As an ordinary genius

Ethan was starting to feel the heat. His final year came with a new set of challenges, and the biggest of them all was the capstone project. Each student was required to pitch a unique idea, form a team, and develop a working prototype by the end of the semester.

The catch? Ethan hadn't fully decided on his project yet.

One sunny afternoon, Dr. Carter called on Ethan to share his idea in front of the class.

"Uh, okay," Ethan said, standing awkwardly in front of the projector. "My project... it's a productivity assistant. A personal tool that uses basic machine learning to analyze your daily habits and suggest ways to improve time management."

Dr. Carter raised an eyebrow. "Interesting idea, Mr. Queen. But you do realize machine learning can get tricky, especially for a single-semester project?"

"Yeah, I know," Ethan replied, his voice faltering. "I, uh... I think I can manage."

"Very well," Dr. Carter said. "I look forward to seeing how you approach it."

After class, Nathan, Aria, and Mike caught up with Ethan.

"You're really going for machine learning?" Nathan asked, a little incredulous.

"Why not?" Ethan said, forcing a smile. "It's a hot topic. And it could be fun."

"Fun," Aria echoed, smirking. "More like a headache. But count me in. I'll help with the UI and front end."

"I'm in too," Nathan said. "I've been wanting to mess around with ML libraries anyway."

"Guess I'm stuck with backend again," Mike groaned, though he was smiling.

Ethan felt a wave of relief. He wasn't alone in this.

The first few weeks were brutal. Ethan realized quickly that machine learning wasn't as simple as he thought. Every attempt to train a basic model ended in failure.

"Why is this algorithm not converging?" Ethan muttered one evening, his eyes glued to his screen.

"Did you normalize your data?" Nathan asked, looking over his shoulder.

"Normalize?" Ethan repeated, blankly.

Nathan groaned. "Dude, you need to preprocess your data. Otherwise, the model doesn't stand a chance."

Ethan slapped his forehead. "Right. Preprocessing. Got it."

Every day was a learning experience, and Ethan often found himself staying up late, combing through online tutorials, documentation, and forums.

Ethan started dedicating every ounce of his free time to coding.

During breaks between classes, he could be found in the library with his laptop.

"You never take a break, do you?" Aria asked one afternoon, sitting across from him.

"Can't afford to," Ethan said without looking up.

"Ethan, you're gonna burn out," she warned.

"I'll rest when I figure this out," he replied, his fingers flying across the keyboard.

Even at night in his dorm room, Ethan worked relentlessly. His roommates often found him sitting at his desk, surrounded by empty coffee cups.

"Still coding?" Raj asked one night.

"Still coding," Ethan confirmed, his eyes bloodshot.

The team's first milestone presentation was a disaster.

"The UI looks good," Dr. Carter said as she examined the prototype. "But the backend is... let's say, lacking."

Ethan winced. "We're still working on optimizing the model."

"Well, you've got work to do," she said. "I suggest you pick up the pace if you want to deliver a finished product."

As the team walked out of the room, Ethan felt the weight of their disappointment.

"We're behind," Nathan said, frowning.

"We'll catch up," Ethan said, trying to sound confident.

"Only if we double our efforts," Aria added.

"Guess we've got no choice," Mike said.

One night, after hours of frustration, Ethan finally managed to get the model to produce accurate predictions.

"It works!" he exclaimed, startling Nathan awake.

"Wait, what?" Nathan said, rubbing his eyes.

"Look!" Ethan turned his laptop to show him.

Nathan examined the output and nodded slowly. "Huh. That's... actually decent. Nice work."

"Thanks," Ethan said, grinning for the first time in days.

Despite the struggles, Ethan found moments of joy in the process. He wasn't a genius, and he knew that. But he also knew the value of hard work.

"Good job, Ethan," Aria said after their second milestone presentation.

"Couldn't have done it without you guys," he replied.