Fall 2020

Student Spotlights: getting to know our CS students

There is no question that the Department of Computer Science is home to amazing faculty, staff, and students. I wanted to provide an opportunity for those inside and outside the department to learn about our students. The Student Spotlight provides a platform to tell our students unique backgrounds, experiences, and stories. After reading, I know that you will agree- our students are incredible.

Thanks for reading! - Martin Marquez, Director of Academic and Support Services

Hamzah Firman

My name is Hamzah Firman and I am a Junior at the University of Arizona. I originally started off as an Architecture major and after my first semester I decided to change my major to Computer Science. One of my good friends recommended the major because it's challenging and rewarding at the same time. From there I continued to do my research and I came across a video where CEO's of top companies were talking about how technology changed their lives, and I knew that Computer Science was the route I wanted to go.

While I was taking CSC 110, I was really struggling with the content and fortunately I had a mentor that worked with me 1:1 to really help me understand the concepts I was struggling with. This guidance really helped to establish my confidence in not only my computer science courses but in my career aspirations. I started my career development during my sophomore year and really formed through my connection with my mentor; he has provided resources, and really guided me through the internship search process. Three things I recommend: I would say to practice a lot, to not be afraid to get rejected or fail in an interview, and to constantly reflect on your experiences; this helps you to understand areas of improvement.

One piece of advice that I would give someone first starting off in computer science is to be patient. Take it one step at a time and really take the time to understand concepts. Lastly, don't compare yourself to anybody else and to stay focused on those resources that will help you personally improve. At the end of the day, have fun!

Hung Le Ba

Hung Le Ba is a sophomore pursuing a BS in Computer Science. Hung is from Hanoi, Vietnam and attended Luong the Vinh High School. Hung is a current undergraduate teaching assistant (UGTA) for CSC 101, Introduction to Computer Science.
 
Why did you decide to pursue computer science? What interested you about the field?
From a small Pascal program that calculates the area of a rectangle, I soon realized the big potential of the computer science field today and in the future. My journey to the CS degree has begun at that moment. In my gap year, I spent the vast majority of the time learning more about the computer science field around the world. Later on, when I visited a computer museum at Silicon Valley, I was inspired by the stout heart and strong willingness of the people in this field. Besides, I also got the opportunity to meet lots of great developers who are warm, friendly, and delightful. For these reasons, computer science has always been in my mind, and the latter part is the UofA and wildcats.
 
You are currently serving as an undergraduate TA. Why did you decide to apply and serve in this role?
Because I was inspired by the other developers, I thought I should give back to the community somehow; therefore, I went ahead and apply for the UGTA role. As one of the TAs said in our meeting: "It is truly inspiring to witness the progress of the student from this class to the other classes", we are the one who does our best to help students in our department to advance further day by day and be really happy with it. Also, this experience helps me to have a new perspective on this field such as "How to convey the concepts as simplest as possible" or "How to communicate with the person who can help me to solve this". All of these invaluable precious experiences cannot be described in just a few words and definitely will help me in the long run.
 
Tell us about a memorable experience you have had in the department.
It was the Hack Arizona event at the Gould-Simpson building in early of this year. My first impression was how big this event is: free foods, free drinks, and all entertaining activities - a wonderful place to turn your creative ideas into reality. There were also developers from other states who joined the hackathon as well, and if you are excited to meet new people like me, you are going to love them. Although we got almost no coding experience and had to learn tons of new tech-stack, our team was able to get the beginner's prize eventually which made us extremely proud. It was such a memorable moment for all of us.
 
What advice would you give incoming students pursuing the CS program?
CS is not easy, but you will receive a lot of help on your way. Therefore, be proactive, be willing to figure things out by yourself, and be ready to reach out to the right person are the most important keys to success in this field.

Alex Melnychuck

My name is Alex Melnychuck and I am a Senior in Computer Science here at the University of Arizona where I have also been part of the honors college. I am part of the music department as well; I play jazz trumpet in the jazz ensembles and will have earned a music minor by the time I complete my studies at the University of Arizona.
 
