Software Design and Python are wide worlds, and we only explore part of them in SoftDes. The goal of the Project Toolbox exercises is to gain practice with a variety of interesting topics we won’t talk about in class. By completing them, you will develop a suite of skills that will allow you to do great things on the final project and beyond.

The exercises are modeled after the way many practicing software developers teach themselves as lifelong learners. In each, you’ll:

1. Read about a topic
2. Try an example
3. Extend it in ways that are interesting to you

The basic part of each exercise is intended to be relatively quick, taking an hour or so. (If you find yourself taking significantly longer, be sure to ask for help.) There are also lots of opportunities to take things further – many of the topics are active research areas, and you could easily work on some of them for a lifetime!

Tips for success

• Don’t suffer in silence. Many of these exercises require installing new packages, which can sometimes come with hiccups. If you’re struggling with something, let us know about it so we can fix it for you and everyone else.
• Start early. The project toolbox can be a great source of inspiration for your final project – but only if you try them in time.
• Have fun and follow your own learning goals.

Toolboxes

• Al and Algorithms
• Algorithmic Music Composition
• Evolutionary Algorithms
• Geocoding and Web APIs
• Image Processing
• Image Steganography
• Machine Learning
• Pickling
• Unittest
• Word Frequency Analysis

Web Development Toolboxes

• Web Apps
• Web Deployment

Security Toolboxes

• Security Intro
• Metasploit
• Cracking Usernames

Submitting exercises

Each Project Toolbox exercise has a description of the minimum required deliverable. To submit your assignment, just push your code to GitHub and submit a pull request to get checked off. For several of the exercises, you may want to schedule a brief demo with a NINJA.

If you are completing the Toolboxes in conjunction with SoftDes, see your site for due dates.

If you get through the Project Toolbox exercises and you have a great idea for a new one you’d like to create, get in touch with the teaching team!