Week 9

July 24 - July 30

If there were two words to discribe this week, they would be crazy busy. It was like the race for the finish. This week we had a couple of things that had to be done. Thursday we had presentations of our summer project along with all of the REU participants. We also had to get the final bits of the study working so we could start running subjects. Neither of these are extremely difficult tasks; however, under time constraints, they can become quite challenging.

One of the main things that I worked on this week was the usability study. Our goal was to start running subjects on Tuesday, but we didn't get to run our first subject until Wednesday. It was much more difficult to prepare running the study than I would have thought. Before we could run it, I had to install the game engines on a computer for us to use during the testing. This task is much easier said than done. I spent so many hours trying to install Neverwinter Nights on computers. The installation process went well. The game just wouldn't work on any of the computers that I installed it on. The first computer froze whenever you tried to play the game. The second computer was too slow to do the game any justice. The third computer is also kind of slow but it won't run the game at all. Trying to deal with the computers has been a mess. We would like to have a perminent desktop for the games. It is just very difficult to find a computer that will support the game with no problems. Right now, we are having to use Tar's computer because of the lack of machines to run the study on. We might try to run it on another computer later. We won't be able to use her computer forever.

Another thing about the study that made it kind of difficult was the group aspect. Everyone had several deadlines to meet. They too had to get everything ready for the study along with writing a presentation. I had to depend on others in order to get the study ready. A lot of the things that I needed to do, I couldn't do until other people had given me their part. It ended up working out. It just made getting the study ready extra stressful for me since I was working under a time constraint as well as working with others.

In all of my spare moments from working on the study and actually runnning the study I would work on my presentation. All of the REU and CRA students had to present their summer research. Looking back on the presentation, it was good practice for me. I didn't enjoy it at the time though.

Now that this week is over, all of the REU students are leaving, including my roommate Lauren. It is so sad to see everyone go. The good news is that I will be coming back to UNCC during the school year some with the STARS Alliance.