Adam Ballantine
My name is Adam Ballantine or, as I prefer to be known, s3916401. I was born in 1982 to two migrants; my father from the UK and my mother from Italy. They met in Melbourne, got married in Melbourne, had my older brother in Melbourne, then decided to make sure I was made fun of for the rest of my life. So they moved to Tasmania and had me.
I graduated high school in 2000, then studied a BA at Monash University, with a double major in Philosophy and Archaeology. I have often claimed that this only left me qualified to be a drunk; which is lucky, as I have spent about 18 years working in the liquor industry. This is rarely as fun as it sounds (though very occasionally it is exactly as fun as it sounds).
At the start of 2019, shortly after my son turned one, I left work to be a stay at home dad. The plan was to be at home for a year, then start looking for a new job. But after a year, it was 2020, so that plan kind of went down the drain. After another year at home, I decided to use the time to get some new skills and qualifications and change my career to something I might enjoy a bit more. Which leads me to…
During high school, I had access to a graphical calculator that let me create my own programs. Instead of studying maths, I tried to learn how to program a video game on my calculator. I ended up making a very short, but fun, text adventure game that I was pretty proud of. I decided I was going to go to uni to study how to make video games and that would be my career.
I had no idea how to go about doing this or what I needed to study, and it felt a bit like saying “I’m going to be a professional rock star” after learning how to play Hot Cross Buns on the recorder. So I didn’t, I studied Arts instead. But this did start a lifelong interest in programming that has come up in small ways a couple of times in my career, with some basic HTML and macro writing in spreadsheets.
Once I decided I would go back to my teenage desire to study programming while still being a stay at home dad, OUA seemed like the obvious choice. Going through their catalogue, the best looking option was the RMIT Bachelor of Information Technology. Being a well-regarded course that was 100% online and offering the option to enroll in courses without yet committing to the degree, I was sold. Particularly as I still don’t know if online study is for me, that freedom made it enticing to try out.
While it was video game creation that first piqued my interest in IT, I am cognizant of the fact that there is a lot more to IT as a whole and it has certainly come a long way since I was a teenager. I’m hoping that this course, and degree, will allow me to get a feel for a number of different facets of the industry in order to find something that not only suits me personally, but also offers a viable career path. Once that is covered, I expect to come out of the degree with the skills and capabilities needed to directly enter the workforce at the start of that path.
If we mean ideal ideal, I would pick someone like this guy. Invent something incredibly popular, sell it for millions and retire/troll social media. But in terms of something more realistic, I’m looking at heading towards something like this (Seek Australia, 2021):
I’m not necessarily looking at Java specifically, but Team Leader/ Project Manager roles in development/programming.
While a lot of that is focused on technical aspects, which are obviously important, what I see as being of particular interest to me are the leadership and management aspects of the role. This would involve mentoring, budgeting, performance management and time management among other more “soft” skills. It also means being able to be the point of communication with other divisions and levels in the hierarchy of the company. My own experience as a retail manager and team leader has enabled me to develop these skills that I can utilise across industries.
RMIT’s Bachelor of IT, along with providing me with a relevant degree, is a great start to building the technical side of the role. At the introductory level, it has already provided me with the opportunity to learn about and use Git, one of the required capabilities. My plan is to follow that up by seeking jobs that would provide me with further opportunities to gain the technical skills and project development experience necessary to fulfill such roles. I would be looking at working in one or more of these teams to become familiar with the ins and outs of delivering software projects. Here is a link to the job ad in full.
Most closely aligning with the Pragmatist learning style, I learn best through doing rather than discussing and with relation to real-world situations rather than pure hypotheticals. Pragmatists can become frustrated with lengthy discussions, wanting to get straight to the point and then dive right into the work once they feel confident with the material. I feel this will lead to a desire to quickly discuss and determine the best way to proceed and then cut to the chase and get to work (European Medicines Research Training Network, 2021), which fits well with the description of ISTJs in the next section.
While I feel I would work best with other Pragmatists who will want the same structure as me, the logic and rationality of a theorist and the careful analysis of a Reflector will, I think, prove complementary. This definitely describes how I like to learn, often wanting to jump ahead as I feel more and more confident with the material learned, and seems to match a number of the characteristics of being an ISTJ.
My Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is ISTJ-A, which is defined by a dedication to integrity, logic and duty as well as a particular insistence on following rules and guidelines. ISTJs, or Logisticians, are analytical and thorough, reliable and typically hard-working. In teams, ISTJs can often over-commit themselves and take on too many responsibilities, finding it hard to let duties be overtaken by others as they are driven to ensure that requirements and deadlines are met appropriately. They prefer a clearly defined structure and well- communicated division of tasks. While building a team, it can be important for ISTJs to include people with the Intuitive (N) type to help broaden the available points of view, which can be particularly important in the planning stages. It would probably be best to avoid Perceiving (P) types, as the improvisation, spontaneity and lack of structure could become frustrating. Ensuring that communication is clear from the start, building a solid foundation for teamwork will go a long way towards creating a comfortable environment for ISTJs to thrive (16 Personalities, 2021).
