I’ll start out with this: I was one of the lucky ones and I have no idea how. Before coming to Notre Dame, I felt like I would get to college and I would be able to do exactly what I did in high school and be able to get by. I’d be at the top of my class, I’d get everything in one go, and everything would just come naturally to me as it always had. Wow, was I in for a surprise…
The exact opposite happened. I understood almost nothing. Everyone seemed miles ahead of me and I didn’t see how I would be able to catch up. It just didn’t seem possible, especially once I decided that Computer Science was going to be my major. I didn’t actually learn anything programming related until my sophomore year. When I did learn, I liked it and it felt somewhat natural, but it, in no way, came to me as quickly as it did for others. It was something I was good at, not the best at, and I realized that early on. I knew then that that’s how it was always going to be for me. Sure, I could put more time in outside of class and learn things not taught, or use the concepts taught in class to create something of my own, but that just wasn’t going to happen. Programming is fun, but it is not my life. Nor do I want it to be. There’s so many people that spend their afternoons doing computer science related things and enjoy it. I’d much rather spend my time watching Netflix, reading, hanging out with my friends, or just literally doing nothing. I don’t have the passion for computer science that other people do. Perhaps that’s where my issue lies, or maybe lies in me comparing myself to others. I don’t know. This feeling of never being able to know enough made interviewing hard. Actually, scratch that. That would be an understatement. It was horrifying and made me so nervous. I studied abroad twice: after my freshman and sophomore year, just so I wouldn’t have to get an internship after school ended. But then junior year came and I knew I had to get an internship. I got interviews and they went exactly as I expected. The behavioral interviews went well, but the technical interviews? Not so much. I would freeze and I basically became freshman Melina, with no knowledge of programming. I hate technical interviews because they are pressured and intense and don’t really relate to actual real-world programming. I hate that they place so much emphasis on your ability to code in the 30 minutes you are given and discount any other work you may have done outside of the interview space. I absolutely hate that they disregard other skills, those that are considered “soft,” in favor of technical skills. I think that having those “soft skills” is so underrated and underutilized. Can I regurgitate this algorithm from memory? No. But I have so much more to offer than just that. I got my internship at a company where my interview process relied more on my personality than my coding ability. I was able to showcase my skills over the course of 3 months instead of 30 minutes. After, I was offered a full-time position after graduation. So, I was able to come into senior year with a job offer, which was my goal all along. How I managed to get so lucky I have no idea. But I’m just rolling with it and praying that I can show them that their faith in me was not misplaced.
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Each sector of industry has some kind of obligation and responsibility to address the social and political issues that plague our society. However, this does not mean that each company in these sectors has to tackle the big issues in our world. In the computing industry, not each company that is created starts out with the intention of solving world hunger. But some do have an end goal in mind of improving a societal problem. With the gap in income inequality continually widening, companies have a duty to start talking about it and come up with ways that they can help shorten the gap, even if their company is about something as trivial as games.
Companies that focus on automating processes have an even bigger responsibility to address these issues. This is mainly because they are contributing to the problem. Companies like Uber are beneficial to the riders, but for the drivers, they are earning less than the riders all the while making more money for the owners of the company. Such a disparity between people only widens the gap even more. As processes and jobs become automated and jobs become obsolete, companies have to think about the people whose jobs they are displacing. They have to think of ways that they can help those who, because of their inventions, have lost their income. The computing industry has the drive to try and solve the problems, but lack the ability to understand them. Bill Campbell said that entrepreneurs solve problems that they understand. The founders of companies use their experiences to drive their company and goals. But when none of the founders have experience as drivers, or people searching for clean water, or someone looking for their next meal, they can’t properly address the problem. “Because most of today’s entrepreneurs have their basic needs taken care of, their problem-solving often seems frivolous to the rest of the country.” These entrepreneurs are solving issues that they have experienced, which is great, but they’re not the most pressing issues that need to be discussed and spoken of. The computing industry sees value in results and where value can be created. The idea of universal basic income is now being put to the test by a Silicon Valley company, in the hopes of being able to address the automation of jobs and the increasing income inequality. However, as much as the people in Silicon Valley might think that just giving away money is the solution, it is not. People don’t just want an income and then be told to do nothing. That does not solve anything. We need to come up with a way that helps and benefits everyone in the face of all the technological changes that are arising. I’m not sure if tech can save the world. I really do hope so. I want to be able to partake in an industry that is actively participating in searching for solutions to societal and political problems. But at this point, I’m not sure if technology will just continue widening the gap or help reduce it. Look, I’ll take any opportunity to consider myself a superhero. It’s always been my dream to one day develop superpowers and be able to call myself a superhero. Like, me, a superhero? Wow. And now I can finally say that I am. I have spent four years honing my superpower but I know that I have a long road ahead of me. I can stand beside my fellow super heros like Iron Man, Jean Grey, and Gamora. I think that’s pretty darn cool.
