CS373 Fall 2021: Darshan Bhatta
Where did you grow up?
I grew up in Illinois till I was 13 and have lived in the Dallas area ever since.
What high school did you attend?
I went to Coppell High School, it was a pretty big class size of around 1,000 people and I enjoyed my time there.
What was your favorite extracurricular activity in high school?
I enjoyed being a part of the Computer Science Club and the App Development Club. Out of those two my favorite was App Development Club since the way it was run was we picked a semester-long project and we all worked together in building it out.
Why did you come to UT?
As I was looking for colleges to major in CS, UT was my main choice as it had the best CS program in Texas and it was affordable with respect to similar programs at other out-of-state colleges.
Why are you majoring in CS?
I’ve always had an interest in computers from an early age. At first, I was more into the hardware side of things by creating things like robots and building computers. After taking my first computer science class in high school, I knew I liked CS more than hardware because of the fact that you are able to create anything with software and be able to share it with the world instantly.
Why are you in this class?
I really like software engineering and from what I heard from other students that have taken this class in the past, I will learn a great lot.
What are your expectations of this class?
I just want to be able to learn as much as I can in software engineering and the different tooling involved and learn more about design patterns.
How much Javascript/Python/SQL/Web programming do you already know?
I am pretty familiar with web development since in the past I have created web projects from the ground up. I normally use the MERN stack (MongoDB, Express, React, Node.js), but have familiarity with Python and SQL. I am excited on learning even more about these in this class.
How did you like the first lectures?
I have taken Professor Downing’s OOP class in the past and it seems like it is pretty much the same structure. I like the format of guiding through what we are learning rather than just going over slides.
How did you feel about the cold calling?
Since I already took OOP before, I am familiar with cold calling. I think cold calling is an excellent thing to have as it makes sure students are paying attention and don’t zone off.
What made you happy this week?
I am happy to move back to Austin for the year. I only got to spend roughly one semester at UT before things shut down, so I am hoping I will experience a full 2 semesters here in Austin.
What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?
My pick-of-the-week is Swagger, a tool that lets you design and document REST APIs. I think it's super useful when designing and with that, you get auto-documentation for your APIs.
