Duke Diary Dispatch: Learning to Code, Learning to Cook

Newly baked bagels on a cooking rack
When Duke undergraduate Alex Pieroni isn't learning computer code at his Code+ program in Durham this summer, he's trying out new recipes - like this one for bagels. .

This is the latest in a series of diary entries from Alex Pieroni, a Duke student staying close to home this summer and doing a Code+ program in Durham.

I just finished my first week of Code+! We focused mainly on training, everything from Git and Docker to HTML. Most of this training was new to me, and despite doing some software development, I found it challenging but exciting––learning about using tools to build software collaboratively. It’s a stark contrast compared to me building projects and digging through internet forums trying to find my error; now, I’m working with a fellow team of passionate students who are all able to use our training towards solving our problems, with a far better foundation of the technologies we’re using.

We meet with one of our stakeholders, Campus Mail, next week, so we’ve been preparing questions for our stakeholders about what information we’ll access and how they envision the service working. 

In addition, I’m approaching graduation from my Out In Tech mentorship. This week, I finished developing my fine-tuned model and worked on the client side––making sure error messages are showing up in places that make sense, the loading scroll works as expected, and everything on the server side is set up to serve the user. If you’re interested, you can check it out here.

I’ll be speaking at our graduation to show a live demo of my project, and when that’s done, I’ll move on to working on a project that a friend and I started during a hackathon called Duke Ignite. That project, called Heartcoded, is full stack––meaning that we are building everything from the ground up, so I’m excited to dedicate more time to the project over the summer!

These types of projects, both Code+ and my projects, are different from the courses I take in computer science, as they provide a practical and hands-on experience that is complemented by my academic knowledge of data structures and algorithms.

I’ve also been working on projects for The Pitchforks, including working with our alum association to plan our reunion and upcoming events for the year! I was able to have dinner with Kurt Uphoff ‘82 in Chapel Hill, one of the group's earliest members! He had many great stories to share about his time in the group.

Life in Durham over the summer has also been excellent! I’m living off campus with one of my good friends, and we’ve been able to go to the Durham Farmer’s Market, and I tried out the local rock climbing gym, Triangle Rock Club. We’ve been trying out new NY Times cooking recipes––everything from bagels to casseroles. I’m excited to keep exploring Durham as the summer goes on!