Career

This summer, the summer of 2017, I will be interning at D+S Trucking as an IT intern. My primary role at this company will be to help reform their ticking software to my bosses specific specifications. I think this will be great experience for me, for it will not only give me hands on experience with programming in a actual workplace, but it will also help me adjust to a 40 hour work week. As this is my first technical job, I am looking forward to seeing what working in my major will be like and it will surely help me decide how I want to go forwards with my job and overall career search in the future.

As I move on, I want to eventually work with artificial intelligence or virtual reality, because I feel as if both are the next steps forward for Computer Science. During my courses in the coming years, I will be studying hard in order to get an internship for 2018 in one of these areas.

Year In Review 2017

During my second year at OSU, I worked on multiple projects in order to better my understanding on Computer Science.
One project I worked on was learning the Android Development Kit. Using Android Studio, I was able to create multiple small android applications in order to get the hang of working with the Android Kit. These apps were very basic, but I can use the skills I learned making these applications to work on my project I want to work on during the summer. This project will be to create an Android Application that will help keep track of character statistics in the game “Betrayal at House on the Hill”. Currently, the boards used to keep track of statistics are very flimsy and do not work well. This application will keep track digitally and be able to change with easy buttons and menus.

Another project I worked on was participating in the Fall 2016 Game Creation Club Game Jam. During this event, I worked with multiple other video game designers to create a game based on a simple prompt. We decided to work on a 2D Top Down Brawler called Brain Punch. In this game, the character can change places with an enemy by punching them. This allowed for difficult gameplay that can change with the switching of characters. This was exciting for me because video game development has always been an interest of mine and I was able to gain experience in not only making a game but working as a team within computer science.

GOALS 2017

Last year, I established some goals for this year so I could better improve myself and get into my major.
One of my goals was for me to get into my major, which is Computer Science and Engineering. To do that, I needed a 3.2 overall GPA. Currently, I am on track this semester to raise my GPA well over a 3.2 which will guarantee me a spot in my major this semester. This makes me very excited, because I will be able to not just focus on getting into my major, but learning about my major and taking upper level courses.

My other goal for this semester was to work on individual side projects. During the year, I completed multiple projects that I believe helped me work as a team as well as learn on my own. One project I worked on was learning how to use Android Studio in order to create Android Apps. I learned this software and created two basic applications that used buttons and pull down menus. This summer, I will be using this information to work on a application that helps making the board game “Betrayal at House on the Hill” in order to make keeping track of an characters statistics. Another project I worked on was participating in the Fall 2016 Game Creation Club Game Jam. At this event, we created a video game in under 48 hours. This experience helped me with my learning skills as I had to learn a lot of different methods for coding in a short period of time. It also helped me with my teamwork in computer programming where multiple programmers split up work in order to keep a project moving quickly.

This year was great for me in not only terms of personal enjoyment and in terms of productivity. Next year, I hope will be even better where I can accomplish more projects and move further into a specific field of Computer Science.

Internship 2017

This summer, the summer of 2017, I will be interning at D+S Trucking as an IT intern. My primary role at this company will be to help reform their ticking software to my bosses specific specifications. I think this will be great experience for me, for it will not only give me hands on experience with programming in a actual workplace, but it will also help me adjust to a 40 hour work week. As this is my first technical job, I am looking forward to seeing what working in my major will be like and it will surely help me decide how I want to go forwards with my job and overall career search in the future.

Artifacts

Wind Turbine Comparison Presentation

 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1CpYKAw0POXGtRmdr2wLsbRs03SRfvvoKyeCQdfwmEk0/edit?usp=sharing

 

This is a short presentation comparing vertical axis and horizontal axis wind turbines. The presentation quickly goes over the history of wind turbines, it compares HAWTs and VAWTS and when they should be used, and it goes over the future uses of turbines.

About Me

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Hi! My name is Tristan Fitzwater and I am a Computer Science major at The Ohio State University. I am also apart of the Green Engineering Scholars group. Since high school, I have always been passionate about programming and computers in general, and that led to me picking my major. Helping with the environment has always important to me, so making more efficient programs for everyday machines can not only benefit the humans using them, but the world as a whole. I plan working as a software engineer in the future and working with artificial intelligence. You can contact me at tristanfitzwater@gmail.com