Mr. Joe Dwyer (CIS Program Director) will be hosting a series of Software Development Seminars for students & alumni at the Glen Allen Campus.
Starting March 7, these seminars will be held on Fridays from 10 am to 11 am in Room 112.
At the end of each session, Mr. Dwyer will host a weekly giveaway where one lucky participant will win a fun technology-themed graphic t-shirt!
NEXT STEP:
If you are interested in participating in one or more Software Development Seminars—or if you have questions and would like more information—please contact Mr. Dwyer at jdwyer@ecpi.edu.
FRIDAY SEMINAR SCHEDULE
Week 1: Introduction to Algorithm Performance & Complexity Analysis
Meeting Date: March 7 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Understanding Big-O Notation (Time & Space Complexity)
- Common Complexities (O(1), O(log n), O(n), O(n²), etc.)
- Practical Examples & Performance Trade-offs
- Other pertinent metrics, if time permits
Week 2: Essential Data Structures
Meeting Date: March 14 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Arrays, Linked Lists, Double Linked List: Use Cases & Differences
- Stacks & Queues: LIFO vs. FIFO
- Hash Tables & Dictionaries: Hash Functions & Collision Handling
- Trees & Graphs: Binary Trees, Depth First Search & Breadth First Search Basics
Week 3: Writing Clean & Efficient Code
Meeting Date: March 21 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Code Readability and Maintainability
- Naming Conventions, Comments, and Documentation
- DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) and KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) Principles
Week 4: Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) Concepts
Meeting Date: March 28 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Classes & Objects
- Encapsulation, Inheritance, Polymorphism, Abstraction
- Real-World OOP Modeling & SOLID Principles
Week 5: Version Control & Collaboration (Git & GitHub)
Meeting Date: April 4 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Basic Git Commands: Commit, Push, Pull, Merge
- Branching Strategies: Git Flow, Feature Branches
- Handling Merge Conflicts and Code Reviews
Week 6: Introduction to Design Patterns
Meeting Date: April 11 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Common Design Patterns (Singleton, Factory, Observer, Strategy)
- When and Why to Use Design Patterns
- Applying Patterns in Small Projects
Week 7: Introduction to Software Architecture
Meeting Date: April 25 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Monolithic vs. Microservices Architecture
- Layered Architecture (Presentation, Business, Data)
- MVC (Model-View-Controller) in Practice
Week 8: Memory Management & Performance Considerations
Meeting Date: May 2 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Stack vs. Heap Memory Allocation
- Common Performance Pitfalls
- Optimizing Loops and Recursive Functions
Week 9: Testing Fundamentals & Debugging Techniques
Meeting Date: May 9 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- Unit Testing (JUnit, PyTest, etc.)
- Writing Testable Code
- Debugging Tools and Techniques
Week 10: Code Review & Best Practices in Team Environments
Meeting Date: May 23 @ 10:00 am Room 112
- The Importance of Peer Reviews
- Writing Maintainable & Scalable Code
- Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
LOCATION:
ECPI University—Glen Allen Campus (Room 112)
11104 W. Broad Street, Glen Allen VA 23060
