Summer Quarter 2026

I'm not proofreading this.

I might add in some photos later, but it's too late today so maybe tomorrow. But I NEED to study for finals tomorrow.

Introduction

Though a bit premature, for the quarter technically hasn't ended, I think it's about time to write some sort of reflection. After all, all courses don't have any new content left - it's just review for the final exams (in ... 2 days!)

This quarter, I signed up for CSE 351, CSE 391, and MATH 208, for a total of 9 credits. I underestimated the course load, but was still able to finish all my assignments without any late days used. I was considering CSE 474 or EE 271 instead of 351, but I'm pretty happy with my choice. 474/271 would've went too deep into the hardware / systems side, while 351, in my opinion, was a decent blend between software and hardware (it's in the name: the hardware/software interface).

In retrospect, I've learned a lot throughout the quarter. I've taken 208-adjacent courses prior to this quarter, but I was able to get a much clearer understanding of the topics this quarter. For 351, nearly all the content was new to me. Considering I've used Linux for almost a year now and Git for 5, 391 did not include as much new content, but the second half (especially regex) was interesting. Despite 391 being a one credit class, the workload wasn't that light, though I wouldn't consider it to be a 4-credit class workload by any means.

June

Considering summer quarter started in the last full week of June, not much happened during this month. Lectures were still light, nothing was too difficult. In June, I also started working on NeuroTendrils. The original idea was to be a for-profit arm, but then non-profit seemed better. It was in this month when we were officially registered as a nonprofit as well. The idea was EEG controlled robotic arms, but consumer demand seemed to be low. At the end of the month, I also switched over to Mac after using Linux for a bit.

June marked a sort of transition phase from regular high school to university. Notably, I didn't know anyone in any of my classes, which was not so fun. Also, getting lunch was quite the walk (all my classes are in Paccar/Dempsey, except section, which is in Benson), and there were so many options for me to study during my lunch break. Last year, when I took 123 (also in PCAR), I studied at either Suzaallo or Odegaard. This year, I tried exploring the campus a bit more. I visited both CSE buildings and the chemistry building (not exactly an undergrad here, so I was a bit timid on scanning into buildings).

Unrelated, but I took the June 6th SAT. I originally planned a retake due to a subpar testing experience, but CollegeBoard gave me ten days to study for it, so I just took the risk and accepted my score. I was pretty happy with the score though!

July

July is the only "full" month in summer quarter, so a lot happened here. Notably, the World Cup's latter stages also occurred in this month. In July, I created a demo for NeuroTendrils, which was displayed at the Independence Day event somewhere in California (I wasn't there). The idea was pretty simple, it was just a robotic arm controlled via a couple buttons, and while the robotic arm was moving, a brain region would be highlighted, showing what part of the brain would normally be activated. In July, NeuroTendrils also started working on a couple new projects, but theese were never finished. I was able to finish the website and pick up some Qt though, which was pretty interesting. Admittedly, due to the urgency of getting a product out, I did use Cursor (I was able to get a student discount before they removed it!) for most of my NeuroTendrils code. July also had AP scores released, but that was more of a ten minute task.

July also had weird weather. I still remember the mid-July thunderstorm and having to walk outside during it because I decided to buy a quick snack before section.

On a more school-related note, July was the month of the notorious lab 2! Although the lab took forever, I found it pretty interesting. Reading assembly was honestly really fun, and as I completed each phase, it got easier. The difficulty spike from lab 1(a/b) to lab 2 was notable though. For 208, July was the month of the first midterm. I'm pretty bummed that I lost a point for writing an augmented matrix instead of a system, but at the end of the day it's the only point I lost.

July marked the end of eating the same $10 sandwich from the Husky HUB. I don't think I can ever eat one again.

August

Note that because I'm writing on the 18th, when I refer to the entire month, I really only mean the first half. The last week and a half of August is the first week of school, so I shouldn't count it in my summer quarter reflection.

Honestly, this is probably going to be my longest, I can't really remember June and July all that well.

August was a bit more eventful, yet so uneventful at the same time. Midterm 2, upcoming finals, and the end of the quarter. I genuinely do not think I will open Overleaf for another 3 years, especially with all my notes being a LaTeX-Markdown hybrid on Obsidian. I probably should've talked to more people this quarter, but with everyone being 3-4 years older than me, it definitely is a bit scary.