How did you get involved in Computer Science?
I grew up in Silicon Valley and the Bay Area where there are a lot of the tech startups and as a result I was exposed to technology at an early age. I've always been interested in technology and always have had a passion for building things and Computer Science lends itself very naturally based on personal interests and experience. When I was younger, I took app development classes to fuel my desire to build things as well as a way to convince my parents that I needed an iPhone to test my apps on. I continued building personal iOS apps for years and I started doing some freelance work, which helped me to establish a basic portfolio. From there I worked for a health startup in town called The Diary, where we were able to create a product that was ultimately featured by Apple. I later moved over to Sunquest where I spent the last 2 - 2 1/2 years working on their software and now I find myself working for McKesson doing similar things, but for oncology patients (Alex is now Director of Software Engineering for McKesson).
 
When asked, what has been your most beneficial resource when you're taking things on your own?
I think one thing that helped to propel my career forward early on was creating a portfolio of apps, because sometimes it can be harder to get into larger companies without having as many projects on your resume. When I think of my experience at UArizona, one of the things that has really helped me was getting involved in the hackathons and taking advantage of the resources available through those environments.
 
What feedback or advice would you give to someone who is having a hard time starting their own side project?
It's always a challenge to know where to start, especially when courses teach you the basics and the fundamentals a programming language but don't offer the full amount of time to master a language. It's very important to find something that interests you and run with it. Ask for help from friends, mentors, and professors, and take advantage of online resources to fill in any gaps!

Connor Scully-Allison

What did you do this summer? Tell me about your internship and research.
Over the summer I had the very good fortune of working at Lawerence Livermore with a research group building a post-mortem profile analytics library: Hatchet. In less esoteric terms, this software library gives users tools to see how long their parallel program took to run, what were the points of slowdown and where can it be sped up. My contributions specifically were on making this library run faster when analyzing large profiles; essentially enabling Hatchet to support "big data." My work over the summer significantly sped up certain workflows -- a total 14 hour runtime down to 10 minutes -- and I am continuing my collaborations with this research group going forward with the plan of optimizing the entire Hatchet library.
 
For my primary research, I am very fortunate to be working with Dr. Kate Isaacs on a project focused around improving timeline charts used for parallel program analysis. These charts are very common in the super-computing domain for understanding how parallel programs run, their execution order and how much time is spent in certain parts. We are currently evaluating possible visualizations which will provide users with useful summary information when there is too much data to draw to the screen in a readable way.
 
What brought you to the UofA?
Two experiences really made the University of Arizona stand out as my premier choice of institution. The first was my introduction to the campus and the city of Tucson when I came for an Information Science Conference in the summer of 2018. I was really impressed with the campus and the college town feel which suffused the surrounding area. Outside of the immediate area of the college, I was enamored of the cultural diversity in the city of Tucson and the beautiful biodiversity in the surrounding areas.
 
The second experience came from talking to my prospective, and current, advisor Dr. Isaacs. From my discussions with her, I saw that the University of Arizona CS Department was a small and intimate department which really cared about it's Graduate Students. Furthermore, I learned that she and the other members of the Humans Data and Computers (HDC) Lab were doing impactful and interesting research in the fields of data visualization and high performance computing.
 
How did you become interested in computer science?
Despite having an interest in computers since I was very young, I never really buckled down and learned much about programming and software until after I had graduated with my Bachelors' degree in philosophy. I returned to school to study computer science with a very narrow goal of getting a degree required to find a well paying job, but without any significant passion for the field. This changed very quickly for me however as I learned that computer science was about problem solving and puzzles. It wasn't rigidly mathematical and impossible for a liberal artist like myself to grasp but instead it was about critical thinking and language. Despite having a weak mathematical background I found myself excelling because I was able to formulate many, small, constrained problems from large and vague prompts. As I continued on to get my Master's, I learned that academic research meant even larger and more unconstrained problems. The thought of solving those problems thrills me and gives me continuous joy to work in this field every day.
 
What sub-field(s) in computer science excite you?
Within my own area of expertise, I'm continuously awed by the sub-field of High Performance Computing (HPC) and just how large and impressive supercomputers are getting these days. Simultaneously, HPC is becoming more accessible than ever before, where no modern CPUs have fewer than two cores and most desktop computers have graphics cards which can be used like mini supercomputers. We are just on the cusp of seeing parallel programming become commonplace in every program to reap efficiency benefits which Moore's law can no longer afford us.
 
What's the best advice you've received from a UofA faculty member or student?
Like many professionals and in my field I am no stranger to imposter syndrome. Due to my unorthodox background, throughout my masters I never really felt like a ‘real’ computer scientist. In my mind, my successes were not attributable to programming skills but rather my communication skills or interpersonal skills. I carried this into my PhD, and frequently would reference my sub-par programming skills. Eventually my advisor Kate just told me point-blank that I shouldn't say that and that I was a fine programmer whether I believed it or not.
 
