Data Structures
Our lecture this morning was about two hours and fifteen minutes long. We looked at lists, dictionaries, and sets – under the hood. We learned about how they are implemented in Python (with an occasional nod to how these structures are implemented in Javascript) and their runtimes. We also learned about sequential data structures (lists, queues, stacks – all of which we already knew about) and were introduced to deques. Then, we looked at mapping structures (hash maps with sets and dictionaries were new, trees and binary search trees were review), and then we also learned about ordered dictionaries and ordered sets. The material was interesting – but it was quite a bit to take in – I am hoping that I will be able to look more at this when projects are over.
Project
Most of the day was spent working with my Postgres database, writing queries to get information from the database and saving information to the database. I am most thankful that today I was able to meet with one of my mentors. She is amazing! We went over all of the queries I wrote, and then she helped me write several more. We tried the queries out to verify that they worked and, yes, they do.
My mentor is an excellent teacher. She doesn’t do any of the “work” but instead, will ask me questions and help me through the process and then when we are finished, she will ask me “what did you learn” or “explain what you did here” or something similar. It is tough, but I am thankful for it because it helps me to really understand the “why” behind the “what.”
At this point, I have a few more queries to write and a few more pages to update. I now feel much more confident that I can do it. I am so grateful for my mentor, she spent three hours with me today!
Career Day
Next week at this time, Career Day will be over and I will not be stressed about my project. Both of those outcomes seem so far away given my current place and pace. I did meet with my advisor today to rehearse my career day presentation, and she gave me very helpful guidance. I also practiced it a few times when I got home. I will have another practice session tomorrow, with three staffers, so hopefully I will do much better tomorrow.
Time for bed!
michdcode 