CS373 Spring 2022: Cole Weinman

Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Richardson Texas, a first-ring suburb north of Dallas. Being one of the smaller Dallas suburbs with a tight-knit, diverse community and a vibrant tech and communication industry, I’m proud to call Richardson home.

What high school did you attend? What was your favorite extracurricular activity in high school?

I attended Richardson High School, the flagship high school of four high schools in Richardson ISD. Being the only high school in my district with a proper computer science program, I was excited to be able to go to RHS. I played the cello for all of high school and greatly enjoyed playing in my school's orchestra program. I also was involved in the computer science club at my high school where I participated in competitive programming contests and hackathons. Both orchestra and computer science were definitely my favorite extracurricular activities.

Why did you come to UT?

UT has always been at the top of my list for colleges from a young age since my dad attended UT and my family has always been big Longhorn fans. I also wanted to attend a university with a great CS program which UT has. Being in Texas and being affordable were also big factors in my decision to attend UT.

Why are you majoring in CS?

I’ve been interested in computers from a very young age. In elementary school, I played a lot with Scratch, which eventually sparked my interest in programming. Developing my own apps in high school solidified my desire to major in CS with a goal of pursuing a career in software engineering.

Why are you in this class?

I plan to pursue a career in software engineering so I believe this class would be important in building the skills required for that field. I also have an SWE internship this summer and I believe this class will be the perfect class to prepare me for it.

What are your expectations of this class?

I expect to learn a wide variety of tools and skills to help prepare me for a career in software engineering. I hope the projects help me learn how to work as a team on something we might not all have experience in. I also expect this class to be a large workload, but also very enjoyable and motivating compared to other high workload classes since it is something I’m interested in.

How much Javascript/Python/SQL/Web programming do you already know?

I have good experience with both Javascript and Python. I have used both in the context of backend services using Flask and Express. I have also worked with Javascript on frontend sites. I have some experience in basic HTML/JS/CSS web programming but am more comfortable using frameworks like Angular. I’m hoping to strengthen my web programming skills with this class.

How did you like the first lectures? How did you feel about the cold calling?

I enjoyed learning about Docker and how it can help using different toolchains in development. Overall I believe the lectures will be very interesting and helpful for my future. The cold calling gives me great anxiety, but it will definitely keep me more engaged in the lecture. It is nice that the cold calling is not a pop quiz, but a casual conversation.

What made you happy this week?

Getting off the waitlist for this class made me very happy. I was also able to finish up several projects I had been working on for a while which made me feel good.

What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

Recently I’ve been trying to help my Mom’s small business use technology better to manage everything in her shop. I discovered this great software called Home Assistant that connects the messy world of internet of things devices together. My Mom wanted to be able to see if her three embroidery machines were running, so I used smart outlets that track energy uses to tell if the machines were running and a Google Home in her office announces if a machine stops so she can fix it to keep it running. The Home Assistant software integrates with a wide variety of devices and runs in a VM to easily manage most smart home devices. It was very fun to set this up and I want to build on it in the future.