Students blogs

Christopher Campbell Jensen

Course: BSc Computer Science (third year)

Email: ask-a-student@ecs.soton.ac.uk

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14 May 2010

After "forcing" multiple friends to proof-read my report, it reached a stage where I deemed it "fit for purpose" and handed it in. What a relief! Now I have the distributed (COMP3019) coursework to deal closely followed by the viva and the important end-of-degree exams. These next few weeks are going to be crazy, but before I know it will be all over.

Got my appointment at the US embassy organised. I was worried that I would have to leave my passport there as I might have to do a quick trip back to Southampton mid-June. Luckily, they will allow me to keep my passport and then I will have to return if they do end up offering me a visa *fingers crossed*.

Trying to spend my last few weeks wisely. All those things that need to be experienced that I have not got around to yet thanks to the thinking "Oh, what is the rush! I have three years here to get that done!" Well, it is now or never!

4 May 2010

Easter came and Easter left. I ended up stuck in Washington DC for the first week of term due to the volcano on Iceland. The University has been very understanding of any inconvenience that it may have caused and have given automatic extensions on all hand-ins due within a month of my return. This included my third-year project final report. I got quite a bit done over the holidays, but not quite finished.

One last meeting with my project supervisor before I put the finishing touches on it.

Got some good feedback on the iPhone app; both from the user evaluation participants and some beta testers! Might actually redo the application and release it on the AppStore.

On another note, I've got all my paperwork sorted for the US visa application, just need to book an appointment at the Embassy.

Opera Software in Oslo have offered me a summer internship, so I'll be spending what little time off I have this summer there. I'll be working for one of the testing teams, so I'll be dealing with your bug reports!

It's getting close to the end. Just another few weeks and I'll be done with my bachelors degree!

15 March 2010

The coding section of my TYP is almost complete. Got one last feature to implement, and then probably quite a few bugs to kill. Spent a substantial amount of time over the past few days debugging database inconsistencies happening when encountering low memory warnings. Also had a lot of interesting bugs in my code that is multi-threaded! It gets especially tricky when all these threads have changes to write to the database!

So that leaves the all-important writeup! It's so easy to get caught up in the programming that you forget that it's primarily the report that will win or lose the marks!

Easter is coming up, which will give me a few weeks where I can hopefully complete the majority of the writeup!

8 March 2010

Got the first semester marks back a week ago; no big surprises, and I am still on track for my goal.

Still haven't heard back regarding my I-20 application, and the international office at CMU seemingly get swamped with paperwork this time of year so they don't offer any confirmation of having received them. So it's all a bit in limbo at the moment. Hopefully it has arrived, as it would be a lot of work getting more copies of the financial papers from my banks!

Modules are going well this semester. I, on purpose, chose modules which are mostly exam evaluated so that I could focus on my project during term. Only the large scale distributed systems module has a coursework, but they made sure to set it quite early so we could have plenty of time to get it done. Some mates and I spent a half day getting through most of the first half, so at least that is out of the way!

It's obviously getting closer to the end, as this past week I got emails concerning the graduation ball and the graduation itself. Not too fussed about the ball, but I will definitely want to go to my graduation; gown and all!

22 February 2010

Still waiting for the exam results and module marks from last semester, they should be available by the end of this week or beginning of next one. It's always torture having to wait for marks that could make such a difference. Even though I have been offered a place by CMU, they require that my final results be of an acceptable nature, so I can't rest quite yet :)

Project is coming along nicely. Been able to do a lot of implementation the past few weeks, and have now started work on a user evaluation application. Prior to any activity that will involve people and gathering of data, ECS students are recommended to hand in an application to the ECS Ethics Committee. They make sure that all the planned activities, surveys and storage of the data is done in an ethical and secure way. Basically, treat people well, give them fair warning what they are about to participate in and make sure to keep their data secure afterwards.

On another note, I got my I-20 application sent off to CMU. Once that has (hopefully) been approved, I will be able to start on my student visa application. Not sure how long time the process is going to take, so I figured I might as well get cracking on it right away.