This wasn't directed advice, however, it was a comment that made me stop and reflect on how I got to where I am. It's really absurd to think that I could get an advanced degree in a discipline and work on many projects without having some aptitude at the core skill set. Since she told me this I have been suffering much less from imposter syndrome and felt much more like a part of the computer science professional community. If I could condense it into the advice I took it as, I would say "Trust the validity of your experiences and credentials."
 
What's your best memory at the UofA so far?
My favorite memory thus far at the UofA came from an evening spent at the nearby hookah bar/ cafe located just off campus on University Ave. I went there with one of my colleagues from my own lab to relax and hang out. When we arrived, we ran into another group of grad students from the CS department but another lab; a group we did not know very well. Despite the lack of prior communication between our two groups we hit it off instantaneously and spent the evening together as a group: socializing, drinking and eating. I love this memory because it speaks to the unique affability of students in our department. For some reason or another, this department attracts kind, sociable and interesting people from all over the world and makes it a delight to be a part of.
 
What do you hope to accomplish and/or what are you most excited about as President of the CSGSC?
I'm excited by the unique challenge posed by operating a club during the COVID-19 pandemic. Part of the reason I originally chose to attend UofA for my PhD came from the vibrant and tight knit community I found flourishing among the grad students. I personally regret that that sense of community has necessarily dwindled in the aftermath of a pandemic driven diaspora. Given all the platforms and technologies available to facilitate communication over the internet, I hope that we may be able to recover some part of that rich culture which has been diminished by this crisis.
 
What's your dream job?
In my ideal future, I see myself in some sort of administrative role in academia: either the head of a CS department or perhaps as the dean of a college of Science or Engineering. As evidenced by my continued participation in graduate student clubs and organizations, I like administration and helping to guide policy. In my experience this is not a common desire among professors, especially in our field, who often want to be left alone to do critical research. I can see myself successful as a researcher exclusively; however I believe that I would really thrive in coordinating administrative initiatives, crafting policy and navigating the famously dog-eat-dog politics found in academic institutions.

Kiara Hernandez

Kiara Hernandez is a Senior majoring in Computer Science and minoring in ECE from Douglas, Arizona.

In your experience taking CS courses, are there any in particular that are your favorite or the most fun?

I definitely like the courses that involve more programming; in particular CSC 335 where you learn more about MVC systems, etc. and I really enjoyed the group work aspect because of the feeling of working in the field. I really enjoyed working on a fun project and working on a project that required other individual's contribution.

Why did you decide to pursue computer science?

Coming out of high school I didn't know what I wanted to do and nothing really caught my eye, but I did know that I wanted to help or to make something that would leave some sort of mark. I took Computer Science as a leap because I took a few computer courses in high school, but didn't feel fully committed at the time. I decided to go with it and ended up really liking it so it's a blessing in disguise.

In your time as a University student, what kind of student organizations have you participated in?

I've been an officer in WICS for a few semesters and I really enjoy the community that it gave me in a male dominated field and it helped to feel welcome. I also participated as a CS Ambassador for a couple semesters. One semester I attended the Gave Dev Club and participated in a Game Jam. My favorite club is WICS because the purpose really resonates with me.

If you could give advice to an incoming student about what to expect, resources, etc.

Expect to be intellectually challenged. The courses aren't easy and it's definitely a new field / way of learning but it gets easier as you learn more and get used to it. Get involved with the department as fast as you can. Go see your advisors, going to the tutoring center was invaluable my freshman and sophomore year (that's also where I met a lot of my close friends).

Can you talk a little bit about your internship experience with GoDaddy?

I worked with GoDaddy my sophomore year and I learned about the opportunity through Grace Hopper. My friend, Meredith Larabee, invited me to a GoDaddy party where I was able to network and mention that I was a sophomore that knows python. I later got an email from them about an opportunity for sophomore's that know python, so I applied and went through online interviewing. While I was there, I primarily worked on front-end development even though I had no web development experience. GoDaddy was really patient with me and they taught me a lot and we used a lot of pair programming. I never felt like I was left behind even though I was inexperienced at the time, I learned a lot and later saw in CSC 335 and 337.

What is feedback / advice you would give to a freshman looking to land a future internship?

