Synthesis Blog Post

By: Matthew Manross, Guozhuoyan Zhang, Chen Dai

The field of computer science has very many misconceptions about the work they do. Computer science majors do not fix your computer when it does not work. But what is computer science exactly? According to the University of Maryland, “Computer Science is the study of computers and computational systems. Unlike electrical and computer engineers, computer scientists deal mostly with software and software systems; this includes their theory, design, development, and application”. Computer science majors create and design software that the hardware runs. Software is the part of the computer that is not physical, but rather a program. These programs are made from coding in which the hardware will read and run the program, creating games, social media sites, and even websites. The field of computer science is undervalued to most people who do not realize how important this major actually is.

The field of computer science is engineering. Just like an engineer, computer science majors must master science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, or STEM for short. These four categories are what engineers use everyday to help them solve problems.

For computer science major, they focus on the software field, and they may know less on the hardware, since hardware is a tool for them to develop or program a new world. The relationship is a little bit complex, but to simplify the relationship will the same as the writer and pen maker, the writer may know few thing about pen, but they know so much on writing.

Science The purpose of science is to explore the principle of things and to solve specific problems. The implementation of information and calculation in computer systems is the main goal for this part.	Technology The computer science field works with the newest technology everyday. They program technology with any software involved.
Engineering Computer science majors must work together to create different programs.	Mathematics Programming requires math skills to complete algorithms and formulas.

As technology becomes more advanced, our everyday lives become more affected by computer science. Many things people use everyday are created by computer science majors. For example, applications are one of the many things computer science majors work on. Some common applications that people use every day are Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and even Clash of Clans. Some of the more important applications that computer science majors develop are Microsoft Excel, Word, and Publisher. These applications are commonly used in almost every major out there. Without computer science majors, people would not have their favorite social media site, or their favorite game to play on their iPhone.

Dijkstra said that computer science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes. Comparing with computer engineering, computer science emphasis more on calculation principle and implementation method. Science in computer field is always be partial to software engineering. From the occupation’s point of view, people who have learned CS would have the target position to Microsoft, Google and so on. However, CE and EE students would like to be a staff of Intel, AMD, etc. While considering about the deliverables from two different fields, CS would put all sorts of computing together but EE people enjoy all sorts of chips. Mathematics is the tool of abstract syntax notation and it will give help to solving problems. While writing with complicated algorithm, the basis of calculation and theory of math becomes important. For instance, data mining is mostly relying on mathematics though it would not be the main part during the process of development at ordinary times. A more practical example is that over half of the Turing Awards winners have the solid background on mathematics.

Required Skills

Environment【IDE（Idea/Eclipse, Maven, jenkins, Nexus, Jetty, Shell, Host）, Source Code Management (SVN/Git) , WEB server (nginx, tomcat, Resin)】

Environment setting up is a basic skill for all programmers but it is more helpful while software engineer set up a comfortable tools before starting job in a new environment.

Basis【Http, REST, cross-domain, Syntaxes, Web socket, date base, computer network, operating systems, algorithms, data structure】

If another process changes the underlying data without going through the cache, that might cause a problem. Not only establishing underlying data is important but also maintaining it with high performances.

Frame【Spring, AOP, Quartz, Json TagLib, tiles, activeMQ, memcache, redis, mybatis, log4j, junit】

Frame is going to influence the efficiency while coding. It is also the core of the layout application. Each developer uses frame positioning in order to change the size of the UI View and CA Layer.

Operation【financial, education, medical, automotive, real estate】

The direction of operation is significant and it may leads different kinds of style while operating.

Third Parties【Payment, Instant Messaging, maps, voice, video, images】

This skill is related to third parties’ application development. Apps can integrate various functions in them. Including media, payment and so on. The good affiliation between them would give comfortable user experience.

In general, increasing the depth is more difficult than increasing width on specific field. In breadth, as long as you can keep the interest, person will keep learning all kinds of primer. In terms of software development, it might be learning more languages, some of the framework, a variety of different category, and so on. Due to the entry level, the information about them is usually rich. Also it won't have a lot of barriers to entry.

But the depth in technology is different, person may need to know materials which is out of some own cognition or knowledge. And it requires to read books and documents in order to understand the latest progress. Simpler issue is to apply some off-the-shelf technology selection, combinations, and the ideal is to make a breakthrough beyond the level of the industry. In the process, it is likely to be stalled because of the insufficient foundation, such as some documents used in some mathematical or other theories, they also need the supplement of relevant knowledge.

