As the last class of CPSG 200 finishes, I will have been with SGC for three semesters. It has been very formative and influential towards my life, and I could not imagine a college experience without it. There are many topics discussed both in and out of class that influence my thinking, and the program's general theme has prepared me for change in both the near and distant future.

The past three semesters, we frequently discussed the topic of mis/disinformation in the media, which is quite related to my major, Computer Engineering. On a surface level, the two fields don't seem very connected, however, many of the topics in the computer and electrical engineering field are very misunderstood by the general public. Currently, the most prevalent of these in academia are large language machine learning models (LLMs), or as most people group them: AI. AI is a general term for many types of responsive computer algorithms, but many people typically associate the term with LLMs which allows media and anti-AI groups to protest development of AI as a whole rather than focusing on the problematic usages of it. This distrust in one of the most promising fields related to my major has only strengthened my desire to research and develop technologies using and supporting artificial intelligence models in order to further their mainstream acceptance.

If my major allows these technologies to break the stigma barrier, I believe both development and regulation of AI to be more tailored to each application of it rather than being all or nothing. We also discussed the equal-evidence approach that journalism takes trying to represent both sides and oftentimes overrepresenting the side that just has less evidence and research. This is also the case with LLMs where the negatives of AI in academics are being pushed just as hard as the negatives of AI in the artistic space even though one is a professional field with careers at stake. Overall, This class has helped me take a more social-issue oriented approach to my major in the biggest issues it faces.

The scientific method was a brief topic we discussed in the first semester, but it resurfaced in my engineering ethics class over the summer. Our final project was a presentation on certain catastrophic airline failures, and many groups focused on the Boeing 737 Max 8's multiple failures. Firstly the two lethal failures in 2018 and 2019 were caused by the automated MCAS system, whose nose-down adjustment algorithm was rapidly pushed as a response to the plane's massive jet system. Firstly, the plane was not re-evaluated and redesigned when the massive jets were implemented, and secondly, the software in the MCAS system did not have enough iteration and breadth of testing. Boeing didn't use a large enough sample size of results and used the relatively few successes of the MCAS system to rush the plane into production, all because they wanted to compete with Airbus A320neo, a plane which was also a large-engine version of a previous model.

In my first semester at UMD, I took CHEM 135, chemistry for engineering majors. One of the units was centered around biodegradable and non-biodegradable polymers. Another focused on the mechanics of internal combustion engines. Most people know that non-degradable polymers and combustion engines have negative impacts on the environment, but the context is missing. CPSG 100 and 101 were a good continuation and contextualization t0 the very low level focus of the chemistry course. It was a good full-scale integration of information, as first we learned both the physical causes behind global warming, then learned the historical and social effects of those causes.

One of my favorite parts of this program was having something in common with people of wildly different majors. During excursion field trips, I would often travel with a diverse group of majors including an environmental science major and a public health major. These people enhanced my experience of the various natural history museums we went to, as they would go out of their way to specific exhibits outside of the assignment to see certain specimens and read the explanations. Because my major is so tangential to the program, making friends with people who have majors related to this program was one of the best opportunities granted to me through SGC.

Active contribution to SGC was very important to me for all three semesters. I always chose to attend in-person excursions, as they were more involved with the professors and other students. I also volunteered as a peer mentor this semester, organizing introductory events and student gatherings for the incoming class of 2024. Many of my friends in SGC are also peer mentors, and we frequently help each other organize and host collaborative events to help our mentees.

Scholars helped me meet some of my closest friends, most of which have very different academic and personal identities. They've helped me connect with communities I wasn't personally very knowledgeable or involved in, such as the LGBTQ community. I've always been a vocal proponent of queer rights and recognition, but I've had very few queer friends prior to college. I learned about the nuances of gender transitions, and although I was very aware of the social stigmas around trans individuals, I learned first hand the impacts of the stigmas, and how much gender identity means to a person. My discussions with my friends have helped me reevaluate my own gender identity, even though I was already comfortable with it.

Although most of the technical aspects of the previous semesters have been lost to time in my mind, there are general concepts and skills that we needed to establish in order to be successful in this class. Foremost, the lessons on skepticism and logical fallacies are pertinent in literally every class and most professional interactions. Frequently, a discussion section TA may have a very hand-wavy explanation of material being taught, but approaching this information with a skeptical view helps me question and understand the material better. When learning any new technical skill such as a new programming language, questioning the mechanics of the skill only furthers my understanding because the mechanics are usually quite sound and explainable. The excursions have also helped with my synthesis towards various types of information presentation. I attended three museum excursions, where many of the questions on the assignments covered how information was conveyed. I will continue to question presentation techniques for nearly every piece of media I see.