"Window Shopping" of Subjects

Coming to all the subjects was the activity that i've been doing last week. Yup, new semester has arrived... Wuhu.. Excited? Yup.. very much. So many interesting subjects (eventhough they are too computer science). Hesitate about how i will be doing? Mm... This is actually my first time having lectures in English. So, that unconfident feeling is always there.

Anyway, let me tell you some stories about each subject that i've attented.

1. Distributed System: taught by Dr. Shanika Karunasekera. This is my first that i had on Monday. Actually, i took this subject because it is the pre-requisite of Mobile Computing Systems Programming subject which i'm planning to take in 2nd semester. So, i didn't hope that much from this subject. Nevertheless, i found this subject quite interesting (since i didn't take this subject in ITB) and i think distributed system will become a basic knowledge that should be known.

2. Cluster and Grid Computing: taught by Dr. Raj Buyya. Frankly speaking, i could catch what Dr. Shanika is saying far better than Dr. Raj Buyya. He speaks so fast in Indian dialect so that if you lose your concentration for a little while, it would be hard to catch up. And guess what? In his first lectures i have to admit that i was dozen off a couple of times. Hahaha.. In my opinion, this subject will give a great knowledge in dealing with networking stuff and since i consider myself weak in networking knowledge, this is an opportunity for me to study.

3. IT Project Management: taught by Martin Vaugh. I think he is an Australian. This subject will teach about how to be a good project manager. Well, this should gain me a knowlege about "how to be the boss", but i didn't find this subject interesting. Or is it maybe i'm too technical ?

4. Software Agents: taught by Dr Kuldar Taveter. He is an estonian. This subject closely related with Artificial Intelligence. What so funny about this subject was that the lecture give "Tamagochi" as an example of software agent. I didn't have any idea that this tamagochi stuff is still alive.
Hmm, my intereset in AI will never change. Who wouldn't be interested if someday you could program a robot?! I always interested in the concept but when i actually learn it, i usually get frustated. Well, i think i'm going to give it another shot.

5. Web Technologies and Applications: taught by Dr. James Bailey. This subject is one of my expectation in MSSE (Master of Software System Engineering). I thought that in MSSE all the subjects are about this kind of stuff plus a few analysis and designing software subjects. However, it turned out that MSSE is too computer science.

6. Human Language Technology: taught by Steven Bird. I think he is an expert in Natural Language Processing. You can find him in this video if you like. In this subject, students will have to learn about phyton language and also nltk (natural language tool kit). I found this subject so hard because of several reasons. First, the class has only few international students (CMIIW) so the lecture often talks too fast. Most of the students have backgrounds about HLT, i don't know what, but i could sense that most of the students and the lecture know what they were talking to each other about. I think it will be too difficult for me to catch up.

So, after thinking for a while, i decided that this semester, i will take:

1. Distributed System
2. Cluster and Grid Computing
3. Software Agents
4. Web Technologies and Applications

Wish me luck everybody !!