Image Credit:

"Science Vectors, Photos and PSD Files | Free Download." Freepik. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

"St. Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School." St Ignatius of Loyola Catholic Secondary School. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

"Engineering Student Centre (ESC)." Engineering. 2014. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

"Is Mathematics Important in Healthcare?" Distance Learning Systems INC. 2014. Web. 06 Apr. 2016

Credit:

"What Is Computer Science?" What Is Computer Science? University of Maryland. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

prompt 5: Observing Community

Chen Dai

This posted is related to the organization to campus organization. So here is a fantastic organization for this post, which is EGR100 teams. My major is computer engineering, and EGR is the course for engineering. 

This course is really funny, in here we gain enough basic knowledge and skill for the future project that we will need to finish, in another words this is the basic class for all engineering.

With EGR course, all the team member getting stronger, since almost everything is team work. And students in here will learn how important that friendship and group is.

Cite:http://www.pearsonmylabandmastering.com/northamerica/myengineeringlab/

Luminous Studio

Guozhuoyan Zhang

Luminous Studio is the next generation game engine which is developed by Square Enix. It is designed for multi-platform and DirectX 12.

The basis of Luminous Studio was partly coming from YEBIS 2 engine and compatible with most of the platforms. However, it differs from Unreal Engine 4 and Cry Engine 3 that it is developed and implemented within the independent research.

In 2011, Square Enix has released its first tech demo of luminous studio, which was an underground garage video rendering. The light feeling in this tech demo was closely to the reality even it was only in the process of early development.

In 2012, a real-time rendering demonstration demo named Agni's Philosophy was published in E3. The tech demo focused on demonstrating the main character and environment. The details of the character were surprising with vivid skin and hairs. The overall effectiveness was going to compare favourably with the pre render CG. The tech demo was using tessellation technology which can realize the high-level model effect in art designing environment in order to produce huge amount of polygons with less performant hardware. The total quantity of polygons in the scene of Agni's Philosophy reached to the level of next generation engine.

In April 2015, Square Enix announced that the engine will support DirectX 12, and Nvidia revealed a new real-time tech demo developed by Square Enix for the engine, called Witch Chapter 0 [cry], featuring the character Agni from the earlier Agni's Philosophy demo.The demo renders over 63 million polygons per frame, uses "8K by 8K" resolution textures, and her hair is rendered with over 50 shaders, with each strand of hair rendered as a polygon. It also portrays human crying with a high level of detail, and the quality of the real-time graphics have been compared to pre-rendered CGI animation. The tech demo took a year to produce, and was running on a PC with four GeForce GTX Titan X graphics cards.

Luminous Studio has greatly improved the research and development level of Square Enix. The engine itself has produced benign radiation effects on the other prodects of SE. In fact, FinalFantasy XIV has taken the lead in using the lighting technology during the process of A Realm Reborn.


Work Cited:

 "Square Enix Luminous Studio Demonstration - Games." IA Magazine ICal. 2013. Web. 11 Apr. 2016. 

 "Remember That Gorgeous Luminous Engine Tech Demo? It Now Utilizes DirectX 12." VG247 Remember That Gorgeous Luminous Engine Tech Demo It Now Utilizes DirectX 12 Comments. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

 "Luminous Studio." Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

 "Final Fantasy XV Lumnious Engine Animation Tech." NeoGAF. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

Prompt #4: Contemplating Controversy

Guozhuoyan Zhang

After AlphaGo defeated the Korean player Lee Sedol in Go, the general public raised the concerns about the threatening of the artificial intelligence to humanity.

In the current chess game, Go could be the most talented completion. There are 19 verticals, horizons and 391 points of intersection. With black and white Go pieces, it will evolve billions of variations across the Go board. It is important for humans to remember numerous Go manuals and calculate Go pieces’ mesh number in order to improve the Go level. The intuition of Go board and the judgment of the opponent are also necessary for a professional Go player.

It is not an easy thing for artificial intelligence to play Go well. At the early stage of the development of a Go artificial intelligence, an experienced players could defeat the computer easily. The AI of Go at that time was unable to conquer this Go board in computing capacity and optimization algorithm. Nowadays, after the development of the computer operation ability and deep learning ability, artificial intelligence launched the assault to human Go championship.

