Semester ReflectionsFall 2026
8/15

8 of 15 weeks published · 50% of the semester

Weeks 1–15 · 8 published

Weekly Reflections

One entry for every week of the semester, in order. Published weeks open in full; upcoming weeks are held in place until they are written.

15 entries

Week 01Published

Syllabus Week

I missed the first week of class, so most of Week 1 for me was catching up, working out from the syllabus what this course is going to be, and getting this journal set up.

August 24 – August 283 min read
Read reflection
Week 02Published

Building My First Agent

We covered AI workflow tools like n8n and Zapier this week, and Fusco showed us the backend of what the AI is actually doing in them. I went and tried building an agent myself afterwards, which was the best thing I got out of the week.

August 31 – September 42 min read
Read reflection
Week 03Published

Getting Into the Flow

We covered a lot this week, including value personas. I'm finally caught up on what I missed in Week 1, and grad school applications took up most of my time outside class.

September 7 – September 112 min read
Read reflection
Week 04Published

Building for Hydro Node

I enjoyed building a dedicated assistant for Hydro Node using ChatGPT's GPTs. Testing its instructions gave me something to work on, while I was also preparing for my next midterm in Week 5.

September 14 – September 182 min read
Read reflection
Week 05Published

Real People, Not AI Personas

Idea validation week. I interviewed three people about Hydro Node and found out that the AI personas I built in Week 3 had been agreeing with me. Real people led with the concerns the AI glossed over.

September 21 – September 253 min read
Read reflection
Week 06Published

Prototyping and Storyboards

Class was on prototyping and storyboards, which landed well right after the interviews. A tight week otherwise, with quizzes, assignments and research all at once, and AI-written code for Hydro Node that didn't work until I debugged it.

September 28 – October 23 min read
Read reflection
Week 07Published

Peer Review, and Attacks That Didn't Land

Prototyping peer review in class, and the week my research properly started — prompt injection and RL. My first runs through AgentDojo went the opposite way to what I expected.

October 5 – October 92 min read
Read reflection
Week 08Published

Halfway, and Something That Made Things Up

Class was on AI tools and vision. In my research, an AI generated content that wasn't backed by the data and didn't flag that it had done it. Halfway through the semester, that is the clearest version yet of the thing I keep running into.

October 12 – October 163 min read
Read reflection
Week 09Upcoming

Not written yet

This week has not happened yet.

October 19 – October 23
Week 10Upcoming

Not written yet

This week has not happened yet.

October 26 – October 30
Week 11Upcoming

Not written yet

This week has not happened yet.

November 2 – November 6
Week 12Upcoming

Not written yet

This week has not happened yet.

November 9 – November 13
Week 13Upcoming

Not written yet

This week has not happened yet.

November 16 – November 20
Week 14Upcoming

Not written yet

This week has not happened yet.

November 23 – November 27
Week 15Upcoming

Not written yet

This week has not happened yet.

November 30 – December 4