University
of Southeastern Philippines
Bo. Obrero, Davao City
Minor Seminar
January 23, 2016
Seminar
Overview
As partial fulfillment for the requirements of the course Field Trips and
Seminars, third year students from the University of Southeastern Philippines
Institute Of Computing, including me, must conduct a major and a minor field
trip. The major field trip already took place on September 2015 while the minor
field trip took place on January 23 of this year.
Instead of having a field trip, the officers have opted to have a seminar
instead. The seminar took place on the University Social Hall. It was called
the Graphics Design and Web Development
Seminar with Hackathon and Startup Pitching Competition. It is a whole day
activity slated to begin at 8:00 am and end at 5:00 pm. The Graphics Design and
Web Development seminar took place in the morning. Three speakers were invited
to talk about a range of topics concerning graphics design and web development.
On the afternoon of the same day, the Hackathon and the Startup Pitching took
place.
First Speaker
The first speaker to share
something to us was Mr. Ralph Gideon. He is a BS Information Technology
graduate whose alma mater is our very own university. He is currently teaching
arts at Ateneo de Davao University. He used to work as a programmer but then
decided to pursue his passion, which is to design. His talk was all about the
fundamentals of designing.
The first topic he discussed to us are the seven elements of design or visual
arts: line, shapes, forms, color, value, texture, and space. These elements are
already familiar to us because these are very basic concepts arts. He then
proceeded to the next part of his discussion, the six principles of design.
There are six principles of design but he only discussed five of them. The
priciples are also basic concepts in arts but what makes his discussion about
the topic unique is that he related it to graphics and web design, which is
very important and interesting to people in the field of IT. He showed examples
for each of the principles.
The following
are the five principles of design the speaker discussed:
1.
Balance, the concept of arranging art elements so no part overpowers or would
seem heavier than any other parts. It has three types: symmetric, asymmetric
and radial.
2.
Rhythm/ Movement, which is achieved
when recurring position, size, color, and use of a graphic element has a focal
point interruption. It also has three types: one-beat, alternating and
progressive.
3.
Emphasis, the concept of creating a “special area” or a focal point. Emphasis is
very important in graphics design as emphasis usually determine what element of
the design is more important than the others.
4.
Proportion, the concept of using the relative
size of elements against each other can attract attention to a focal point.
5.
Unity. Visual unity is the main goal of a graphics design.
He also talked about the difference of an artist and a designer. We have
learned from him that designers usually do work with limited resources or
constraints, unlike artists.
What I liked?
What I liked about the first speaker is he
gave us information about the fundamentals of design. It was really helpful for
us because he also related those information to real life scenarios. I also
liked that he communicated with us, the audience, during his talk.
What
I didn’t like?
What I didn’t like about the first speaker is
that even though his topics were informative, we felt that it was unnecessary
because all of those were already discussed in our arts classes.
Second Speaker
The second speaker to share something to us was Ms. Shannen Shapar. She studied
BS in Information Technology at the University of Immaculate Conception but was
not able to graduate because of some undisclosed reasons. But that didn’t stop
her. She was able to get a job as a front-end developer in Ingenuity
Global Consulting. I find her story relatable because like me, she didn’t
really know what career path she is going to follow. She just took the job at
Ingenuity Global Consulting because she needed it. Nevertheless, she became
adept at it and grew to love it over time.
The main discussion point she talked about is front-end developing. Front-end
is the “presentation layer” we see in websites and applications. It is where we
see the user interface. Back-end on the other hand is the “data access layer or
server layer.” It is important to develop a good front-end because users
usually judge a website or an app based on its looks, rather than its
functionalities.
Other topics she discussed are topics related to web design and front end
development. One of the topics she emphasized on her presentation is the
importance of HTML5 boilerplates. HTML5 boilerplates helps us build fast,
robust, and adaptable web apps or sites. An example of an HTML5 boilerplate is
Bootstrap. It is a free and open source frond-end framework. It has a large
collection of tools for creating websites and web applications. She also
discussed about the importance of CSS preprocessors. CSS preprocessors,
according to vanseodesign.com, are a way to add functionality on CSS mainly on
the form of abstraction.
The speaker presented two examples of CSS preprocessors, the SASS and the LESS.
These preprocessors provide functions that are currently not available in CSS.
Examples of
these functions are:
1.
