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Friday, February 5, 2010 at 9:41AM OCRI WAS AWESOME!!! I wish we could go through the program again because it was cool to see the technology world the way we did. I went on to do Grade 11 Computer Science and am enjoying it. The experience of OCRI was amazing and I will never forget it. :D
And neither will Ammanie... :D
Friday, October 2, 2009 at 11:14AM So... Ms Cianci's encourging me to write another blog.
So still 4 months later I do NOT regret doing OCRI! I went on to doing Grade 11 Computer Science. I definitely would not have continued in this field if it weren't for that course.
So my message to the OCRI students to follow ... take advantage of this oppertunity! You will never forget this experience, I know that I never will. :)
Wednesday, May 27, 2009 at 5:41PM Well, our last trip was yesterday ... :( It's hard to believe that this great course is coming to it's end so fast!
This course has been a real eye-opener for me. I never would have imagined how many different careers there are in technology, nor how interesting they could all be! It was a real privilege to be a part of this program because we got to see much more than any other students get to see normally. It has most definitly convinced me to look more into the field of technology as a future career.
Our projects are to be completed by next Wednesday, which is when they will be judged. I'm acctually really excited for the special evening hosted at our school next week. It's going to be really interesting to get to see the final projects of my classmates and especially the ones of the All Saints students!
Tuesday, May 19, 2009 at 9:03PM Today was a pretty cool day.
We went to Ottawa University today. It was fun. At first, we got a mini tour about networking. It was very interesting to learn about how information is transmitted and received with such precision. Next, we had a great experience using equipment in 3D. It was incredible to see the endless possibilities with technology! After lunch, we had an amazing presentation about Robotics. That was most definitely my favourite part of the day (and not just because my picture was in the presentation!). It was interesting to learn the history of Robotics and how much technology grew over the years. It was also really cool when the presenter showed us all the robots and made the Sumo demonstration with the Mindstorms NXT Robots. This was absolutely one very interesting trip!
My classmates' stress level is slowly rising, as our duedate for our final XO projects are due in now less than a week. I have created a thread using Facebook including many of my classmates since about a month ago. Ever since, we were using this thread to communicate. Usually it would not be anything related to computer science, but everytime someone has a question, they can put it up and we can answer it. It has been very useful lately, because it's likely that you were wondering the same question.
Wish us luck! ;)
Sunday, May 3, 2009 at 7:37PM
Things are just having so fast; I can't seem to remember to post my entries here!
Alright, let's begin :)
On week 7, groups presented their concepts towards the mentors and industry partners. Taking into consideration about the language limitations in Africa, many groups have incorporated some English skills that will hopefully encourage its usage as they play the game. Commonly, many of the games' focus were to either strengthen some skills that were already present (increase vocabulary with a picture-sound dictionary) or introducing a new "experience" (geological interactive game). Others focused on other topics that were interesting and entertaining.
The mentors had a range of opinions, whether that their comments and suggestions were encouraging the addition of more beneficial features or limiting the extras to focus on 1 or 2 particular accepts. The common suggestion that many of the mentors agree on was the use of the XO capability of networking in order to include more players in the game.
On week 8, the groups went to 3 presentations: Fuel Industries, Plasco Energy, IBM Jazz Presentation
Fuel Industries - In my opinion, Fuel Industries has a massive range of media utilizes to use incorporated with programming. Their interesting creatively towards their games interested me because it shows how we are capable of increasing our enjoyment with today's modern technology. However, as technology advances, so do people's expectations. The games at Fuel again, were creative; however, with today's major gaming companies producing massively anticipated games (Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 and Gears of War 3) I just don't see myself being impressed by them.
This is only because my expectations were set by those games, still overall very interesting.
Plasco Energy- AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Sorry had to get that out! IT WAS RAINING!!! I was very disappointed that we couldn't get a personal outside tour! When we first arrived, I bet everyone doubted that the smell of the landfill could be changed through the works of Plasco. After being explained the mechanics of how trash is transformed into reliable energy sources, I was very impressed of how every single consideration to ensure that all materials and energy was being incorporated into the entire system. I hope that Plasco would be successful in their international expansion someday.
IBM Jazz Presentation - Overall, the IBM Jazz presentation was very entertaining and informative about the mechanics behind teamwork. However, the only problem was it was rather long.