Final Reflection

Some of the things I learned from this class are that time management is everything! You need to give yourself time to do things and nothing is truer than that statement when it comes to this class. I did Science and Technology: Promise or Peril and I learned more about artificial intelligence and Google's self-driving car. It's changed my understanding of college level research because it showed me Google isn't your best source; you can only really find scholarly stuff in the databases. I was so used to using and relying off of Google for things when I was challenged to use the databases and it was tough at first but then I realized it's a lot more reliable then Google. I definitely learned that college level research is not easy if you do not give yourself time to find the best sources to support your claim. Some advice I can offer to a future student is to do every single milestone. These milestones help me realize my flaws and what I need to work on, instead of just doing the paper and not knowing what you need to work on. Professor Dragan makes these five milestones assignments worth points because you cannot just come up with a final paper and have no blueprint. Although it may seem like it's annoying it literally is only helping you achieve the grade you really want in this course. Again I was made aware of my flaws because of these milestones so I worked on them and confidently handed in my final paper. I know now that time is everything in school and especially with this class. You need the right sources to mold your paper into a masterpiece. This paper initially was a lot harder than I expected but once I partnered up with Professor Dragan it was simply easy to find the right sources to do your paper My favorite research method was Gale, I personally found everything I needed on there!. If I could have done anything different I would have gave myself more time. I usually would complete assignments 2 to 3 days before they were due. I guess that's okay but do you want an okay grade? Give yourself the maximum amount of time to get these things done because if you don't or if you don't do any of the milestones or you put no effort into them; you're going to wake up a few days before the final draft is due and you are going to look around and be lost. Key thing to take away here is: GIVE YOURSELF TIME!

Close Reading of Film Stills In I Robot

I found this assignment really interesting because I never have done this prior to now. However for the film still I used I Robot by Will Smith. This particular 'film still' reveals that Will Smith personality is one of an aggressive one. He was interrogating a robot that is suspected of murder and his demeanor was that of a detective. Smith looks like he has swagger here in this film still. He has a very stern look on his face. Some of the cinematographic details the the director gave in this picture still is that the focus of the picture is Will Smith. I feel like he did that to show that Smith is the main focus. He is the authority in that room and also there is a reflection of Smith in that table. I think the reflection was also done on purpose but I am not sure exactly what he tried to convey there. I probably would have missed how focused this picture is, I am all about little things so I am glad I caught this film still. For my second film still, I used when Smith made peace with the robot toward the end of the movie. This film still reveals that here his emotions are passionate and respectful when its all said and done. This shows a gentler side of Smith and shows that he respects them. Some of the cinematographic effects he director used is definitely the lighting. The lighting looks so peaceful with the orange skies glazing down on both of them to show some tranquility. The distance of this frame is perfect because its just right and if it were any different I honestly feel it would have taken away from the film still. I don't think I would have captured the real beauty of this moment if it wasn't for this film still. I don't think I would have noticed the small details that I pay so much attention too. Overall, looking at film stills are a lot more helpful then just watching the movie because film stills allows you to capture the real moment the director wanted you to grasp.

Blog Assignment #1

I am writing about Science or Technology: Promise or Peril on self-driving cars. I am writing about the advantages and disadvantages about a car that self drives. While there are many advantages of a self driving car, there are still some underlying disadvantages. The title of my first article is "Just how close to commercial reality is a self-driving car" and the source is fortune.com. I found this article on Ebscohost which I find to have a lot of great articles for what I am writing about. Some of the relevant information I got from this article in particular is some people are concerned as to who would be responsible if there was an accident. Also according to this article, Nissan promises to have a self-driving car by 2020. Also in the brand new Audi Q7, there is a feature called "heavy traffic jam assist" which self drives the car under 40 mph in heavy traffic. 30 mph is pretty fast to me so you can see that we are already heading to that direction of self-driven cars. This author does not have any argument do they do help show some of the benefits of self driven cars. The information it adds is that the reader can know a little background information on self-driven cars if they already didn't know about it. I chose this source because it gives a nice basic understanding of some of the steps we are taking for self driving cars. Audi refers to the assistance as "pilot driving". However the reason I did select this article specially is because it gives the reader a good "base" of understanding. If I had to sum up this article in a short quote I would say that "robotic logic must be able to decide safely and instantaneously whether to turn, accelerate or brake. For my second article, the title is "The Road to Self Driving Cars" and the source is consumer reports.com. I also found this article in Ebscohost which I find a lot of great articles. Some of the relevant information in this article is 90% of crashes are because of human error. Also they said automotive makers want to create a system where when you are about to crash or are drifting out of your lane or falling sleep, your car will take over until you can continue. They are going to call it forward collision warning. Again, this is another good base for my paper to have the read have  abetter understanding of the topic at hand. If I had to summarize this article in one short quote it would be "Adaptive cruise control helps your car automatically maintain a set distance behind one in front. Though it has been around for some time, newer systems have more capabilities."

My Research Topic

My research topic is Science and Technology: Promise or Peril. I am really interested in writing about the self driving cars. The reason I chose this topic is because I am a really big car enthusiast so naturally this topic is appealing to me. I am not sure if I want to agree with this huge milestone or if I think maybe he shouldn't have cars that drive themselves. The reason I am still so conflicted is because if the self driving car gets into an accident, who is responsible? Is your insurance paying for it? These are just little things I am pondering to figure out whether I agree or not. Other then that I think I am pretty much doing Science and Technology: Promise or Peril.

Welcome to My Blog!

My name is Jean Carlos Germosen. I am currently a student at LaGuardia Community College and will be entering John Jay School of Criminal Justice in Fall 2014. Once getting my bachelors degree in criminal justice I plan on joining the New York City Police Department and see how high I can go up in the ranks. (ex. sergeant, lieutenant, captain, etc.)