After finishing my penultimate semester at UT, here is a review of the classes I took.

Ethical Hacking

CS 378 Ethical Hacking with Professor Chris Prosise was a fairly hands-on class with real world implications. It primarily consisted of the occasional homework, a midterm, and a final project. Attendance was required, but the lectures were really helpful in understanding how the techniques were applicable to real clients.

Coming into the class, I had a basic idea of what were some big security flaws such as SQL injection, password reuse, etc. Indeed, these are some the common security flaws, but vulneribilities can come from even the configuration of the system! In addition, despite how seemingly good our wireless networking technology is, the established protocols still allow wireless networking to be easily exploitable.

In addition to teaching ethical hacking, Chris taught us his non-technical expertise in choosing wine, planning a career, getting started financially after securing your first job, etc. For these reasons of learning practical ethical hacking and adulting tips and tricks, I would recommend taking this class for anyone who can get into it.

Neural Networks

CS 342 Neural Networks by Professor Krähenbühl. This was the first time the course was offered, and the concept of neural networks has only recently become popular. The whole idea of teaching neural networks in a classroom setting is novel, so I came into the class not sure what to expect.

This class was soley project-focused, and I think that was a good choice. We started at the basic building blocks for neural networks and built upon that. Lecture consisted of learning the high level idea and motivation for certain architectures while the discussion sections and projects were focused on implementing said architectures.

We capped off the class with a final project where we had to create a neural network that would drive a kart around a track from scratch. This involved choosing between imitation learning, re-enforcement learning, or a mix of them. Regardless, we had to collect data ourselves, train on the data and play the game. While the neural network portion of the assignment wasn’t that difficult, it did give a glimpse at the whole end-to-end picture of data modeling.

Looking back, while the last assignment was a huge pain in the butt, I felt like this class has given me a solid foundation to continue learning in how neural networks have influenced almost every area of ML.

Government

GOV 310L with Professor Shannon O’Brien. Though many of my friends had already gotten government credit (through APs or have taken it previously), I did manage to find a few friends. I didn’t really like the class, but I really liked the lecturer. She was very engaging and was able to summarize complex government topics into short and consise sentences. Specifically for that reason and if you’re not taking government elsewhere, I would recommend her class.

Intro to the New Testament

R S 315N with Professor Brent Landau. This class is completely different than those I have taken in the past. First, it is the first non-PE class where it did not count towards my degree. Second, the primary focus is on religion - specifically Christianity. Overall, I had a decent experience in this class. This challenged my faith and really forced me to know the Bible better.

The material tested on was 100% from lectures. However, the material presented in class will be difficult for some to wrestle with. In fact, Professor Landau actually states this in an early lecture: “If you hold the Bible to be inerrant (which he defines in that class), this class will challenge that notion.” Just as Professor Landau and other biblical scholars do, question everything. Question the material presented in class. Evaluate its objectivity, and see if the material presents the whole picture. It’s easy to frame a scene to draw a conclusion, so trying to see all sides of the coin will be important in this class.

Besides the material that tries to throw Biblical Inerrancy out the window, I did learn a lot about themes throughout the gospels, epistles, and Revelation. This has benefitted me in my devotions to really understand the context of which any particular set of verses was written. However, this has also sometimes made me dive too much into the commentary and background that I lose track of what God is trying to say. It’s a double-edged sword, but I think this new knowledge will bring many more positives than negatives in the long run.

Looking Forward

This semester wasn’t the most academically challenging for me. However, next semester, I’m taking CV, NetSec, Lying and Deception, Interpersonal Communications, and three 1 hour courses. I’m expecting it to be a bit more intense, so let’s see how much senioritis hits me!