Coming in as a freshman with no computer science experience, I was gathering information from everyone I could. I would recommend going to resume review sessions, Career Fairs to learn more about what they do and how to talk to recruiters in general. In general, constantly searching for advice; going to advisors, tutors, T.A.'s etc.

Korre Henry

Korre Henry is a junior pursuing a BS in Computer Science at the University of Arizona. Originally from Los Angeles, Korre moved to Arizona as a freshman attending Mountain View High School in Marana, AZ. Korre is a current CS tutor and member of the CS Ambassadors.

Why did you pick Computer Science as your major?

Well towards the end of junior year, the question of "what do you wanna do after high school" and I had to ponder on it. Initially I was going to get a business degree because I heard it made a lot of money. But then one of my mentors had informed me that I should pick something that I am actually good at and could see myself being comfortable with doing for a long period of time. At the time though, I was a Sound Engineer for my church and so I thought that I could get a degree in that. And I quickly found out that the job growth expectancy is pretty average. So then I stumbled upon computer science, I took a leap of faith. The funny thing about it is that, in my mind I had simply convinced myself that "whether it's hard or not, people say it's pretty cool so I'm sure ill be fine".

Tell us about your internship experience this past summer.

Last summer I interned with Microsoft under what is called the New Technologists internship program. This program is commonly referred to as the "one that got away" program and is typically geared to students that may have not met the bar for the SWE Internship but showed high potential. During this program you are grouped together with a team of 5. What they don't tell you is that this program strategically picks candidates to be grouped with others that are not as compatible as you might expect. In my team of 5, I quickly found out that these folks were different and I had to find a way to best communicate with them in their respective manners. You learn some of the most interesting things about people, some people want you to be aggressive, yell argue with them, argue with them when deriving a solution to a problem, while others may want you to simply show that you considered there idea and whether it's implemented or not they seem to be satisfied with the notion that their idea was discussed. And you may even find that others may be somewhat immature in the sense that they want their idea implemented (no matter what the cost). The main thing to point out here is that people are people. Just because they work at X company, doesn't mean you are guaranteed to get along or have a smooth time collaborating with them. Our group project was to build a web app that solves the problem of "dismantling forms of mis-information". For this project we used React, Redux, JavaScript, TypeScript, CSS, HTML, Bing News Search API, Bing Cognitive Services - Sentiment Analysis. Succinctly we aimed to give the user ( a person who reads news articles) more information about the content they are digesting as opposed to just simply reading a polarizing article and believing something that has bias in it. For this project I was elected the Tech Lead based off of my high technical competency for the languages we were using at the time. This way if anyone had a problem they throw the problem my way and say "hey your Tech Lead, it's not working... so fix it". As unsettling as that may sound, I liked being the one that my teammates could go to for help. It is fun knowing that I can help my team out when they need it the most. In other areas tho I found myself being the one stringent about time management, and how our user stories and potential solutions were solving the problem for our user. I realized that as cool as the Title sounds, it comes with a lot of pressure and responsibility. I recall having 1 on 1 meetings with some of the Microsoft Engineers and Product Managers, they constantly referred to me when team morale was down or if the progress was not where it should be. Naturally I took it to heart because I felt that it might be unfair that I should be the one to blame for a teammate's rate of producing code or if their attitude is not the greatest this week. But like anything in life, I had to adapt. I found myself studying the way each person on my team of 5 acts. What they respond best to, why they become upset at certain topics or ideas, how they best communicate, and how to build rapport with them. Most truthfully, these are the things in which I learned during this internship, it was how to be a leader. And I believe as a byproduct of this, I was offered to be a Software Engineer Intern at Microsoft for the summer of 2021.

You are currently a tutor in the CS Tutor Center. Why did you want to be a CS tutor and how has this experience benefited you?

I wanted to be a CS tutor because I wanted to help people quite simply. I am fascinated by the way in which people understand things. I am a true believer in the philosophy that "concepts are not hard, but rather people make them hard". I mean think about it, everything sounds hard until you actually understand it. The notion that some things are just hard to understand is the most satirically contradicting thing that I have ever imagined. But in short, many students and people in general feel that computer science is hard, and I want to show them that it's actually quite easy when you think about it.

What memorable experiences have you had in the department? (great opportunity to discuss your first time being involved with HackAZ).

