A Journey Through a Bachelor of Information Technology Degree

As it turns out, there is a specific science to selecting the best algorithm to apply to data within a program.  When I first started my Data Structures & Algorithms class, I was excited to learn about different algorithms, and how to efficiently store and sort data using advanced data structures.  What I learned was that there are a great many different algorithms to both search and sort information stored in arrays.  Some websites, such as geeksforgeeks.org, have entire lists of different algorithms each with differing complexities, and each tailored for a specific use.  The computer science community describes algorithm efficiency using two different measures of complexity.  Time complexity is a function relating the number of actions (n) that will be performed on an array (a[]).  There are many different kinds of actions that an algorithm can perform on an array of data.  Time can mean the number of memory accesses performed, the number of co...

     For our first assignment in CPT 307: Data Structures & Algorithms, we were tasked with installing the Java Development Kit (JDK) and the NetBeans IDE.  Installing the JDK was straightforward and painless.  It was as simple as downloading the installer and following the installation wizard.  NetBeans was a slightly different story.  There were several different packages to download; I chose the package with the most language support.  In hindsight, I probably should have downloaded only the package supporting Java, saving the other packages for when I actually use the other tools.  After completing the NetBeans install, I kept getting an error about “GlassFish” whenever I tried creating a new project.  I attempted to search the forums for a fix but found the NetBeans forums to be extremely confusing, and I could not find a solution to the issue.  So I decided to search the internet for a different IDE to work with.  Wh...

import sys employeeList = {} lstMenuOption = ('1', '2', '3', 'Q') #i = 0 #loop count variable validation = False #initialize validation check to "False" menuSelection = None numEmployees = None num = 1 def main_menu():     print('-----------------------------------------------------')     print('(1) Add new employee(s)')     print('(2) View all employees in the database')     print("(3) Check employee's information")     print('(Q) Exit\n')     totalEmployees = len(employeeList) #Display number of employees in the databse     print('There are (%d) in the database' % totalEmployees)     print('-----------------------------------------------------')     option = input('Please select an option from the menu: ')     return option def valid(option): #Function to validate menu selection     if (option.isnumeric() == True):  ...

    During my quest to obtain a Bachelor of Information Technology from Ashford University, my fourth class was CPT 200: Fundamentals of Programming Languages.  For that class, the programming language that is taught is Python 3.     On the first week of class, we were asked to create code that would ask a user to input several pieces of information about any specific employee.  We were to use the variables: employeeName, employeeSSN, employeePhone, employeeEmail, and employeeSalary.  After the data was inputted, it needed to be printed on the screen.  Below was what I turned in for Functionality 1:     During the second week of class, we were to read two chapters: Chapter 3: Types and Chapter 4: Branching.  These chapters introduced us to the different types of variables that can be used within Python as well as how to use branching in your scripts. For the second functionality, we were instructed to adjust ou...

My first IT class at Ashford University is INT 100: Fundamentals of Information Technology & Literacy.   One of my first assignments was to get familiar with a programming language called Scratch.   Scratch is a block type programming language that is object-based and was created by the beautiful minds over at MIT.   I initially thought that my experience with Scratch was my first time with a block type programming language, but after some thought, I realized that I have tried teaching my toddler niece how to use a something like Scratch .   The language that I tried teaching her was in the form of one of her toys that has multiple cars that attach to each other.   Each car had a different function such as move forward, turn right, turn left, play a sound, etc.    The first task that was presented to the class was to use Scratch to assemble a short program of our own that included adding motion, looks, sound, control options, and any oth...