My first computer class was a middle school technology class. It taught the basics of Microsoft Word and Excel, explained the basic concept of a file system, and introduced some programming with QBASIC. This part of the class was seen by pretty much everyone as a waste of time, except for me. I ate it up. I stayed after class to learn more from the teacher. I worked on side projects after school, and figured out how to use programming tools on my home computer. By the time I started high school, I was a machine. I worked my way through two courses of web design before learning Java and OOP. When I finished AP Computer Science in my junior year, I had run out of computer classes to take, and my high school hired me on part-time as a network technician apprentice. This is when I was initially convinced of two very important things.
- Getting paid for something that fascinates you is absolutely the way to go.
- No matter where my future led me, it would probably somewhat involve making computers do things.
I was born and raised in upstate New York, and against all odds I followed my older brother to Notre Dame after I graduated high school. My older brother graduated as a chemical engineer in 2015. My younger brother, who will start attending Notre Dame next year, also wants to be a chemical engineer, but I think there’s still time for him to see the light.
Besides programming, which I honestly don’t find myself doing way too much of anymore, I’m a self-identified gamer. I love to collect and play strategy board games (and will gladly take on all Settlers of Catan challengers) as well as some strategy-based or role-playing video games. I am also a sports fanatic; I have been a sportswriter for Notre Dame student media since my first week as a Domer and have seen almost as many football games from the press box as I have from the student section. My other job is with the Office of Sustainability, where I hope to do my part in making the Notre Dame campus more efficient in its use of resource and keeping the community aware of its effect on its surroundings. After graduation, I’ll be moving to Chicago to work for Pariveda Solutions, a software consulting firm.
My reasons for studying computer science definitely correlate with my love for strategy games. Since I started studying computer science seriously at Notre Dame, I have always considered myself a professional problem solver. That’s what games and computer science really have in common. They both involve finding solutions to problems on many levels and scales. They involve identifying what information is important, and how it can be stored, and how it should be used. This abstraction leads me to an area of ethics involving computer science that I think is really fascinating: intellectual property. Intellectual property in the field of computer science can boil down to the ownership of a solution to a problem, a concept that honestly hurts my head if I think about it too hard.
I fell in love with programming and it grew into an obsession with problem solving. But not all problems have an immediate solution. Many problems have complications and externalities that go beyond what I know, and I hope that some of these questions are answered through this class. When can I use judgement in a professional environment to tell right from wrong? How can I prepare myself for issues unknown, and be mindful of social complexities not seen? How can I tell if my career is going in the right direction? More importantly, where is it going?
Jack thoughts 