Wow, pbui. You’re really trying to get some discussions going, huh? Immigration is a touchy topic. It’s a polarizing subject, and it brings up strong feelings in a lot of people. You’re either for it or against it, even if you consider yourself part of the ‘middle ground’, you lean more one way than the other. The whole controversy regarding H-1B Visas is about the job security. Americans fear that with the introduction of these visas, jobs would be taken away from other Americans.
The purpose of the use of H-1B Visas is to attract top talent to the United States. It is supposed to help the US stay on top by having the most talented people working for them. The H-1B visa program is a temporary visa for foreigners in “special occupations.” It is typically for careers where a college degree and specialized skills in the STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). The narrative for H-1B visas is the same as any immigration discussion: immigrants are taking away American jobs. Those who are in support of these visas maintain that retaining talented immigrants in the US is crucial to the economy. One of the biggest problems with the H-1B visa is that, to some extent, people are right. I do think that they are taking away American jobs. The initial purpose of the visa was to bring in people from outside of the US because there were jobs that needed to be filled that could not be done with US workers. Companies are outsourcing jobs to people from other countries because they were looking for people who could accomplish what they felt Americans could not. Or at least that’s what they’re saying. These companies are actually abusing the H-1B visas to find cheaper labor. What was once supposed to be a tool to keep America on top is now being used to take jobs from Americans to give to immigrants. Employers are giving these jobs to immigrants who supposedly have skills that cannot be found in America and giving them a salary of just over 60,000 to be able to meet the minimum requirement for the visa. Those who are for the visas say that immigrants are essential to the American economy. There are several startups that have been founded by immigrants that have created thousands of jobs for Americans. They claim that the tech-talent shortage is real and that the H-1B visas are needed to fill that gap. Even though there is no actual evidence of this so called, ‘shortage’. I am in favor of these H-1B visas, but not the way that they are currently being administered. These visas are important because they are giving opportunities to those that do not have the same chances that we do. But the way that they are currently structured is letting companies take advantage of it and take away jobs from talented Americans. The H-1B visa program needs to be reformed so that it is giving jobs to people who have talents that can’t be found in the US. It shouldn’t be about trying to cut costs. Adding immigrants to the pool of candidates for jobs increases the competition and I think competition is good because I believe that competition and innovation go hand in hand. The visa program can be beneficial to the US once it is reformed. What those reforms entail is beyond my paygrade. I think that America should, not necessarily prioritize, but think of Americans first before looking elsewhere for employees. Am I concerned with competition because of outsourcing or foreign workers? Sure, a little. But never will I say that the US should curtail programs like the H-1B Visa or DACA. America has been the land of opportunity. That’s why my parents came here. That’s what they’ve given me, a land of opportunity. And I want to keep it that way.
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I agree with everything that my group wrote. That Manifesto is my manifesto. Is it a warcry? I guess you can call it that. What we wrote in the Manifesto is everything we as women in a STEM career face. Our abilities are questioned. Our accomplishments are doubted. Our talents are minimized. And our Manifesto talks about just that. It speaks of the challenges that we encounter every day, just because of our biology. It’s about the stereotypes we have to beat just to be taken seriously. But it also talks about our willingness to face them and overcome them. Because we will be heard and seen, and the things that we will do will amaze.
I think most of my differences with the Portrait we created lie in hobbies, appearance, and origin. I don’t play video games, nor do I go to hackathons and code for fun. I am not a male, and I’m actually shorter than our typical ND CSE student. I am not from the suburbs of Chicago. These are very superficial differences, but otherwise, the Portrait is pretty spot on. Stereotypes are everywhere. We use them every day, whether we want to acknowledge it or not. Most of the stereotypes are not baseless, they are based in some truth, while others are wildly wrong. I think a person’s thoughts on stereotypes depends on if they have a positive or a negative connotation and whether or not the stereotype of him/her is one he/she identifies with. I don’t like them. On paper, I am a female Hispanic in computer science. The way the world views females, Hispanics, and women in computer science is not the most positive. People treat you differently when there is a negative stereotype of you. I was treated differently in my internship because of who I am. And it sucks, but the only thing you can do is prove them wrong. Manifestos are helpful. They share thoughts and feelings. But the presence of a Portrait is harmful. It creates an image of what you should be and if you don’t fit into the mold, it’s hard to not feel like an outsider. Why should there be only one mold, when we’re all so different? What’s so hard about embracing the differences? If you ever find out, please let me know. Written with Erin Bradford and Esmeralda Cervantes
Manifesto We are biologically wired to be less in a man’s world. We crack under pressure. We can’t be trusted with money. We’re too emotional. We’re too bossy. We belong in the home. We lack ambition. We are not qualified to do a man’s job. We will leave our job to get married and have children. We lack confidence. We can’t do math or science. We are more equipped to deal with people, not technology. We have soft skills, not technical skills. We aren’t born with the capacity to program. We get jobs to fill a quota, not because of our talent. Our empowerment comes at the expense of men. Wrong. We thrive under pressure. We can handle money. We control our emotions. We’re assertive. We can work full time. We have ambition. We are qualified to do a ‘man’s’ job. We can achieve a work-life balance. We are confident. We can do math and science. We are just as capable at dealing with technology. We have technical skills. We can program the shit out of anything. We get jobs based on our talent. Get out of our way and watch us run this world. If you don’t like that... Sorry not sorry. Portrait of a Notre Dame CS Student ORIGIN Hails from the suburbs of Chicago. Top of their high school class. Better at math than english but still doesn’t want to do math ever. Played a sport in high school so they think they are athletic. Computer Science was not the major they applied as. APPEARANCE Typically male, although regardless of gender average height is 5’5”-5’7’ - short enough to hide behind their computer. Everyone has poor eye sight: either you can tell (glasses) or you can’t (contacts). DRESS Men will wear shirts advertising internships or networking events with large tech companies. Females are willing to actually put in effort, but don’t always. RELATIONSHIP STATUS Single. Or dating fellow CS major. Or trying to date a fellow CS major. EQUIPMENT Females: Macs. Males: Lenovo ThinkPad. All: Water bottles, CS decals. HOBBIES Coding for fun, spending weekends at hackathons and getting drunk under the pretense of a ‘networking’ event (resumes are involved). Gaming of any kind. The older the game console, the more respect garnered. Going to the gym. LIKES Showing up way too early to every class and 2 hours early on test days. Energy drinks. Caffeinated sodas. Especially Coke. Python. Ultimate Frisbee. Vim. Tabs. Stack Overflow. Google. DISLIKES Writing. Assembly Code. Classes that ban laptops and cell phones. Matlab. Theory of Computing. Spaces. Mendoza College students. BELIEFS (Politics & Religion) Catholic. Generally right leaning, though moderate. WEAKNESSES Talking about anything not related to technology. Eye contact. Gender Relations. Problems that can’t be Googled. Reading comprehension. Writing manifestos. POST GRAD PLANS Software companies. Pariveda. Consulting in general. Probably end up in California or Chicago. 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. 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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