My first hackathon was with HackArizona and at the time I was not very confident in my coding abilities. I had only taken CSC 110 and felt that I wasn't even confident in python at the time. Fortunately a friend of mine told me to come with them and I just thought I would sit around and watch them code. But the moment I arrived at the event, I quickly realized that the CS community was bigger than I had originally conceived. I was not aware that all these companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Google, Amazon, Qualtex, etc. were so open armed when it came to helping out a fellow programmer in lieu. The excitement of the crowd got me so worked up that I decided to ditch my friend and work on my own project. I took on the Drone Hack, hosted by Jacobs Corp. The challenge was to use social engineering to crack the network password to a 1 of the 5 drones that were in a net cage. Once we cracked the password then we needed to find a way to fly it via a device that was not the original controller. I feel like hackathons are where you tend to learn the most because I recall learning so many unnecessary algorithms, concepts, or even unrelated computer science topics just to find a way to crack into the network. Ironically I had known nothing at the time in regards to networking but ended up learning how to spoof and intercept packets from a network that was protected via WPA 2 encryption. Which was unnecessary because I ended up cracking the password using an unrelated web scraping tool that I made.

Then I made my own SDK that interacted with the drone, and I trained it how to fly, do turns, flips, back roll, land and even take off. The connection I built that drone over the course of 48 hours and no sleep was insane! It was like my own child. I believe that it was that night, when I realized I love this and that I want to produce CS as a career because it's something that I could do without getting paid for. As a byproduct of that experience, I was exposed to concepts that I would later be taught in CSC 120 and reinforced in 210.

What advice would you give a student in the department?

If i had any advice to give to any CS students, it might be just to never give up. Note that there were many things in your life that seemed challenging or even unbearable but hear you are now. So when it's crunch time don't wind down, crank it up a notch! I suggest treating this major like a pool of resources. Not everyone needs to be a Software Engineer at some big firm, you should shape your experiences in this major around what you want to gain from it. Note that not everyone CS major needs to join every club or go to every hackathon to be a "true cs major". Point is, do what interests you, and be sure to plan your road ahead. So for example if you really want to do stuff with AI and robotics i would not recommend going to a bunch of unrelated AI and robotics hack-a-thons or clubs if it's not something that really interests you at the time. And lastly, be open minded, you never know you are interested or dispassionate about a topic until you immerse yourself in it. So don't be afraid to try out unfamiliar CS related topics.

What are your career goals?

When I graduate I want to become a Software Engineer at either Microsoft, Google, Tesla or Facebook. But after I have tenure as a Software engineer, I aspire to push back on the code and dive deeper into the more logistical or administrative side of innovation. I do not envision myself coding forever. I see myself as another Tech Lead over a big project that's changing the world, CTO, or a CS and Business analyst.

How do you hope to change the world/leave your mark?

Simply put, I am not sure what problem I have the passion to solve at the moment. Naturally I feel most satisfied when I know that my work has helped someone that needed it the most. So I suppose I would continue to search for what I feel passionate about and then jump along that team. In time I would want to be in charge of implementing that change or "vision" for how to help people one day so I think to be revered as someone who was the person overseeing the change or solution to a problem; I think that would be where I would want to make my mark.

Arianna Boatner

Arianna Boatner is a junior pursuing a BS in Computer Science. Arriana is a native Tucsonan and attended Pima Community College before transferring to the University of Arizona.

Why did you select computer science? How was your experience transitioning from Pima into the UA?

I was at Pima Community College the first year and I still did not know what I wanted to do.

I really liked math, was not interested in any of the general education courses, and even considered other career options such as business, being a dental hygienist, going to public health, but none really stood out to me. When I heard about programming it was like a light bulb in my brain went off and it sounded very interesting. I decided to take an intro to programming course at Pima to see if I would like it and at the same time decided to contact the UA CS advisors to see what classes I needed to take to get a BS degree, in the case that I really did end up liking programming. After the first week of being in the programming course I realized I really enjoyed it and it was very exciting to be able to challenge myself and learn something out of my comfort zone. It was really awesome to learn how to program and writing my first program was really exciting and rewarding. I completed 2 programming courses at Pima before transferring to the UofA.

The first semester at the UA was a little rough. I went from going to a 13 student classroom to a 200+ student classroom. Adjusting to the times of the classes was difficult, because at the UA classes usually are 3 times a week for 50 minutes whereas at Pima it was twice a week 2 hours. Trying to find the right resources early on the semester was a challenge. I did not know about the tutoring center until about a quarter into the semester and if I would have known about this since the first day, it would have been an easier transition. Knowing where things were located was another challenge. I definitely got lost a lot, even though I am from Tucson, I really had never walked around UA before. However, being part of Arizona's science engineering and math scholars (ASEMS) really helped me feel like I belonged to a community. I was with other transfer students and I was provided with a mentor, who was also a transfer student. Knowing that with my struggles I was not alone in it, I felt like the imposter syndrome for sure the first semester at UA. Being in ASEMS also helped me better study and prepare for her exams, especially in CS.