5 February 2010

A few months back I mentioned that I have been applying to do an MSc at a few US universities. I applied for a few really good ones with the hopes that I might be able to convince them that I would be worthy of one such place. Never had I imagined that my truly long shot, Carnegie Mellon, would offer me a spot. Don't get me wrong, it's been a hard and long process, and it's been tough balancing how much time I spent preparing for next year vs concentrating on my current degree.

Earlier this week I got an email from Carnegie Mellon offering me a spot on their MSc in Software Engineering Technical Track program. It is taught at one of CM's satellite campuses in Silicon Valley. For me, this is a dream come true, as this is ranked to be one of the top computer science departments in the world.

It has certainly taken a weight off my shoulders to have next year's plans ready; now I can get back to concentrating 100% on my current degree. Both my tutor here at Southampton, and my project supervisor, have been very helpful throughout this process, and provided me with good enough references that I got a foot in the door with Carnegie. Once there, I had to do a Skype interview that challenged me both technically and personally, but the lessons learned here during my Bachelors' had (obviously) prepared me well enough.

Exam marks back in two weeks; hopefully the first semester won't have any unexpected surprises!

1st February 2010

As expected, the rest of December and January were hectic. Coursework deadlines hit hard and fast, followed by frantic exam revision. It all culminated last weekend with the final exam being the hardest. The weekend was spent, finally, getting some third year project work done.

The questionnaires are going well, though I need to get a move on if I am to get a decent sample. The exciting announcement of the iPad could bring some interesting consequences to my project, and I will have to consider if I can make it easy to target both the iPhone and iPad.

Today is the first day of the new (and my last) semester. I didn’t have much of a break, but I am excited to see how these new modules are going to be, and hopefully I can get lots of work done on my project over these next few weeks before the courseworks start rearing their heads again.

7 December 2009

The holidays are upon us, and I now realise what the third year is going to be about: individual work! It has been a nice, even workload so far, but I can see the rest of December and January being quite hectic. I have a couple of coursework deadlines right after New Year which are going to be tough to meet; but as always I will get through it!

Some of my modules have done their course feedback already; funny how these surveys ask if the lectures have successfully prepared us for the exams and courseworks, BEFORE we have completed those. I wish ECS would do online feedback after the module has been completed, with some enticement to ensure that the majority take the time to complete the forms. [/Rant]

I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a happy New Year, and I will see you for exam preparation in January! 

1 December 2009

Already December! This term has just absolutely flown by. Christmas is a time to be spent with family, and I will be doing very little work over the holidays. Unfortunately, the lecturers believe this is the perfect time for courseworks. This means whatever I don't get done before the holidays, will have to be done when I get back! Going to be a rough beginning to the New Year!

On another note, the modules are all going well. Graphics is still tough, and lots of maths, but I now believe it will be manageable! My Third Year Project is coming along nicely; E did some coding over the weekend and now have it running on my iPhone and am enjoying it a lot!

Headed to a meeting with my supervisor now. He teaches one of the Human Computer Interface modules, so I am sure he will have plenty to say about the affordance of the GUI choices I have made!

20 November 2009

The focus of my third year project is coming along, though I am getting worried about the scope. Spent most of today researching the relevant topics, and putting the finishing touches on my ethics comittee application for a questionnaire I intend to run to gather requirements for my 3YP.

Had the second of two graphics labs on Wednesday, I was much more comfortable with it this time around as I knew what to expect. Actually finished this lab, compared to last time where I submitted it late (there were mitigating circumstances), so no penalty!

Another matter that is consuming a lot of time are MSc applications for next year, as I intend to do a postgraduate degree at a different university. I will be applying for a few US ones, in addition to ones based in the UK and back home in Norway. 

10 November 2009

Third year. It's weird, compared to the second year it feels like I hardly have any lectures! Lots of individual work to be done. 

I have got a few of the courseworks out of the way, and I finally feel like I might be able to get a proper start on my third-year project.