In his article, McGowan says that a comic book super power is a terrible analogy for programming. He says that coding is hard, and most programs will end up averaging around thousands or millions of lines of code. He says that most the time, programmers spend their time debugging and fixing code, which ends up being tedious and time consuming. McGowan says that students should not learn to code in middle schools or high schools because most of them won’t be programmers and won’t be learning it at the necessary depth to actually make an useful program. He says that comic book super heroes tend to resolve their conflicts very quickly, which is the opposite of programmers. Well Dr. McGowan, to that I say, ha! Yes, coding is very hard and some programs can be very, very long. Most of my time is spent debugging and it takes up a lot of time. Programming an advanced function cannot be done in an hour and are often so complex that help is needed. But to say that students should not learn to program is ridiculous. The purpose of the class is not to give them all the knowledge they need to be able to work as a professional programmer. It is to expose them to the field and give them the necessary experience to determine whether or not they would like to pursue this as a career. It is to give students a chance and the hope that they could do this too. To think that they would come out of those classes fully renowned experts in programming is laughable. Like Thompson wisely said, “One of the things I hear when I suggest that all students take a computer science or programming course is “these kids are not going to be [professional] computer programmers.” And that is true. But we don’t say “why teach English? These kids are not going to be professional novelists.” That would be ridiculous. We know that pretty much everyone needs to write well. Like wise we are getting to a point where many more people than ever before really should be able to write some computer code.” This cannot be more true. The knowledge that these student obtain in these classes should be fostered and encouraged. Our society needs more people like this, so such classes need to be provided, not eliminated. A super power is defined as a special power or ability. Coding is not something that most people can do, it takes years of learning and practicing to be able to do it. To discount the possibility of programming being a superpower due to the lack of similarity in the time of resolution between a comic book superhero and writing a program is absurd. Also, McGowan states that successful programmers have larger than normal working memory all the time. Well if we have above normal abilities, does that not qualify that as a superpower? If programming is a super power, then only one question follows: what about the newfound responsibilities that have now fallen on our hunched shouldered programmers? Like the comic books suggest, if we are going to consider programming a super power, then responsibilities with it. We have to power to create and destroy, whether we choose to use that power for good or evil, well that’s up to you. We have to use our morals and beliefs to guide us and direct us. That's where this class comes in handy. We need to learn about the current problems facing programming to be able to stop them when we come across them. We need to make sure that when they tell our story, we’re the good guys, not the bad guys. We need to take action when we see evil being done and its in our power to stop it. When I write a program, I feel powerful. I feel super. I feel like a superhuman with a superpower. Now the only question that remains is what my superhero name is going to be… Hi guys! My name is Melina Valencia and I'm a CompSci major from NYC. One of my biggest interests these past few years is rugby, and I'm lucky enough to play here at ND with some of the best girls by my side. Fun Fact: We made it to the DI Fall Championship for the first time! We lost but eh, whatever :) Here's a picture of us when we realized we were going to the Championship! I also love love love anything superhero, particularly Marvel's Universe, and I can be found binge watching any Marvel show, or pretty much any show, on Netflix or Hulu. I'm also an avid movie watcher, although I stick more to movies that have come out in my lifetime.
When I first got to ND, I had the full intention of becoming a biomedical engineer with the hopes of working on prosthetics. It was my dream to help others and give them a chance at normalcy again. So I came here as a Mechanical Engineer, wholly committed to the major. But it all changed after took physics. Well actually, more like I fell out of the cloud I was riding around in and crash landed back on Earth. I realized that, although very cool, that major was just not for me. I thought about how much I was enjoying the programming I was doing in EG 10111 and remembered how cool those hackers and programmers look in movies and thought, I wanna do that! Granted, now I know better but the allure of computer science still remains. I love the idea of being free to choose what I want to do. So often, when you choose a major, you get cut off from other possibilities and what once was an entire world of career options, suddenly becomes a sliver of the world you once had. With computer science, that norm doesn't hold. You have the whole world to choose from. Having the freedom to go into animation, or healthcare, or banking, or whatever else, is, well, freeing. I have a lot of hopes for this class so, pbui, don't let me down haha. With great power comes great responsibility. I've learned so much in my time here and I'm still learning more. But with everything that I learn, I realize that other people know just as much, if not more than me. This knowledge can be misused and taken advantage of. I want to be aware of all of the issues occurring in the tech world, because knowing about it beforehand gives me the power to prepare myself. My most pressing concern is privacy. With the huge advancement in technology, there is so much that is not covered in the current Bill of Rights, so much has to be left up to interpretation and the lack of clearly stated laws leaves room for abuse. We laugh at my friend who says that "they're always listening", but, unfortunately, its a fact. I'll look up something once or say something aloud and then all of a sudden, I get an influx of ads about it. The thought that someone is listening and processing what I am saying is creepy. |
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