What advice would you give to incoming transfer students?

My advice is to make sure you are talking to advisors especially at the UA like maybe a semester or two semester before you decide to transfer over so you have a smooth transition and you are not going to take any classes that will not transfer or just making sure you are on the right track. Also try to navigate around campus before you start classes and maybe during the summer because there's less traffic, less people so it is easier to get around. Also finding your resources early on asking them about tutoring, how do office hours work and and maybe try to find other students who maybe transferring too so you have that sense of belonging and you won't feel alone. Sometimes you will encounter failures but that is okay and don't be afraid to reach out for help if you ever need it. That is why everyone is here to help you out.

What has been the most beneficial resource? If you were to give yourself advice on when you first started taking Computer Science classes, what would this be?

Transitioning over from Pima into the UA, I think the biggest resource that really helped me out was the tutoring. Before, I really did not know where to go for help and some of these problems were so specific that you can't figure out the right reason and you cannot refer to a text book to answer your questions. If I had to give myself some feedback it would be to figure out what your question is. With time I learned that the tutors don't read my code and understand right away, so you have to figure out beforehand where the issue is going wrong. I think this is something I would advise myself to start thinking about early on rather than towards the end of the semester.

How has your time spent at the UA and taking CS courses help you get into your internship and how is that forming post graduation plans?

I took 210 over the summer and It was one of my favorite classes. I really like the instructor, Rick Mercer's teaching and we learned about GUIs and then also we created our own test cases and that class really helped me in my internship. Also after talking to a few companies at the career fair I noticed that a lot of them really were looking for those students who have taken 210 and 245, when you take those classes in your major you have open doors and any internship is possible. CSC 210 was one of the most beneficial classes I took because I started learning about test cases. That really helped me get an internship and be comfortable with it and that is when I started getting more projects in my internship and they were related to testing. Also taking 335 where I learned about object oriented programming really helped me. In some of my interviews with companies while looking for summer internships they asked some object oriented questions.

What company are you doing your internship with and what roles and responsibilities do you have at your current internship?

The company I am currently doing my Internship with is Gyros Protein Technologies and the roles that I have been doing is testers. For example, I am working on a project which I am just finishing up; there is an instrument that required a new pcm board to be installed because the nano board they were using on the instrument was outdated. So I had to use an old document that contained test cases and that were very big, to create new regression test cases. So I ended up making 305 test cases and then there are 4 different users so you have to make sure which users have access to that respective test case and if they pass or fail for each user.

Where do you see yourself after graduation? Has this internship sparked your interest to pursue a career in?

I have actually been with this company since my senior year in high school. I got really lucky that they opened this internship spot for me. With that being said, I want to try maybe moving out of state because I have been here in Tucson my whole life. I want to see what CS is like in other industries and areas. So I am kind of in the scientific industry but I want to be open minded and try it out. I have an internship lined up with Capitol Group in Irving, CA. I think after graduation if that goes well I am hoping to get a job with them or maybe move somewhere out of state or out of the city and try working in finance.

How has Imposter syndrome played a role in your personal experience?

In my first semester just talking to other students; when I had lab they would give us a work sheets where we had to solve a few problems and if I didn't know the answer immediately I just felt so stupid and if other classmates knew it right away, I would kind of just shut down. I think with the imposter syndrome and me shutting down made me realize that not everyone is going to be at the same level as you. For me personally, I am pretty slow at learning things so it takes me a few tries and acknowledging that that is okay that not everyone is at your same pace helped me overcome the syndrome. Some people can learn things right away and other people take a longer time. Don't be ashamed that you face imposter syndrome. Be vocal about it and express yourself, there might me other students facing the syndrome and talking to each other helps get through. No question is a stupid question, never hesitate to ask for help! Also, never compare yourself to other people or their experiences. Always focus on yourself and your experience to put less stress on your objectives.

Any additional tips or advice for students?

