I am an undergrad no more! I finished my last exam on Friday and came back home to Thornhill that night. I don’t feel any different from when I finished exams in my previous terms. I think the fact that my undergrad career is actually over hasn’t sunk in yet. Overall, I had a pretty enjoyable term. The courses that I took were pretty interesting. Well, most of them anyway. The two courses I enjoyed the most were SOC 101 (Intro to Sociology) and CS 486 (Artificial Intelligence).
Sociology allowed me more insight into what is happening with the Canadian society, as well as brief discussions on societies in the global scale. I never really understood why Ams liked sociology that much, but now I have come to appreciate this field of study as well. The turning point for me is when we looked at myths that are widespread in our society, but are in fact all false. For example, people tend to have the belief that homeless people are lazy and have only themselves to blame for their situation. However, this belief is generally not true. We are socialized to be very individualistic, and the capitalist society awards individual achievements. So when we see people with problems, or if we ourselves have problems, we have a tendency to blame it on the individuals — but in actuality the problem is most likely a social problem.
My favourite course this term is AI. I’ve always had an interesting, or fascination, with AI. I think the challenge of having machines performing complex tasks that are usually done by humans is very interesting. It was cool to see the different techniques that AI researchers use to solve different problems. I enjoy computer science not for its practical values, but I love the theories behind everything. If I had to choose between a situation where I am in a situation similar to Bill Gates of Microsoft or Steve Jobs of Apple, or a situation where I’m just a researcher (in computer science) getting paid 60K, I’d take the research position without hesitation. I’m not faulting anyone for wanting money, but personally I just want enough to get by. I find more satisfaction in doing work that I find interesting than getting paid a six figure salary working a job I’m not very interested in. I’ve always enjoyed problem solving and puzzles. The feeling I get when I complete a proof or solve a very hard problem/puzzle is one of the most rewarding feelings I get.
Anyway, I still waiting for all my marks to come in. I have a good feeling about this term, and I’ll see if my good feeling is justified or not. :P
