In the last article, we discussed the engineering side of the AP Capstone and Project Lead the Way courses for AP Research, which were specially designed for engineers and computer scientists here at Magnet. The engineering projects are super impressive, and each person in this class is working on a new and unique project that can hopefully not just reveal new information about a certain topic, but revolutionize the way our modern technology functions. However, there’s a whole other side to this class that has not been mentioned yet – the students who are working on computer science projects.
Just as the engineers are creating new and innovative projects, in this class, students who are invested in computer science and want to pursue a career in this field have the opportunity to create their own developments in the CS field. Many of the students are inspired by previous experiences in their field, whether those experiences are other computer science classes, hackathons, or something as simple as playing video games.
As opposed to the engineering section of this class, the computer science students conduct projects by themselves, meaning they aren’t partnered with anyone else in the class. This article will feature a number of solo projects conducted by members of the computer science half of the Capstone Research classes.
First up, senior Joey Schady is working on a project that focuses on taking programs coded in the language Python and making them faster by converting them to another programming language. As of right now, he is starting on the actual research paper that all seniors are required to write – though the PLTW classes focus on creating new and inventive projects, it is still a requirement that all students who take it have to write the requisite research paper to go along with it. Joey is currently working on his review of literature, and has a solid plan for the experimental part of his project, though he hasn’t started the actual coding process yet.
Joey was inspired to get into computer science by watching a lot of YouTube videos on the subject, which jumpstarted his passion. This avenue, combined with previous classes in CS here at Magnet, helped push him to take the specialized capstone course in senior year. He chose this specific project due to a previous vested interest in the languages themselves – according to Joey, he had wanted to learn this new programming language for quite a while, and there was no better reason to start learning it than the research project.
Through the process of these projects, many of the researchers learned a lot of new things about their preferred field of study, and Joey is no exception. When questioned on what he’d learned about the field in which he was conducting his project, he answered, “It isn’t gonna exist in five years.” A shocking prospect, especially for a field such as computer science, but there’s a very simple explanation – with the evolution of artificial intelligence over the years, programs such as this will become obsolete. The project he’s working on will eventually become something that can be automated by AI, but this does not mean that human workers will be completely irrelevant to the tech industry. On a lighter note, Joey also discovered that there was a lot of oversaturation in the market, especially for programs like this.
Another senior in the computer science section working on an intriguing project is Brian Fang. His project focuses on video games and their educational capacity, intending to compare the impacts of visuals on learning. He plans to make two separate games, one with minimal graphics and visuals and another with high quality graphics. He plans on using these games to study the impact of the higher or lower quality visuals on learning and memory retention.
Since childhood, Brian has always been a fan of video games, so a project such as this was right up his alley. He learned programming to make his own games, and though he’s only a senior, he’s had quite the successful venture in coding and making games. He chose to do this project because it seemed easy and interesting, which is a good motivator – senior year is stressful enough with college applications and other schoolwork, and it’s important to choose a research topic that you’re truly invested in that also isn’t overly stressful.
Brian is also currently working on the required research paper, and is well set to write his own review of literature with all his sources gathered and ready to be written about. Though he hasn’t learned much about his chosen field over the course of his research, the skills that he’s gained and will continue to gain while coding the project itself will serve him well later on.
Both Joey and Brian wholeheartedly recommend the capstone computer science program, though they have differing reasons. Both of them enjoyed the chill nature of the class, and the ability and resources to do projects that truly aligned with their interests. Joey said he recommends the class to his underclassmen because taking on a project like this is much more interesting than making a survey. Brian recommends the class partially because of its double-blocked nature, saying, “It’s very chill and fun but you also get extra time to work on your stem related topic since it’s double blocked.”
However, engineering and computer science obviously aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. These classes are not for the faint of heart – to do well, you must be truly invested in your topic of choice and ready to do whatever it takes to see it through. For those students who aren’t interested in these specialized programs, the general AP Research class offers a wide variety of topics to choose from – you can perform a content analysis on your favorite tv show, send out a survey to learn more about the student body, or perform an experiment on anything you can imagine. It may sound like an intimidating class, but once you get into it, it turns out to be a lot more fun than it seems, and you get to learn a lot of brand new things about interesting topics. AP Research is one of the most fulfilling classes you can take at Magnet, so be sure to do something that interests you – it’ll help you out a lot in the long run.
