About

Personal

Allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Carter (could you guess?), though online I usually go by the handle gargantua. I am a senior computer engineering student at Michigan Technological University in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, US. I am native to the Midwest and have held a passion for science and technology for as long as I can remember, as many STEM folk often do. I love reading, computers, electrical engineering, and any form of media that falls under the horror genre. Above all else, I love people. People are my favorite things in the world, even though we piss each other off quite a lot these days.

My favorite activity is learning. I really hope that doesn't come off as pretentious, but it really is all I do, though that doesn't imply that I am smart. I can't really focus on video games or movies unless they are horror related, and even then I don't indulge very often. My hobbies consist of self-study of math, computer science, electrical engineering and various areas of philosophy. Expanding on the latter, I enjoy reading about the philosophy behind not only the sciences, but also education and occasionally politics.

As a computer engineer, most of my interests fall under the categories of computer science and electrical engineering. For that reason, all of the below sections will elaborate on my specific interests on in those two fields. This is not going to be all that this website is about, and you should expect a variety of topics to accompany those two.

Computer Science

My Favorite Programming Language

I'll start off with the thing that scares most people away, but please give me a chance to defend myself first: I have an unhealthy obsession with the C programming language. Before you write me off as a total jerk and close out this tab, let me explain! I am not one of the cringelords C programmers that will die on every single hill imaginable for the sake of being contrarian, that isn't who I am. I don't take a verbal crap on every other prog lang and anyone who uses them. It is a terrible shame that the C community has gained such a reputation, especially considering that it turns so many eager young programmers away because of how bad the gate-keeping can be. I won't go too in depth about C here because there will be quite a bit of discussion about the language throughout this website, so I will save my opinions for that.

The Philosophies of Computer Science

As I mentioned before, I like philosophy quite a bit. It's everywhere, and the people who hate on it as a concept seem to not realize that. If you have a passionate opinion on anything at all, congratulations! You enjoy philosophy to some extent. When it comes to computer science, it is literally everywhere, and I love that. I think it is incredibly important to talk about the philosophy of code style, software design, CS education, language preference, and anything and everything else. Again, I will have a lot more to say about this in future articles, so we will keep this as it is.

Computer Science Education

I will keep this one very short so that I don't get too heated. I am a firm advocate for reform in all education systems, but I feel the field of computer science is one of the biggest victims. I believe that computer science is, in most cases, taught completely wrong. This does not mean I think that CS professors and teachers are all idiots, much the opposite, but I do think that they have been put in a position to teach computer science in a poor fashion.

Electrical Engineering

Embedded Systems

Let's first address the elephant in the room: I am a computer engineer, so embedded systems is a big focus in my discipline. However, I would consider embedded systems to be one of my weaker interests at this point in time. This isn't due to disinterest, but more so because I have had more interest in other topics as of late. When it comes to embedded systems, I find a lot more pleasure in reverse engineering existing systems rather than designing and implementing my own.

Control Systems

Control systems are both my strongest and most recently acquired interest in the field of EE. First off, they are everywhere and you cannot escape them. Your car is a control system. Your toilet is a control system. You yourself, as a human, are a control system. It is not strictly an EE discipline, and it is very unique in a lot of ways depending on where you practice it, but I love the entire concept of electronic control systems. I am so lucky to currently have as good of an experience as I am learning controls at university. The professor, though young and learning, is fantastic and has a noticeably high level of enthusiasm for the field. The lab portion of the course has taught me more than any course or lab in the past, and I have gotten to really stretch my legs on the EE side of things as a result.

Electrical Engineering Education

Just as with computer science, I am enthusiastic about education in electrical engineering. The difference here is that I think electrical engineering is being taught pretty well in the current age, and this is a good thing. My goal is to finish my career as an educator, and I am hoping to do so as a professor in electrical engineering in some capacity.