My Sixth Semester as a Penn State IST Student

In recent weeks I’ve been asked by several of my friends what I thought of this past semester of college. I have not talked about my education for a while, so I figured I would take the opportunity to catch everyone up on this past semester and my degree as a whole.

For those of you who don’t know much about education, I’m currently attending college at Penn State’s main campus studying Information Sciences and Technology. Most people outside of Penn State (and even some people in Penn State) are unaware of what the IST major is, so I will briefly explain the major. Essentially, IST is a major designed around not only the technical skills needed for 21st century jobs, but also covers the business aspects and managerial skills needed to be successful in the new information-based economy.

Within the IST major, I have been studying the design and development focus area, which goes into more detail with the programming and other technical concepts. I’ve found this option to suit me well, especially now that I’m running my own company, as the IST major is providing me both the business and technical skills needed to succeed.

This Past Semester

Unlike some of my previous semesters, this past semester has focused heavily around the business aspect of IST. While I can tell some of my fellow IST students in the design and development option are disliking the business aspects, personally I’m loving them. Below are my opinions of each of the courses I took this past semester.

IST 301 – Information and Organization

I personally found IST 301 the most demanding of all my registered classes this semester. IST 301 focused on the internals of how companies function as a whole. From understanding organizational hierarchies, to exploring the values and cultures of various companies, all of those topics and more were covered in IST 301.

While I enjoyed learning about the intricate details of organizations, the overarching project of the class is what brought me down. Myself and a group of five other students were tasked with researching literally everything we could find on a company of our choosing (in this case, Electronic Arts). By the end of the semester we assembled a 50+ page paper reporting on the overall well being of Electronic Arts, not including a 10+ page works cited. The project was certainly worthwhile, but I just wish it could have been less stressful.

IST 411 – Distributed Object Computing

Out of all of my IST classes this semester, I enjoyed IST 411 the most. IST 411 focused on developing multi-threaded, client/server network applications using Java. While I had done similar programming with PHP in the past, applying the same concepts to desktop application programming was a challenge that I enjoyed. I learned some interesting new design patterns, furthered my familiarity with MVC, and overall enjoyed the different programming challenges we were tasked with throughout the semester.

For those of you who follow my Twitter, I’m sure you’re wondering what came of the crazy ending project. No worries as my group pulled everything together at the last moment, we received an A for the project, and I received an A in the course.

IST 402 – Emerging Issues in Technology

I don’t have much to say about IST 402, other than I still have no clue what this course was about. I learned a little MATLAB, studied patterns in the stock market, and did some more stuff with MATLAB. Oh yeah, the words “complex system” were uttered over and over again. All I know is I signed up for the wrong IST 402 class. The other class apparently competes in a Google contest every year and wins.

IST 341 – Human Diversity

While I was not a huge fan of the subject, IST 341 will probably be one of the more beneficial IST classes I have registered for. Taught by one of the best IST professors, Jan Mahar, this course explored working with various individuals in the corporate world. During the class we focused on communicating with teams internationally, dealing with human resource issues, among other diversity topics. The work was team oriented, furthering the experience of working with diverse individuals. While there is not much to say beyond the basics, I truly feel what I learned in this class will be applied in whatever job I work after college.

EGEE 102 – Environmental Protection

Taken simply to satisfy a requirement in general sciences, this online course was just that, an online course. While the class did focus around useful subjects such as purchasing energy efficient home appliances, nothing in EGEE 102 really excited me. Down the road when I purchase my own house, I may remember what I learned, but even if I don’t the course met my goal; satisfying my general sciences requirement.

Semester in Review

Overall, I truly enjoyed this past semester. With the exception of IST 402, the IST courses I took this semester were interesting and beneficial. Some of the information I learned has already been applied to Spiral Web Consulting, while other information will come in handy down the road. Regardless, I feel confident this semester was worth the money, and I look forward to my remaining two semesters of IST.