Preface

• This is a free online course provided by University of Pennsylvania on Coursera, taught by Chris Murphy (opens in a new tab) and Susan Davidson (opens in a new tab)
• I was recommended by a friend who took this course and found it inspiring
• Although the course is a Computer Science course, it is more about problem solving which I consider it as the fundamental skills for software engineering
• It will be a fruitful experience because there were times when I questioned not my code but my perspective on solving the problem
  • Solving the problem right is much better than fixing the problem fast because it saves us time in the long run
• I have recently read a refreshing article The hardest part of building software is not coding, it's requirements (opens in a new tab) by Jared Toporek
  • It pointed out that the value of Software Engineer is never the code, but the ability to gather & calibrate requirements to create applications
  • In my point of view, it actually means the combination of communication, problem solving and industrial knowledge, in which so far AI is no where close
• Hopefully by the end of the course, I will have some insights on problem solving and apply to my work