Don't give up, don't compare yourself to other people and always think of the end goal. I know for me when I was in the pre-major, just thinking about getting into the major and how rewarding that would be and once I got into the major, I wanted to cry. Then I had to think about graduation and how my hard work has paid off, because I think CS is one of those careers that you get what you put in. It is challenging but it is rewarding. I think this is all I have to say!

Taylor Goldberg

Taylor Goldberg is an incoming freshman pursuing a BS in Computer Science student Taylor is from Queen Creek, AZ and attended Casteel High School before attending the University of Arizona.

Why did you pick Computer Science as your major?

I chose Computer Science as my major so I could follow in my mother's footsteps. She is a Computer Science major herself and because of her, I have been heavily inspired to improve women empowerment in the tech. industry. Likewise, I have a had a fascinating admiration for technology since I was a little girl. My eyes light up every single time I see a new gadget, and I turn into a kid on Christmas morning... a kid more anxious than ever to open their toys!

What are you looking forward to this upcoming semester?

I'm looking forward to expanding my opportunities. Computer Science offers endless possibilities and I am eager to explore the unknown that lives in the technology industry today!

I chose the University of Arizona because it provides an excellent education for entrepreneurs and innovation.

Taylor responded: I chose Computer Science as my major so I could follow in my mother's footsteps. She is a Computer Science major herself and because of her, I have been heavily inspired to improve women empowerment in the tech. industry. Likewise, I have a had a fascinating admiration for technology...

Aaron Valenzuela

Aaron Valenzuela is a BS in Computer Science student and recently joined our UA Tutoring Center team. Aaron is a native Tucsonan and attended Pima Community College before transferring to the University of Arizona.

Why did you select computer science? How did faculty at Pima influence your decision?

As a child, I was always on the family computer until one of my siblings had to kick me off of it. I mostly played cheap flash games but I was also aware of the immense amount of vastly different information that was swirling around on the internet that allowed me to learn about almost anything I wanted to. I remember thinking at a young age that a computer wasn't a complete inanimate object and that they had to have some kind of human feelings because of how much computers are capable of doing. I really enjoyed spending my time on a keyboard so I decided at an early age that I wanted to do something involving computers. The hardware side wasn't very appealing to me so I decided to try the software side since I'm more familiar with programs already and I wanted to learn how computers worked behind the scenes. Computer science answered many of the "how?" questions that I've always asked myself growing up playing on my computer. How does the computer know to end the game when I lose all my lives? How does this game know exactly where I left off since the last time I opened it? I started school at Pima Community College where I got my AGEC-S and completed my general classes so that I was able to transfer to the University of Arizona and pursue a bachelor's degree in computer science. During my time at Pima I took my first programming class that I really struggled in. I was very disappointed because it was something I've always dreamed of doing and I began to question if I was even competent enough to pursue this type of career. But I was not ready to give up just yet! I took a Discrete Math class at Pima and although it was a difficult subject, I had a phenomenal professor that urged me not to give up. I decided to not switch majors and give programming another attempt at the University of Arizona once I transferred in 2018. I enjoyed everything about my intro classes and I am so glad I decided to stick with computer science. I'm happy that things turned out the way they did and I couldn't imagine myself doing something else.

What advice would you give to incoming transfer students?

My advice to transfer students is to make as many friends as you can in your classes. Talk to as many people as you can in those classes and get all of their numbers because it's extremely difficult to do this all on your own. I lean a little more on the introverted side so I wish I had broken out of my shell more when I first started because my peers have helped me multiple times when I was stuck on homework and had no idea how to move to the next step. TAs and professors won't always be available all the time, and as your classes get more specific and complicated there are less TAs available to ask for help so I wouldn't always rely on them for aid. It is also very good practice to help others when they need it as well because it improves your understanding of programming concepts and it helps to familiarize yourself more with the material.

What area/sub-area in CS are you most interested/excited about?

I am really interested in developing games and AIs. To this day, every time I'm playing a video game I tell myself: "I wonder how they programmed that? That must have taken so long to figure out." I've made a couple of games for school but my ultimate goal is to put a game out on the PlayStore or AppStore. They're so difficult to write sometimes but the end result is always worth it. Artificial Intelligence also has a strong presence in gaming which is why I'm interested in learning more about them in order to improve my game developing skills. AIs like Siri or Alexa seem so complex and it would be so fascinating to see how they work.

What are your career goals?