For my 3YP I will be developing an iPhone application that uses RDF graphs and linked data as its source. Semantic web and iPhone; how can it go wrong?!

Last year, I decided to switch from the 4 year MEng course to a 3 year BSc, which means I will be graduating this summer. I still intend to get a Masters, but this way I get to do a Postgraduate Masters instead of an Undergraduate one. Also, I am keen to do my Masters at a different university, and I will be applying for ones both in thr US and back home in Norway, in addition to some UK-based universities.

28 October 2009

A fresh start...

Another year, another promise to blog more!

Spent this summer doing an internship with a Norwegian company who provide real-time power, gas and enviromental information on the Web. I was helping them investigate, and set up, automated user acceptance and integration testing of their Web products. It was an entertaining job, and I ended up coding mostly in Ruby, which is a fun language!

Doing my third, and last year, of my Bachelor. This year is a bit different than previous, as I got to choose most of my modules. I am enjoying all of them, though I have to admit that the Computer Graphics module is a bit scary. Hopefully once I get started on the first coursework, it will all fall into place.

I have done well enough that I got the supervisor I wanted for my individual Bachelor project; but unfortunately he retired over the summer, so I got reassigned. Initially I was to be put back into the pool and pick from whoever had free spots, but my project title was intriguing enough that another really good supervisor volunteered. All in all, it worked out quite well!

Moved again this summer, and am now living with only students doing my course. So far we are having a blast, and I anticipate it will be very useful to have coursework help on-hand whenever I need it!

Sunday 30 November 2008

Everyone else is making excuses about the lack of blog posts, so I won't :) Lets just say, it's been busy. Guess a short summary is in place.

I mentioned in my last post that I had been to an interview with Nokia; they ended up offering me a summer internship, which I accepted. May was a crazy month, lots of revision for the looming exams. The exams themselves went quite well, though I got some unexpected results. I ended up doing well on the ones I anticipated would be the most difficult, and vice versa. Probably because I studied harder for the hard ones.

Anyway, last exam was Friday 6th June, and I started work at Nokia on the following Monday. As we get quite long summer holidays at Southampton, I ended up spending almost 4 months working for Nokia in Farnborough, which meant I got to get real in depth on the projects I was tasked to work on. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there, and it was great to be able to work on real software. When it was time for me to pack up and get back to uni, the software I had prototyped and developed was being ordered by other Nokia departments in several other countries. My manager was so pleased with my work that he offered me an industrial placement, which I am still considering.

This semester so far has been a real roller coaster. It started out nice and easy, but has really turned up the heat the past few weeks. We have two courseworks due on the 4th, and another two due the following week. We have one due the second week of term 2 (after new years), which I am hoping to get almost finished before heading home to Norway for the Christmas, as I don’t intend to get much work done over the holidays.

1 May 2008

Bank Holiday this coming Monday, so we have a long weekend coming up.Too busy with coursework to get away for a couple of days, but it will nice to have the extra day to play catch-up.

Most of the modules are wrapping up in the next couple of weeks, which means that exams are getting dangerously close. I have a feeling revising for these exams will be quite different then the ones we had at the end of semester 1; the exams this time around will involve a lot more cramming of information, compared to the more hands-on understanding last time.

Been spending a lot of time looking for some relevant summer job, preferably close to Southampton. My CV has received a polish - in addition I have signed up for a bunch of career websites and been a frequent visitor to the careers services. Thanks to the ECS careers fair, I had an interview with Nokia; hopefully I will hear from them soon. The Norwegian student society for students abroad is having an information meeting about a mentor program that they are running in collaboration with a recruitment company back home. I will definitely be apply to take part, as it should give me a lot of contacts in IT businesses back home in addition to being fully sponsored by the companies that take you on as an adapt.

29 March 2008

Halfway through the Easter holidays, halfway through the second semester... Halfway ready for exams in June? I’d take a wild guess and say I am about 50-50 ready ;)

A month off for Easter; quite a lot, if you ask me! I know already now that I will be struggling getting back into the good rhythm I was in, but hopefully so will everyone else!