Variables. CSS preprocessors allow variable manipulation.
2.
Interpolation. Developers using CSS preprocessors aren’t constrained by the limited values
of CSS properties.
3.
Operations. CSS preprocessors support operations.
4.
Mixins. A CSS Preprocessor function that allows reuse of block of codes.
5.
Nesting. Nested formatting is allowed when using CSS preprocessors.
The speaker also discussed about the two popular workflow management tools, the
Gulp and the Grunt. These tools are just here to help developers achieve
maximum efficiency. After that, she ended her talk by giving us tips on how to
be a good front-end developer.
- The tips to be good front-end
developers, according to Ms. Shannen Shapar:
- Collaborate with content creators and
back-end developers
- Interpret designs into a workable code
- Combine the works of designers and
back-end developers, break design into components and write a code for
each
- Test a website’s look and
functionalities using different browsers and devices
- Research design and code trends to
keep website on cutting edge
What I liked?
What I also liked about the second speaker is
the fact that she was very relatable. She was not able to graduate but she
became very successful. She is an inspiration not only to me but to others as
well.
What I didn’t like?
What I didn’t like about the second speaker is
her way of presentation. She would talk about her topic and then she would stop
because she would either talk about herself or ask her colleagues to do the
explaining for her. Unlike the first speaker, she was not communicating with
the audience.
Third Speaker
The third and final speaker to talk in front of us was Mr. Nikko Comidoy. He is
also a BS Information Technology graduate from our university. Mr. Comidoy was
not originally slated to speak in front of us but due to some reasons, he was
told to do so. Because of that, he talked about Technopreneurship instead of
topics relating to graphic design and web development. He also talked about his
life on the Institute of Computing and an application they made, the Doc
Banana, helped shaped his career. His talks were very inspiring and interesting
but I did not really feel its significance to me because we do not have the
subject Technopreneurship. After his talk, we had a luch break.
What I liked?
What I liked about the third speaker is the
fact he was from our very own university. I also liked that he told us his own
experiences to inspire us to work harder. His talk about the apps he co-developed
were also very interesting and informative.
What I didn’t like?
What I didn’t like about the third speaker is
that he was not prepared to do his speech. His topics were quite irrelevant to
the theme of the seminar. He also didn’t have any visual aids.
Hackathon and
Startup Pitching Competetion
In the afternoon of the same day, the Hackathon and the Startup Pitching
Competition happened. The pitching competition was for the IT students taking
the course Technopreneurship 1. They were divided into five groups, with a
judge/mentor for each group. Each individual was slated to pitch his idea or
product to the judge/mentor. After that, the top two of each group were to
pitch in front of the audience. The competition was fun and we got to see the
ingenuity and innovation in the ideas of the participants. In the end, the app
“iTravel Safe” won first place.
While
the pitching competition was ongoing, groups of students were competing against
each other in a programming contest commonly referred to as “Hackathon.” Each
group was given seven machine problems to be solved within a span of three
hours. Everybody gave it their best shot but the group of Dapal and company won
the event.
What I liked?
What I liked about the second part of the
seminar is that I had the chance to listen and scrutinize the ideas pitched by
the IT students. Hearing their ideas were fun and informative at the same time.
What I didn’t like?
What I didn’t like about the second
part of the seminar is that many of us had nothing to do. Many wanted to join
the hackathon but were unable to because we were not informed that we should’ve
brought laptops during that event. Because of that, many of us were left to
dillydally instead of doing anything productive.
APPENDIX
Recommendation
I recommend that the minor field trip be taken
on time to avoid delays in the future. It would also be better if the pool of
speakers to speak in the seminar would come from different companies and fields
of IT for a better look of how IT in the real world really works.
My advice to those who will take their
advance seminar program in the near future.
I would advice that the students that would
take this kind of seminar in the future is that they should listen attentively
to the speakers of this event because the things that they will say would be
very important to them when they go out in the real world.
Pictures
Picture
1 The first speaker, Mr. Gideon, talking discussing the principles of
design. Photo not mine.
Picture
2 The second speaker, Ms. Shapar, talking about front-end
development. Photo not mine.
Picture
3 The third speaker, Mr. Comidoy.
Photo not mine.
Picture
4 The programming event "Hackathon". Photo no mine.
Picture
5 Pitching competition. Phot not mine.
