Time to take a jump off the deep end
Today was my course registration day.
The original plan was to go and do a distance ed course because I am heading out east for a week and a bit in June. If I carried on with that plan, I would have probably taken either CMNS 130 or CRIM 131, thanks to recent developments that have encouraged me to do more than just a Computing Science degree.
For the curious, the option that was on my mind for the longest time was a minor in Communications due to my primary interest area in Internet communications through websites. I figured that understanding how communications have evolved and developed and where it can go all thanks to technology would be a good thing to pair up with a computing degree.
But after hearing during a career fair last week (and I was one of the people running the booth where I heard it from) that there is discussion going on about a joint major in Computing Science and Criminology on computer forensics, I pretty much got hooked on that idea.
However, a desire to get a U-Pass for the summer (apparently, I am not eligible for a U-Pass if I take only distance ed courses) has encouraged me to go and take a course. And that lucky course does not fall into any of the two aforementioned courses, but CMPT 419.
The topic? Machine learning. The prof? Greg Mori, who also happened to teach my CMPT 310 course.
Two things make me worried about the course though. First off, it is quite math-intensive and requires a good knowledge of calculus and linear algebra, pre-requisites in the lower-level CMPT stuff. I did not do so well on those. Second is that the course is cross-listed with a grad course.
However, the course material does sound interesting and my interest in the material will be my main driving force in keeping me going. After all, my desire to do MACM 442 has already forced me to take MATH 342. For the curious, it was not as bad as it looked.

May 27th, 2008 00:27
[...] I decide to do a minor in something or pursue a joint major at this late stage, as mentioned in an old post), I’ve been thinking of things to do before I decide to don the cap and gown to walk across [...]