This second term (Xmas - Easter) has just flown by, and it’s crazy to think that we will be starting with revision soon!

On a side note, I have to admit that I am not enjoying the advanced programming labs as much as I enjoyed programming principles coursework. The lab tasks just seem so much more “nitty gritty” and result in them being less fun to work on. I'm a bit curious what the other module’s coursework’s will be like; guess I’ll get to know when I get started on them back in Southampton. I am headed back a few days early so that I can get started removing the Easter cobwebs. Until then, I am loving mum’s cooking.

29 February 2008

Deep into semester 2, 2 weeks from Easter holidays; time is flying!

We got our preliminary final grades (what an oxymoron!) end of last week, and I have to admit that I am quite chuffed! Didn’t do brilliantly in the maths modules, but better than I had dared hope, so “pop the champagne, we are having a party!” :D

I actually didn’t check my grades until Sunday evening as I spent the weekend in Brussels celebrating a belated valentine’s day, birthday, etc. I can’t get over how short a flight it was from Southampton airport, and how easy the uni-link bus service made it to get there and home. It was an absolutely brilliant trip!

Classes are keeping me busy this semester as well; some more so than others, but at least I don’t have any that leave me feeling as lost as I did last semester! The courses seem to be taking things to a higher level of abstraction, which at times can be a bit difficult to get your head around, but I am sure we will get there in the end.

ECS hosted a big careers fair which was brilliant. Lots of companies looking for tech employees had stands, and seemed genuinely interested; even in us first year students. Fingers crossed I might end up getting a summer internship.

Otherwise ECSS has a trip to visit IBM’s offices at Hursley next week, which I am excited about. There was a limited number of spaces, but I was one of the lucky few. I will be missing a few lectures, but I am certain I won’t be missing anything my class mates won’t be able to bring me up to speed on.

Thursday 7 February 2008

Wow, has it really been a month?

The last few weeks of last semester (yes, that means a new semester has now begun) was a mess, but I think I did decently well. The first two exams, discrete maths and engineering maths, were a bit rough on my self-confidence; then we moved on to computer and system applications which I think went decently well followed by programming principles the week after which I actually enjoyed. The only complaint I have about the programming one is that the instructions for making our program was a bit vague, but I got it figured out and finished most of the exam.

To celebrate that I was done with the exams, some friends and I went for a long weekend to Cambridge; which was fantastic! We had so much fun; went to a formal dinner, went punting on the river, visited some of the old colleges and shopped at the town market.

So now I am almost done with the first week of a new semester, and I have to admit that I am feeling a bit overwhelmed. Though I believe I will enjoy the modules more this semester! Just finished the first lab for advanced programming, which involved choosing an IDE (Integrated Development Environment). For a CS student, this is like choosing a religion, so it was a difficult decision. I ended up choosing Eclipse, and I might dabble a bit with XCode, which is Apple’s IDE.

Saturday 12 January 2008

First post of ’08. Had a great Christmas with the family back home in Norway, and I celebrated the New Years up in the mountains with a few mates; it was epic :)

At the moment I feel surprisingly relaxed about the coming exams. The two maths ones will be interesting, but I feel like in general I will get through this and on to next semester which modules I am more excited about.

Finished the second programming coursework in no time, and started mod’ing it. Had a lot of fun with it; but as with the last coursework I probably ended up spending way too much time on it.

The weather this last week has been horrendous, but today it is looking up! Might even take the chance of popping into town without an umbrella, though if I bring it along I will be guaranteed that there won’t be any rain!

Thursday 13 December 2007

Wow, what a busy last week. Guess with better planning it wouldn’t have been this bad, but that is one of the joys of being a student.

Believe it or not, we actually have a discrete maths test the last lecture of the last day of term... in other words, Friday at 15.00. I'll be spending the weekend in London before heading home to Norway.

Luckily we have a few courseworks due right after the holidays are done, so if I find myself feeling lost without any deadlines looming above I have stuff to work on.

I still haven’t had the time to go to any of the squash events; fingers crossed for next semester!

