More often then not when you are working in a class setting whether it be in a computer programming class or any class in general; you always have a set list of problems with a set list of solutions and there are teaching aids and professors who are there to help and guide you to the soultion to every step. However, I have learned that in research this is not the case. In research, there are a multitude of different problems which happens to arise when you are trying to achieve your overall goal. Before this summer, I had prior research before coming to Illinois as a freshman but that research had nothing to do with computer programming and more often than not when I had a problem it was easy to solve.
As I have learned in many of my computer programming classes programming always brings about some minor problems which you had not planned for. You cannot just write a huge amount of code without testing it constantly or you will finish writing all of your code and realize that it will not compile. Even with prior experience using Python, I encountered multiple problems while doing tasks which in my mind should have been easy to accomplish. However, I find the challenge of solving these problems and making something which I hope can be useful for our research team to be very fulfilling. I enjoy the idea that when I overcome these minor challenges and tasks I will hopefully have made something worthwhile with my time.
