is this you? oh jk i guess it is someone else how are finals going?
good, I just finished my first one
oh me too! what was yours on?
CS 252. sadly, I have one scheduled for Wed at 3pm.
i think every single person doing this is a cs major lol I just finished the CS240 exam
It makes sense. I think they went after the people who actually think its cool How was 240 for you? I'm going to be taking it in the Summer
that's a good point are you a cs major or minor?
I'm a major How about yourself?
yep, cs major! are you taking classes spring/summer or working?
Cool! and I will be taking 240 summer term
oh fun!
and working the rest of the time
with dr. rodham? woodfield? jones?
rodham I've heard hes the best
oh he's the best! yep haha
hahaha
I had him this semester
Yea, I guess actually having experience in software development helps with teaching.
yep! is your job this summer related to software engineering?
I've been working on LearningSuite for the last year so I'm just sticking with that job for the summer again
oh that's nice :)
I might find an internship next summer or a summer job with a real company How about you, what are your summer plans?
tech experience anywhere (on campus or off) is always good
Good point. How about you? Any summer jobs/internships?
yep I'll be going to washington state to work at microsoft
Nice! Internship?
yep! I'll be on the AI team so I'm excited about that!
That's a solid internship to have on the resume! And cool, were you involved with this AI project in anyway?
no, I work in machine learning on campus in a research lab here
Very cool! Any big research projects you're doing?
we're rapping up a bunch of tiny ones right now have you thought about working in research?
I have thought about it. I have a friend who works in a security research lab because he's an IT guy
oh cool! I highly recommend it
But I think AI and machine learning are the big things
esp if you are willing to consider grad school well, it depends
Isn't there a class that gives you credit for being a researcher for a professor?
the "cooler" a subfield is, the easier it is to get jobs, but the harder it is to have a unique thesis yeah, I think the class is 497 or 498 R
Yea, that's a good point. the subfield will definitely have a lot of competition if it is "cooler"
I guess you're in 236 now?
I hope to work for my friend's dad's company this next year. They do cancer research with AI And yes, I am currently
oh nice! are they utah based?
Yeah, they mostly automate the pathology part of the cancer screening process. (Identifying what cancer and how severe it is)
no way! I think I've heard about them.
Lumea?
I think they came and did a presentation recently! probably... I can't remember :P
yea they did! haha and I don't blame ya, there are so many tech companies nowadays But yeah, I think a mix of biology and software would be a great fit for me
huh
but not specifically bioinformatics
I'm not that into bioinfomatics tbh I'm much more interested in languages or human-computer interaction
like natural language processing?
machine learning, AI, etc yep! topic modeling or speech recognition and stuff like that :)
cool! I've thought about taking the natural language processing class just to see what it's like
It's not taught to often right now dr. ringer went on sabbatical and then decided to not come back in theory dr. seppi teaches it sometimes
really? that's a shame
but the dept is a little short staffed recently so he hasn't for a bit i've heard that the linguistic department has some overlapping questions
Yeah, I did hear they are hiring a few new professors
yep, I'm excited to see who they pick!
I haven't heard to much about the candidates but I think it will be nice to have some younger blood in the department
yeah and hopefully someone not white or not male not that there's anything wrong with white men but diversity is nice
hahaha good point
do you know how many female professors the CS department employs?
probably zeroo or one
zero ;) but there are only 9 LDS women with PhDs in CS
I think that will change in the coming years due to the changes happening now
what kind of changes?
Involvement of women in STEM degrees
google "when women stopped coding" you should read the NPR article with that title super interesting very relevant
Will do. I don't know too much on the issue but I'll educate myself
please do! and if you read it now, I'd love to hear your thoughts!
okay, give me a moment
yay thanks!! the graph is the most important part it's a pretty short article
Yeah, looks pretty concise
lmk
Hmmmm that's interesting. Sad that something that was out of our control before we were born was shunning women from that area of science And still tends to do it today
I think it's the graph that speaks most strongly to me the idea that the numbers of women in CS were increasing so rapidly the other fields that were on this trajectory are now between 40-60% female and cs peaked, plummeted, and plateaued
yea, that's sad to see I'm sure there were a bunch of other factors but I think this marketing one was a big one
i really think so to how often do you think about the lack of women in CS? slash, like how concerning is it to you?
I wouldn't say it's my top priority but I think its important to make sure those with talent in the field are welcomed and given a voice
that sounds good to me too :)
yeah, I hope to be able to teach after I'm "retired" from software and teach middle school/high school kids about computer science I think it will prepare them alot more for the world
I can't wait until all hs teach cs and it is a required general for all schools!
That's my hope! There wasn't a cs class at my high school so I was "behind" I guess for CS 142
me too :P have you taken the hardware class? or the web dev one?
I think the CS dept should make an easier version of 142 that doesn't go into depth about pointers and classes for people who are just testing the waters.
there's a lot of talk about making a python class
I took the web dev one when they first introduced it as 201R
that talks more about problem solving skills instead of c++ syntax
I thought they were changing 312 to use python as well
that too,  yeah! wait so did you take 201r last winter bc that is when i took it haha
Yea! I did with a friend who is in CS too. imo the class was pretty unorganized and I didn't learn to much from copying and pasting. I think they tried to stick too much info into one class. Which seems to be the bane of every CS class.
yeah that's pretty true it was extra weird bc we had an adjunct professor tho
Yea, I was wondering if he was a full time professor Plus it was his first time teaching it so I don't blame him
yeah and he was super helpful in office hours! what conversation were we supposed to be talking about anyway?
hahah beats me
oh films that make an impression on us haha well "Hidden Figures" for me lol #womenincs
hahahaha I figured that one would be brought up
what's your favorite?
I think "The Greatest Showman" I just enjoy the songs and their messages.
that's a good one! I'm in a dance class this semester and one group decided to make their dance to that
That would be fun! My wife is a dancer so she had me take a Latin dance class with her last semester
that's super cool!
Yea, well it's been a pleasure "chatting" with you. A very enlightening conversation I wish you the best in Washington
thanks! good luck on finals/your summer classes
thanks