Both side were playing a good game. And 4:1 is the final score of AlphaGo and Lee Sedol. Many people said that the machine has defeated human brains. Be vigilant to the artificial intelligence is the hot topic at that time. However, the program of AlphaGo is definitely the quintessence of human wisdom. Even AlphaGo defeated the human championship, it is also the victory of human intelligence’ self-transcendence.

The biggest advantage of the human intelligence is the ability of thinking and innovating. Those abilities are never having the critical explanations for them by any known science reports. The artificial intelligence is hard to represent the process of human thinking and innovating. Independent thinking and self-improvement are impossible for AI to realize.

Work Cited:

"The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Part 1 - Wait But Why." Wait But Why. 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"The Artificial Intelligence Revolution: Part 2 - Wait But Why." Wait But Why. 2015. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

"What AlphaGo's Win Means for Your Job." Fortune What AlphaGos Win Means for Your Job Comments. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.

760 MPH Trains

By: Matthew Manross

Trains are nothing special today. They have been around for a while with little change. But what about a train that goes faster than an airplane?

The company SpaceX is designing a train that is capable of going 760 miles per hour. A typical commercial airplane goes at speeds around 550 mph. This train system is called Hyperloop. This train system would most likely be built underground. This system would be a tube in which the train is powered by either high powered fans or by using electromagnetic suspension.  The train would ideally use solar panels to power the system.

You may ask whats the use of these trains if we already have airplanes. But there are many benefits to the train over an airplane. First off, the train is safer option of transportation over an airplane. The cost of riding the train would also be much lower than an airplane. Another benefit of this train is the immunity to weather. Air transportation depends highly on the weather, and flights are cancelled all the time. This train is much more resistant to weather, as it will be capable of going through snow and rain.

There are still many problems that this train faces before being a reality. Probably the biggest problem as of now is funding. The companies looking into this train are struggling with money to test and continue developing the train. To introduce this on a wide scale would require billions of dollars. it would be like america recreating all train tracks over again. The question we must ask is "is it worth it?".

Works Cited:

Hyperloop." SpaceX. 12 Aug. 2013. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

Artificial Gills

By: Matthew Manross

Im sure we've all tried to hold our breath underwater for as long as we could, or always wanted to be able to breathe underwater. You can go scuba diving right now, but you have to carry heavy equipment and resurface to fill up on air. This year, a device is coming out that will allow you to do just that! This device is no bigger than a snorkel, but will let you go underwater and breathe!

The devices name is Triton. Its a small device that is put on your mouth. It converts the oxygen from the water into breathable air for us. This device does this by a micro compressor that extracts oxygen from the water and stores it into tanks. There are tiny holes smaller than water molecules that separates the oxygen from the water. It is powered by a powerful lithium-ion battery. The device is approximately a foot long and 5 inches wide. You simply bite down on the mouth piece and breathe normally.

Unfortunately this device does have many flaws. The first flaw is the amount of time this device lasts for. As of today, the device only has a battery life of 45 minutes. This is obviously a big downside on the device. This device also will only work for a maximum depth of 15 feet underwater. This puts a huge limit on the usability of this device. Any expedition that goes below 15 feet would not work with this device.


Works Cited:

"Click Here to Support Triton, World's First Artificial Gills Re-breather." Indiegogo. Web. 10 Apr. 2016.

Breathalyzer cars

By: Matthew Manross

We all know that drunk driving is a huge problem in the United States. We've all been told that drinking and driving is bad, but people still continue to drive drunk. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, "Every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash". In 2014, 9,967 people died in drunk driving related crashes. But what if there was a device that would not start the car if the persons blood alcohol content (BAC) is too high?

Today there are some devices that can already do this. This device is called a ignition interlock device or IID for short. The IID will force the driver to take a breathalyzer test before starting the car. If the person fails the test, the car will not start. Of course there is many problems with this device. If the device breaks, the car will not start. This also requires time, and for people who are in a rush to get somewhere, time is important.

However, as technology advances, more efficient ways of determining a BAC) are being created. For example, a steering wheel is being developed that can determine a persons BAC just by touching the steering wheel. This would stop the car from turning on if it detects a dangerous level. This method would be way more efficient than having to breathe into a breathalyzer before starting your car.


Works Cited

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts 2014: Alcohol-Impaired Driving.” Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2016. 

"MADD - Drunk Driving Statistics." MADD - Drunk Driving Statistics. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.

"Congresswoman Proposes A Breathalyzer Be Placed On Every New Car." The Mental Recession. 2015. Web. 03 Apr. 2016.