Hello World

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Hello World!

My name is Cameron and I am the Lead Software Engineer at Blue Street Studios.
I have decided to do a blog because, in my free time I mentor students who are learning about making games with CG Spectrum and I often say to the students that blogging is a good tool to help market themselves when applying to jobs. Blogging shows their journey, things they have learned, and can be beneficial to others who are learning how to do the same kinds of things. So, I created one to practice what I preach.

My goal with this blog is to talk about what I'm learning, projects I'm working on, problems I'm having (that are relevant to software engineering), etc. I'm not necessarily looking to educate anyone on new material. I would just like to have a place to write down all of my thoughts and if there are others who can benefit from what I have to say then great! As of right now I am in the process of downloading Unreal Engine 5.1.0. The students in CG Spectrum are learning about making games with Unreal and unfortunately I am not a native Unreal user so, I have taken it upon myself to familiarize myself with the engine so I can answer their questions properly.

But wait! You might ask how it is possible that I am mentoring students when I am not familiar with the software they are using and to that I would say that the purpose of the mentoring is to evaluate their work and guide them with my experiences. I have been a professional for the last 6.5 years and I have built a very deep reservoir of knowledge that I can tap into which includes different development processes, platforms, tools, methodologies, etc. etc. For instance, yesterday I actually reviewed UML with one of the students I am mentoring (this student is actually in the pre-requisite class that is just C++) and to my surprise they were not familiar with UML in the sense of designing an Object-Oriented system. Now, anyone can say "go and design a UML diagram based on what you would like to implement" and that person would come up with something which may or may not be good. Or, and this is where the experience comes in, someone could say "go and design a UML diagram based on what you would like to implement AND here are the lessons I have learned that you should take into consideration." And this is the purpose of the mentoring, to convey my experiences to them to give them the fullest learning experience possible. Maybe I'll write a post on UML. Actually, I probably should because then instead of doing a lecture on my experiences I can just point them to the blog post and clock out early.

To wrap up this intro post I would like to point out that I have 2 quarters left at DePaul University before I complete my Master's in Software Engineering with a focus in Architecture. I chose to go back to school to improve on some areas that I was weak in which has really molded me into a great (not perfect) software engineer. I also have a YouTube channel that I keep trying to make tutorial videos in however, school keeps getting busy. This upcoming quarter will be 2 project classes so I am unsure what my workload is like, but if I have free time I will surely get back to making those videos.

Location: Chicago, IL, USA

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