Merry Christmas, and happy New Year!

Thursday 6 December 2007

So the weather is shockingly cold; and that says quite a bit coming from a Norwegian... but, as we say back home, 'There is no bad weather, just bad clothing.' Now I know that is a terrible translation, but it basically means that as long as you are wearing the right clothing, the weather won’t bother you. Unfortunately, I hadn’t planned on it being this chilly here, so I didn’t bring all my warm wool clothes. They will definitely be coming across when I return after the holidays.

Speaking of Christmas, I’ve pretty much got all my shopping done; I don’t think I have ever been done this early before, many thanks to all the shops and the great German Xmas market in town for that!

Programming coursework went very well, I had it done weeks in advance and ended up giving others helpful hints when they got stuck. Who would have thought I would pick up java so fast. I still can’t compete with the space cadets guys (ones who attend more advanced lectures), but I can now hold my own, which is amazing!

Still ploughing my way through both maths modules, though I am finding the second half of the discrete maths syllabus easier than the first bits.

ECSS is having a big Christmas party this weekend, which I am excited about. It is highly subsidized by ECS, so the tickets are actually just a pound for a buffet of food and some free drinks; Can’t complain about that :)

Wednesday 14 November 2007

Halfway through semester 1

Things are just as busy, but I am starting to get the hang of these things our lecturers keep talking about; coursework, labs, reports, etc. Still struggling a bit with discrete maths, but otherwise I am feeling quite confident. We got our first programming coursework yesterday, which I am quite excited to get started on. We have a few weeks before it needs to be handed in, but I’m sure I will be done long time before that!

Been too busy for any of the societies these past few weeks, which is a shame, but I guess it was unavoidable. I would eventually like to join a few, and I haven’t quite given up on squash, but at the moment I have enough keeping up with everything else going on.

A friend of mine is a member of the hillwalkers society, and I tagged along on one of their weekend trips to Winchester a week or so back. The trek was a bit on the long side, but luckily it was an absolutely gorgeous day, and it probably did me no harm. One of the reasons I decided to tag along on that trip, was that the same evening Winchester Round Table (a charity organization) was throwing their annual bonfire and fireworks for Guy Fawkes Night. We didn’t really know what to expect, but it was a fun evening; best bit was actually marching in the parade with torches :)

I was in town doing a bit shopping this past weekend, and the Christmas decorations are starting to show up. Now I’m not big on Christmas, but I have to admit that I enjoy the atmosphere that the Christmas lights create on a dark evening.

Sunday 21 October 2007

Time is flying by!

It is strange to think that I have been here only a month, as it feels like so much has happened in that short amount of time! Made lots of new friends, had a few tests, learned a few new sports and drunk plenty of pints :)

The lectures are going well, though the pace is quite fast. Having a bit trouble staying on top of all the course work with all the distractions that the union events, clubs and general social life of Southampton have to offer. Trying to put in the hours needed, but with gorgeous weather and the rugby world cup going on, there are so many good excuses for leaving it until tomorrow. Unfortunately there aren’t enough tomorrow’s to get through it all. Every day is so busy that there are things I just wish I could have had the time for, but there aren’t enough hours in the day! Struggling to find the time for the clubs and socities, might end up joining a few random ones where I don’t really need to show up every week; like squash and the circus soc ;)

I finally got a bank account sorted out, now I just need to get rid of this pay-as-you-go mobile contract and get on a proper one which should save me some money.

Oh well, it’s late sunday evening and I should get back to some studying...

Friday 12 October 2007

One week down... 

This past week has just flown by. We had our first proper lecture on Monday, which I suprisingly managed to show up to on-time and in the right place :)

There has been quite an ordeal with our timetables, as the printed ones they handed out were more wrong than right, and the digital ones that I can access through the sussed portal (Southampton Uni’s intranet) were missing some lectures. For some it’s been a bit hit and miss, luckily I had all hits and I think I haven’t missed any lectures this week. Hopefully the timetables will get sorted sometime next week, so I can start planning ahead a bit!

