Misc. Ranting

Presentations

The last day of presentations are over and everyone really improved. Here are a few of my reactions to the pitches and the projects in general.

Automaton:
I really liked that this team made a project that they basically built from the ground up.  Talking to the team, it seems like the only technology they used was node.js everything else they made.  Seeing the final product, I was impressed with how much work they did in so little time.  Another thing I noticed is that the majority of the speech is a demo.  That really isn't that big of a deal I mean they have a lot to show and the point is to really show everything the application is capable of, right?  It would be nice to hear some a business plan or something that tells me how they will maintain the application because I am kind of curious.  The game itself is a little confusing, but its a cool idea and I really like it.

VisualScheduler:
Basically, I wanted to do a small review of our pitch just to write out some changes we should make.  I thought our pitch went well.  Way better than I thought it would.  Some things that I would change though is that we really need to talk about our technology.  We are using so many different libraries and languages, I think it would be neat to mention.  I have programmed in Java for years and we are using things that I had never heard of as of a few months ago so I feel our audience would like to know what was happening under the hood.  Ackley also made a good point today about having a time with us during our presentation.  If we had had one, then we would have been able to tell that we were short on our time and blab for another 40 seconds.  Another good point was to really push the schedule generator.  This feature is a main part of our business model and is really cool.  Talking about if for ~30 seconds was not nearly enough and selling that will be a big move for us.  I really want to win the best project and with our final talk, I think we can really drive that bad boy home.

G.E.R.A
This is a project that I think people would be into because "going green" has been the latest fad (for lack of a better word).  For me, I can't really see myself using it just because it is not really a topic I care about.  Ben is a good public speaker and, though there were a few bumps, he is animated and engaging.  I don't mean to sound overly pessimistic, but there are a few things about this application that rub me the wrong way.  I am not the biggest fan of the website layout.  It is not bad by any means, I just think it could be done a little cleaner and less clunky.  I really want to see what the missions look like to.  One of the big selling points of their pitch is that many applications are simply data entry.  For me, I can't really see how it wouldn't be merely data entry so I would love to see a small example.  Overall, their pitch was very solid.

Thoughts on the Team:
I am very happy with the team that I worked with.  Everyone worked super hard and gave it everything they had to make an outstanding application.  We worked very well as a team and, even though there were some disputes, we were able to back the final choice and make it work.  This project was a ton of work, but it was a great team experience and a great learning experience.  Dan and Zach know so much about programming and I was able to use the past few months to pick their brains and learn a ton.  In a few short months, Zach went from never looking at a line of Javascript to being a master of Javascript and AngularJS.  It is obvious that he put a lot of time and research into doing what he was assigned and doing it well.  Dan was the duct tape for the whole team.  No matter what part of the project I was working on, I was able to ask him what my next move should be and he always came up with insightful information.  Kellen came through with the static web pages and made them look exactly like the mock ups.  The biggest benefit of this project is that it is Dan's baby.  He is so close to the project and wants it to succeed so bad that he killed himself and made us to the same to make it perfect.  No matter what, there was something that Dan wanted us to do better which really helped to make the application what it is.