For my STEP Signature Project, I enrolled in the STEP Computer Build Program. This program was a professionally-led, synchronous guide in building a PC. I was instructed by Ty James–a teacher in cybersecurity–from June 15th to August 17th. We met online for a total of 8 weekly sessions to discuss the budgeting, parts, specifications, building, and troubleshooting of a PC. Once Ty had reviewed my parts, I ordered them and built the PC from home with the help of some friends. The last session was a “reporting out” meeting, where I presented my experience to STEP staff.
This STEP project changed my understanding of technology as well as my attitude towards myself and what I am capable of. I’ve always considered myself someone who would never have a solid grasp on anything engineering related: mathematics, physics, computer science, etc. Throughout middle and high school, I avoided these sorts of subjects and dismissed them constantly, saying to myself: “That’s not where my skills lie.” A sort of mental block started to develop whenever I encountered them. I certainly could have excelled better in math had I not been so discouraged to learn it.
I brought this maladaptive mindset with me to my freshman year of college. Although I had chosen neuroscience as my major, it became increasingly obvious that I could not avoid encountering these subjects. Computer science, I have always dreaded. Despite it being incredibly necessary for the career in research I want to pursue, coding is an incredibly arduous task for me. I took an intro level Java course and hated every second of it.
So when it came time to do my STEP project, I had decided that I would attempt to do something to help alleviate this mental barrier I had developed. This is why I decided to build a pc. If I could build such a complicated machine, then there would be no reason I couldn’t achieve success in similar areas.
From researching parts, budgeting, making specification decisions, and actually building the pc, I learned quite a bit. I was initially intimidated at the prospect of building it, but with the help of some experienced friends, it was a relatively straightforward process. Even now, it is surprising to me that the machine I’m using to type this right now is one that was built by myself. Because of this project, I’m now far more optimistic in approaching difficult subjects like computer science.
A key aspect of my STEP experience that led to this change in mindset would have to be the building process. For my whole life, I’ve been bewildered by computers and what they were capable of; I always thought they would be far too complex to understand. But when I was able to physically hold and inspect each part I had thoroughly researched and bought, the task became far less daunting. At the most basic level, computers are simple to understand. All information is stored in a binary language: bits. Bits can either be off (0) or on (1). By taking this very basic unit and iterating it over and over, one can transmit information through sheer numbers. The silicon I was holding, put simply, was just that. A large collection of nodes that can transmit information using electricity. Of course, the various parts differ in specialization and scale, but understanding it like this went a long way for me and my attitude towards technology.
Another key aspect of my STEP experience that led to this change was the mentorship. Ty James guided our group through the process the whole way, answering every question and concern we had. It gave me a lot of confidence in building the pc having his input, as I had never undertaken a project quite like this. There were many instances throughout the summer where I was lost and unsure with how to proceed. For example, I didn’t know what sort of gpu would be suitable for me. I was struggling to decide between AMD and Nvidia, the main two manufacturers of graphics cards. On the one hand, Nvidia gpus are widely used and known to be reliable. All of my previous gpus were Nvidia so it was my gut instinct to go with that. However, AMD gpus were far cheaper and gaining popularity recently. If I went with AMD, I’d be able to allocate more funds towards other parts. After talking it over with Ty, I came to the decision to go with AMD, and I have been happy with that decision.
These changes and transformations are valuable for my life because a change in mindset is invaluable for success in any field. Because of this STEP project, I was able to alleviate the mental block I had with subjects like mathematics and computer science. As someone looking to do behavioral neuroscience research, having the motivation to pursue these skills as well as the equipment needed to learn them is very useful. Since I will continue to learn these skills throughout my career, I’m very happy for having done this STEP project.
