worse. I'm learning to appreciate my peers when they give amazing discussion posts instead of thinking "Wow I wish I could have written something like that."

    I have to stop working my brain so hard sometimes. My commute home from work is an hour and normally I go straight into my assignments and don't give myself a break until I am done. You need personal time to clear your head and do things that you enjoy. That balance is so important for overall mental health.

This Weeks Lectures & Readings

    This week we learned about ethical values in the world of tech. In AI specifically, we have the power to create art and digital media with the faces of anyone we want. The speaker in the Ethics in the age of AI video goes into how AI can be used in movies and in dating apps. Would it be okay for movies to use an actor who's passed likeness to star in a movie using AI? They aren't alive to give their consent to that. Or would the public trust AI to have control of their potential suitors. Most dating apps, you choose who you want to connect to whereas AI will give you a handful of individuals who may be compatible with you, and that is the pool you choose from.

    There is a code of ethics that we should follow for computing machinery. We have to be honest about our work; we have to respect others privacy and maintain good faith when developing our own products. We should keep the main focus of all our projects to be for the common good. We have a responsibility as tech pioneers to keep information safe and secure. Everything we do should be done with care and understanding.

    What is AI Anyway? Mustafa Suleyman describes AI as our own digital companion. AI has the ability to do anything we want. AI's learning capabilities far surpass what we can learn as humans. We have the power to create AI that can help solve all the world's problems. Like all revolutionary inventions, it comes with risks. This is why ethical development is so important. We have to instill the good values of humankind into AI.

What a Computer Science Student Needs to Know

    A resume is not enough to get a job as a programmer. A good programmer should have a portfolio that showcases their skills. CS Students need to have good communication skills. They should be able to speak their ideas through presentations. It is also important to have some knowledge in engineering as you will be working alongside engineers. 

    Being fluent in Unix systems is beneficial to a CS student looking for work. They should also be able to do their own IT work. Learning programming languages is a given. Depending on the work you want to do, you should learn what languages are the most prominent in the field and master those.

    Your prerequisites should not be looked at as just a steppingstone. Discrete mathematics are vital for programming. This is how you build algorithms. Computer Architecture and Operating systems knowledge are important for CS students to know because they need to understand what a system is capable of and what its limitations are.

    Security risks are increased by careless programming. CS Students need to have an understanding of defense programming. This also includes learning basic IT skills like how to create a secure password and how to configure firewalls.

CSUMB CS Online Code of Integrity

    The importance of the CS Online Code of Integrity is to ensure that students are submitting their own original work. It is okay to receive help from others, but it needs to be notes within your code. To copy a source code from the internet or from other students is not fair to the rest of your peers. 

    Helping your peers is okay but you need to be mindful of the things that you share. If you share too much about your strategies, your friend may turn in the same thing without realizing.