Kahlil Stefano: Minor Field Trip

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.

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