So far we have a pretty rough start to the week with early mornings and long days on both Mondays and Tuesdays, but then things slow down towards the weekend with just a lab session on Wednesdays and just a few lectures on both Thursdays and Fridays.

I’ve already had my first test, which was in a self-paced maths course, which is the subject that has me the most troubled. ECS has been very helpful with giving me assistance, and so far so good as I get 100% on the first test. Hopefully I will do equally well on the more difficult parts of the module :)

Tried out a few of the societies and clubs; still not quite sure which ones I will be joining, but I am narrowing the choices down. Some of them require more time than I have to spare, and others are unfortunately a bit on the expensive side. There are so many though, I am sure I will find some that fits both my requirements and price limit.

Friday 5 October 2007

Last day of JumpStart

Luckily I had already enrolled and signed up for an ECS student account, so I could have a bit of a sleep in yesterday; didn’t have anything planned until my JumpStart group was scheduled to start making a poster with pics and tales from our adventures around Highfield and Southampton.

We all agreed that we didn’t want to spend too much time on the poster; we had 4 hours assigned today and then another 3 today, so we got right to work and finished it in just a few hours. Quite chuffed by the result, but not really sure if it will be good enough to win anything, but at least we won’t have to come in tomorrow and can concentrate on enjoying the freshers fayre :)

The Glen bar arranged a Cowboys and Indians party last night, I wore a poncho that I bought in Mexico a few years back. Should have had a sombrero too, but hadn’t had the time to go shopping, but it did the job. A bit disappointed that not more people made the effort and dressed up, but at least my flatmates and I do.

Will be headed down to Highfield at 1300 today, as the Head of School Professor Harvey Rutt, will be holding a welcome speech and we are scheduled to meet with our tutors. Also looking forward to a Pub Golf (pub crawl with a golf theme) that ECSS is arranging tonight.

Thursday 4 October 2007

The Bunfight

So the bunfight... I probably should mention what it involves!

SUSU, Southampton University Students Union, has an enormous amount of clubs and societies and each year they all need to recruit new members; this is where the bunfight fits in. They all rig up elaborate stands around the sports complexes at the uni and do their best to get both freshers and older students interested in their club. Most people usually end up signing up for too many, which I of course also did. In general they offer a few trial events before having to pledge your allegiance and money to the ‘cause’.

There are so many interesting clubs, one for pretty much anything you can imagine. Still not sure which of the ones I signed up for I will actually join, but it will be interesting to see cause I did sign up for some random ones :)

In the evening my flatmates and I headed on down to Icon Diva, which is considered to be the largest night club on the south coast. It was completely sold out, and had a wicked time! For next years freshers, buy tickets for the Cheeky Monkey events!

Tuesday 2 October 2007

How it all began ...

Glen Eyre certainly is a more interesting place now that it is no longer a 'ghost city'. As an international student I was offered to move into my accommodation a bit sooner than the UK students, which is an offer I took advantage of.

I actually moved into my room at Jellicoe Courts before any of the other international students had arrived, which was a bit weird as there were no facilities or guides to help me figure things out. I don’t at all regret coming so soon, as it gave me the chance to settle in before the craziness of freshers week began.

I have been loving the area around the Highfield campus and Glen Eyre; it is so amazingly green, and a beautiful area to go for jogs, also the Common, which is a HUGE park with three lakes, is just a stone's throw away!

About half of the UK students arrived on the Saturday which is when I feel freshers week (it’s actually a fortnight) began, and caught full momentum when the rest arrived on Sunday. I've so far had a few excellent nights at The Glen Bar which is run by the Glen Eyre JCR where we have moved on to The Cube which is SUSU’s club, with a huge dance-floor and two bars.

One of the 'perks' of being in ECS is that in between the freshers events in the evenings you have days packed full of team-building and social events run by ECS and ECSS, which has certainly kept me on the run yesterday and today. Luckily tomorrow is the bunfight, and therefore there are no Jumpstart events planned until Thursday, which will allow me to catch up on some sleep :)