Overall, I have found that the descriptions of Logisticians are quite accurate for myself. There are a few points around a lack of warmth and insensitivity where I would argue that I differ, but the majority of the strengths and weaknesses match my own experience and do a good job of describing the frustrations I’ve felt during my career.
I have found this to be an odd test, or rather an odd way of describing the results of a test. The lack of categorisation at the end makes it harder to draw generalisations. The high Intellect/Imagination and Conscientiousness scores suggest that I am open to new ideas and experiences, while being careful, diligent and organised. Moderate scores on Extroversion and Agreeableness suggest perhaps a balance of being comfortable working with others while being willing to be assertive when necessary. Moderate to low score on Emotional Stability is perhaps reflective of the frustrations I might feel as described in the previous tests. I think it would be best to group myself with people with similar results, particularly avoiding those with low Agreeableness and Emotional Stability (Open-Source Psychometrics Project, 2021).
I feel like a personality test that doesn’t result in at least a moderately accurate bell-curve is not going to be particularly helpful in describing much of anything, so I will be taking this one with a grain of salt.
My goal is to produce a device that will automatically close a child-proof gate and turn on a night light when a motion sensor is triggered. Using an arduino (or raspberry pi), I want to attach a motion sensor and a small motor such that, on receipt of stimulus, the motion sensor will alert the device to activate the motor, which will close the gate. I would also like to include light and sound elements, though they might come in v2.
I have a 3 year old son and a set of hardwood stairs - not a great combination. We utilise a child-proof gate at the top and bottom of the stairs to keep him safe, then for our own convenience leave them open when his safety is not an issue. For instance, the upstairs gate can be open when he’s downstairs and vice-versa, both gates can be open if he’s out, etc. Until recently, he slept in an enclosed cot, meaning the gates could both be left open after he went to bed. He has now graduated to a grown-up bed, meaning that he can now wander around freely if he wakes up. And so we must keep the upstairs gate closed while he’s asleep and opening and closing the gate each time we pass through is inconvenient and loud enough that we could potentially wake him up when we do it. With this device, we could leave the gate open while he sleeps.
The motion sensor would be placed outside his bedroom door, so that there’s no danger of setting it off if he moves around in his sleep, it is only necessary if he leaves his room. The arduino and motor would be attached to the gate. The gate is designed to automatically close itself so long as it isn’t opened all the way, in which case it holds itself open, so the motor only needs to nudge the gate slightly off its position. The arduino would need a battery, but should be able to supply the power for the motor to operate. I’m expecting to use a bluetooth connection between the arduino and motion sensor, then have the arduino directly connected to the motor. This is the basic planned model that simply closes the gate if my son’s bedroom door is opened. If it’s possible in the timeframe, I’d like to also attach an LED night light to the arduino so that if it’s dark when he wakes up, he can still see. I would potentially also like to add a small sound to alert us if the sensor is triggered.
The gate and stairs in question:
To actualise this design I would need either a raspberry pi or an arduino. Some initial research suggests that an arduino would be better suited, but further investigation will be conducted. It will require a motion sensing device, a motor (most likely a small brushless motor) and a light. It will possibly need wireless connectivity, perhaps bluetooth, depending on the parameters of the motion sensor. It will probably not be convenient to have it plugged into a wall socket, so a battery of some kind is likely.
If an arduino is utilised, it should be able to be programmed in Python, which I’m learning in Intro to Programming. I may need to tinker with some electrical parts to get the sensor, motor and lights connected to the board and I will need to ensure that I am able to do that safely.
I see no reason why this shouldn’t be achievable within the timeframe. The activity of the device is fairly simple, I expect the major time expenditure will be on the programming side of things, rather than connecting the physical elements. While the device will perhaps not have broad appeal as it is particular to the setup at our house, it will certainly be helpful here. The specifics and coding could perhaps then be shared with other people interested in something similar modifying for their own needs.
Seek Australia, viewed 09.06.2021
<https://www.seek.com.au/job/52490942?type=promoted#searchRequestToken=d285fad2-ed53-448a-b0f3-bb02834b0609>
European Medicines Research Training Network, viewed 06.06.2021
<http://www.emtrain.eu/learning-styles>
16 Personalities, viewed 11.06.2021
<https://www.16personalities.com/istj-personality>
Open-Source Psychometrics Project, viewed 06.06.2021
<https://openpsychometrics.org/tests/IPIP-BFFM>