I really enjoy teaching people about what I do because I'm a firm believer that anyone can learn how to program if given the right tools. Everyone absorbs material differently and it's important to keep that in mind when teaching students anything. After gaining some experience in my field I would like to eventually enter a teaching position and provide the right tools to aspiring programmers that want to learn about computer science. Another one of my main goals is to utilize my skills and my career to help the LGBTQIA+ community in some way. As a member of this community I think it's important to play my part in helping the LGBTQIA+ community, especially LGBTQIA+ youth who are struggling with a high suicide rate and homelessness.

What has been a meaningful experience that you have had in the CS department?

The way CS students stick together and help each other out was an amazing experience. This type of support amongst my peers didn't really exist when I was taking my general courses. During most of my CS classes, if someone sitting at the table wasn't understanding the concept being discussed during a lecture, the rest of the table would always step in to help them out. I think every CS student understands that our material in class can be very tough sometimes so they're always more than willing to provide guidance. Piazza has helped me get through countless issues and bugs that I was having while completing my programming assignments. Almost everyone you meet is willing to help and it's a nice little community that I will miss being a part of when I graduate.

Jofie Ofei

Jofie Ofei is an incoming Fall 2020 CS student from Florida. Jofie recently attended the CS New Student Orientation and met with the CS advising team to plan for Fall 2020.
 
Where are you from?
A large part of my identity is my heritage. Both of my parents were born in Ghana, West Africa. I was born in Clearwater, Florida, and attended Northeast High School in St. Petersburg Florida.
 
Why did you pick Computer Science as your major?
I've loved technology my entire life. At a young age, I was exposed to the internet with little restriction and have been hooked since. One of my favorite shows as a child was Cyberchase and for the longest time, I was set on becoming a hacker. I grew out of it though and started expanding into the other sub-categories of the IT field.
 
In the 5th grade I started up a YouTube channel for video games and funny videos. Next thing I knew I was teaching myself how to use 3D modeling software to make video introductions and learning how to operate Sony Vegas. Fast forward a year or so, and I had started getting into mobile device repair. I fixed my first IPhone screen when I was 12 and I have repaired over a 100 smart devices since.
 
After graduating middle school, I made it clear to my household that I wanted to have a career focus around computer science. They accepted this and I enrolled in the Academy of Information Technology at Northeast High school, located in St. Petersburg, Florida. I didn't have any real talents so the IT field was one of the few things I had going for me. It was what made me feel special. I slowly became more professional as I wanted to portray myself as someone with knowledge and integrity. It made me realize I wanted to be someone others could look up to as a leader figure.
 
I wanted to help others realize their passions. I ultimately wanted to be a role model. I spent all 4 years of high school in student government, representing students without a voice. Late sophomore year, I helped found the Northeast High Robotics club merging the IT and Automation academies at my school. Along with this I became part of the county school board's student legislation committee, and represented the state of Florida multiple times on behalf of my fellow classmates.
 
While performing these actions, I grew interest in cybersecurity. It soon became my goal to aid in the security of personal and private data against those with malicious intent. The past few years had been a roller coaster as I would jump into multimedia for a few months and then jump to 3d printing the next. I was all over the place trying to learn about every little thing that caught my eye, but it was only cyber security that stayed constant this whole time.
 
Senior year, my presence on campus was acknowledged as people labeled me as the "fix anything and everything tech guy," and they were exactly right. I was fixing phones and laptops for teachers and even staff I had never met before. The director for the IT academy recommended I apply for a job at a local PC repair shop as she knew I was unhappy as a grocery store cashier. I applied to the number one PC repair shop in the area and was hired on as their youngest employee ever. I was 17 at the time and worked alongside technicians almost twice my age. Though a bit rough at first, I had found an amazing job that allowed me to learn at an extremely accelerated rate. I was full time, 45 hours a week, improving and touching up on old skills while acquiring new ones. I did this for 6 months throughout the pandemic and I'm grateful for all the knowledge the job provided me. Just the more reason to become a computer science major. I'd love to be on the edge of new technologies, paving the path for a better tomorrow.
 
What are you looking forward to this upcoming semester?
I am looking forward to any and all networking opportunities with fellow students and corporations. I enjoy working on a team with driven, like-minded individuals who can share a common goal.
 
Why did you pick the University of Arizona?
I picked the U of A for its academics and location. Through my college research it was a great fit based on my academic scores. I also had always wanted to see what Arizona had to offer as my cousin in Phoenix had nothing but great things to say about the state. Along with Arizona being close to the west coast, I would finally have the opportunity to explore the other side of the country.