I am Jacob A. Rau.
I am a Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering student at Michigan Technological University. I am currently in the second term of my second year. I am a former FIRST Robotics student; I am now a programming and electrical mentor for the Calumet FIRST Robotics team, team 2586.
Noteworthy stuff about me:
- I played the piano for nine years during my primary education career. It sparked a fascination with music; combining this with my fascination with the computer yields my strong interest in electronic music (Basshunter is my favorite).
- I am a fairly involved Catholic Christian. A lot of people up at St. Albert the Great Parish know me.
Programming languages I have used and what I used them for, in chronological order of discovery:
- C++: Many years ago; started in Visual C++. Didn’t get very far with it. Picked up on C++ again partway through high school for a programming class; haven’t used it enough since then.
- Visual Basic 6.0: Several years; thorough experience using the Windows API with VB. The most fascinating project I’ve done with VB is an interface to a Lego robot via the Lego API. If I can find the code, I will write about it here.
- C: All four years of high school, I programmed robots for the FIRST Robotics Competition. I worked with Truck Town Thunder for the latter three years (2006-2008). Programming semi-autonomous 120-lb robots got me interested in controls.
- HTML, PHP, MySQL: I wrote a (fairly crappy, I later realized) scoring system for the Oakland County Competitive Robotics Association. And then I wrote another. And then I wrote another. It took some time to learn about code reusability, documentation, and maintainability, but the lessons were definitely learned.
- Java: Learned it this year in an accelerated introduction course. Many “canned” assignments. Really got me into thinking in an object-oriented mindset. I haven’t done anything noteworthy in Java yet.
If you have any questions, comments, concerns, or any other reason to contact me, please feel free to do so by email: jacob DOT rau AT -nospam- gmail DOT com.