A physics simulator to accurately represent the orbit of objects around the Earth at different altitudes. Having gained experience of polymorphism in C++, my goal was to apply it to a problem domain that was foreign to me. I chose orbital because it even though the orbit physics are foreign to me, the domain of space has always been interesting to me since I was a child. In doing this I was able to maintain passion for my program even in a space that was foreign to me. This project commenced as a partnership effort, though it was completed by me individually after lack of commitment from my partner. I gained good experience in keeping team members accountable and I was able to demonstrate that I can make up for unforeseen changes. I am very proud of this deliverable.

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A accurate physics simulation of the Howitzer Artillery cannon. The Howitzer Artillery simulator was my second experience in object oriented programming and test driven development. I also worked with a partner to develop this simulator. I was able to contribute much more to this simulator as I had gained experience from the Lunar Lander simulator. From this project the most significant memory that I have is the 6-7 hour Saturday sessions of refactoring that ensured this project had the best possible code quality. I remember sacrificing many social outings for the benefit of the project to thoroughly and methodically test the program. I feel proud of this simulator because of the growth I was able to demonstrate and the sacrifice and dedication that went into it.

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A accurate physics simulation of the Lunar landing. Lunar Lander was my first experience in a larger object oriented design codebase. At the time it was the most complicated program that I had written. I remember struggling to focus on the big picture as it was hard for me to not get caught up in the details of the syntax heavy C++. I struggled to understand how the physics work and how to represent them in a simulator. My partner was thankfully more experienced than I was and was able to help me through these struggles. As we stepped through the process of the test driven development cycle, I was able to gain the perspective needed for object oriented design. In addition, this was my first experience with writing test suites to verify the design. Overall I am very proud of this project because of how much growth came from it.

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Having gained significant experience in object oriented programming I felt confident about being able to write my own chess program. My goal was to gain a greater understanding for the power of polymorphism by practicing it in a familiar environment. Understanding the game of chess allowed me the perspective to think polymorphically. I realized that there are several duplicated pieces in chess just in different flavors. One example is that the game of chess has pawns but not all pawns are the same color. Another is that pieces sometimes share the same movement directions but are limited by the number of spaces they can execute. Other times it was that they had unlimited moves but in different directions. I worked with a less experienced partner and I led the test driven development process. I was greatly helped by her ideas and perspectives and this program is a testament of what teamwork can accomplish

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I strongly believe in the goal of the project; I believe in the importance of attending BYU-Idaho devotionals and wanted to be part of a project that would enhance that experience. The thought that someday my future kids would ask about the projects I was most proud to have worked on drove me to join the team; I want my kids to know that my name was on that development team so I joined and I offered my skills. What the team needed at that point was someone who shared the vision of the team lead. We had skilled programmers but we needed someone to buy into the vision of what the app could become—I was that person.

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A more in depth study of Data Structures by implementing each data structure with exactly the same efficiency as the Standard Template Library in C++. These projects gave me more experience working with allocators and Spy’s in test driven development. I also gained more insight about pointer arithmetic and how C++ manipulates data “under the hood.” One such example being the difference between copy operations and move operations.

Github