Techie in Training

Algorithms         The word “algorithm” has become rather mainstream in today’s social networking climate, but in computer science, it means so much more than simply how frequently videos are pushed to someone’s “For You Page” on TikTok. In programming, algorithms are responsible for the processes in which a computer processes specific tasks (Meinecke, 2021). Photo by Getty Images from Communications of the ACM …and Data Structure Design!             There are multiple ways an algorithm can be implemented. Some of the most common ones used are (Lysecky, Vahid, & Givargis, 2015): Linear search Binary search Selection sorting Insertion sorting Shell sorting Quicksorting Merge sorting Radix sorting Partitioning Algorithm Efficiency         With this many options for a small number of functions, it follows that some are more efficient than others, depending on the c...

Follow me to the programming project! Before using the features at the Scratch website, aside from the interactions with the online textbook (Vahid, 2017) for my current course, I had no experience with coding or programming. Going into this project with no experience on the subject was daunting, to say the least. From the first loading of the webpage, the bright colors and simple words were evidence that it was a tool that was easy enough for a child to use. The tutorials gave the simplest of instructions on how to begin creating with their site. Even with that, as an over-thinker, I still found the task of writing something with a minimum of thirty blocks to be overwhelming. The only thing to do to conquer the fear and anxiety was to jump in and start creating. While I didn’t have to worry about actually writing out the words for the code, let alone compiling the information into binary, I struggled to find the right blocks to build the code in order to make the cartoon character o...