I'm not sure if it was early August or late July that NeuroTendrils pivoted. We realized that an arm probably isn't the best idea, and we got to brainstorming. At the moment, we're pretty glad with the new idea, so switching was a good move. But who knows, I might regret this statement in a week. Other than ideas, though, August was honestly a pretty good month for me. I started building NeuroFlow and NeuroStudio, and while doing so, learned a lot about EEG data. My optimistic view of datasets being single, clean files was incorrect. Working with lab dumps, I got to learn how EEG data is recorded, how it's preprocessed, and a lot more. Even if NeuroTendrils is a bust, I'm glad that I learned so much. Similar to my science fair project, although I didn't win first, I learned a lot more about BCIs than I would've without.

NeuroTendrils had a good month. After creating organization emails / cloud accounts for everyone, I figured it was time to move on from my OCI VM. However, OCI is free, many others are not. A quick search led me to AWS Activate, and I applied. My application went through, and I got a thousand in credits! After exploring some prices, I realized that $1000 is not a lot in AWS terms, but at the end of the day it's still $1000.

Labs in 351 were a lot lighter this August. I got a lab partner so I didn't have to do entire labs, more like half of it. That also meant half the time spent on labs! Going back to the first point I made, although there were so many events in August, the courses honestly felt smoother. Probably because I got accustomed to it.

August marked a pivotal moment in my competitive programming journey though: I did a problem (nearly) every day! At least until today, the 18th. I didn't get to solve one today because I was trying to get a VM to run Hyprland with Arch (which is x86, doesn't work the best with ARM). Hopefully I can keep up this somewhat of a streak until the USACO season begins. Practice usually ends once school starts, unfortunately.

There were two other (not as important) events in August. First, I completed driving school. I also passed my knowledge test (by a point), so I look forward to being on the roads soon. Second, I started using LinkedIn. It's honestly pretty useless for a high schooler to be on there, but it's nice to catch up with old friends and see how they're doing. LinkedIn seems to be a platform that fosters imposter syndrome. Some people here are doing a bit too much in high school, and everybody seems to think that they need to be doing just as much.

In August, I finally explored some more buildings. Notably, the Life Sciences Building (might be the best building on campus, too bad its so far away from my classes), the Health Sciences Library (I got lost in the buildling!), and the nanoengineering building. Might visit more later this week, it's my last week here anyway.

I also started eating at U District, though I don't have the greatest impression of it.

Music-wise, I explored jazz: especially Coltrane. I don't study with music because I find it distracting, so whenever I do have time I like to listen to music. This also is the reason why I keep cancelling my Spotify premium subscription. I use it for maybe an hour a month, so there's no reason for me to keep it.

The annual two week Minecraft phase also happened. Played a lot at first (like usual) but I'm already getting bored now. I don't seem to find video games as fun anymore, but I also don't find studying fun. Please let me know if you have any suggestions on what to do.

But I disgress. This finals week has been proof of a tendency I have, which has been going on for a bit now. AP week, "finals" week (there's like two classes that have finals considering I take mostly APs), and even the pre/comps I took in middle school --- I would study like hell before the exam, and once the week finally comes, I'm wasting time. Today, I spent 2-3 hours trying to load a terminal on my VM, just to realize that my hardware probably doens't support it.

Reflection

I mean I guess you can say the last three sections were all reflections. But I feel like I should detail what I learned throughout this quarter.

208 (gave me intuition into linear algebra, more than just memorizing formulas):

• Gaussian elimination (this has been covered since Algebra I (?), but 208 introduced a couple new definitions associated with it)
• Linear combinations and span
• Linear (in)dependence
• Linear transformations
• Bases, subspaces, inverses
• Determinants
• Eigenstuff

351 (one of my favorite classes that I've taken):

• Number systems
• Memory layout, pointers
• Number representations (unsigned, TC, IEEE 754)
• Assembly
• Data structures in memory
• Caches
• Heap
• Processes
• Virtual memory

391 (very fun class, 10/10):

• I/O redirection, xargs
• Git
• regex
• sed
• permissions (finally understood chmod and the permissions in ls -la, I used to just automatically do chmod +x and ignore the permissions in ls -la)
• shell scripting

In addition to my courses, I also built a couple apps, read some more EEG related literature, and finally got a semi-regular competitive programming practice schedule. I also learned to drive and was able to take a couple road trips (went up to Canada, but couldn't drive in BC).

Honestly, I'm pretty happy with how much I did over the summer. I probably wasted some time scrolling reels and I accidentally pushed my sleep two hours later, but I've accomplished quite a bit. Looking forward to finals and junior year.

sidenote: this is pretty fun! I'll consider writing more later