Bachelor in Computer Science - George Mason University - (Winner)
Editors Note: This computer science student story was selected as winner in BrainTrack's Computer Science Schools Scholarship for Spring 2010. At the time of submittal, Paul Otten was studying for a Bachelor in Computer Science at George Mason University in Fairfax, VA.
Wishes Had Known | Program Likes/Dislikes | Choosing Computer Science
What do you wish you had known about selecting and entering your computer science school that would be helpful to others going into computer science?
When I was first accepted to George Mason University, I looked at the list of required courses for computer science majors. Looking at this list of courses, I was able to see what kind of skill sets I would obtain through this degree program. I was also able to see how the courses would progress to become more and more advanced to the point where I would be able to understand the low level protocols and operations that build up computer systems.
As I took a course in computer science, one of my assignments was to research every required computer science course for my degree and to research the objectives of each class and what programming languages would be used to meet those objectives. As I looked at each course, I was able to see all of the professors that taught the course. Upon further research, I was able to look at some of the papers that the professors had published and at some of the projects that they were working on in their fields. This was very interesting because I was able to see that I was being taught by computer scientists who were studying the latest discoveries in computer science. This is a big thing that would have been very helpful to me when selecting and entering the computer science degree at my school.
For new students going into the field of computer science, my biggest recommendations would be to become familiar with the courses and subjects taught in the degree program. This is the biggest thing to look at because these courses will greatly influence the direction in computer science that the student will study. Another big thing to look at is the professors, because there are several obvious benefits from being taught by leading researchers in the field. Students will have to make sure that their professors are very accessible and willing to help when they are confused.
What have you enjoyed most and least during your computer science degree program so far?
So far, I am currently in my fourth semester for my computer science degree program. In my first semester, I took a course that introduced me to all of the different fields of computer science. This was a very interesting course because it showed us how far computer science has progressed so far. We also had a project in that course where we had to program an iCreate robot to do something interesting. This was the first time I had ever programmed a robot, and I decided to use Python to get the robot to autonomously navigate a maze. After programming this robot, I became very interested in robotics and joined my school's robotics club, where I learned a lot more about the current state of robotics and learned several different ways that programmers have gotten robots to interact with the physical world.
During my third semester, I took a course in digital electronics, where I learned how integrated chips worked to create the low level parts of a computer. This was the first time I had exposure and insight into how the hardware worked inside of a computer at the lowest level. This was a completely different kind of logic than I was used to, but once again, I thought it was very interesting. This class answered tons of questions that I had about computers, and, almost every class, I was introduced to new ways to build up gates to produce different logical components. This was one of my favorite classes.
Currently, I am taking a class called Computer Systems Architecture, where I am learning the link between the low level hardware and programming languages such as C. We are studying assembly code and learning about low level memory and register operations. So far, this is my absolute favorite class because it is giving me an understanding of the interaction between higher level programming languages and the hardware. This type of low level programming has always been my favorite and the most interesting to me. It has inspired me to purchase a microcontroller and use it for very low level programming. I am currently using this microcontroller to power a small robot that I have built.
All of these classes, along with the great support I received from my peers and professors, have been the things I enjoyed most about my degree program. The main part that I enjoyed the least about my computer science degree were my courses in calculus because the concepts and theories involved with that subject were always difficult for me to grasp, but, even then, I felt a great sense of accomplishment when I was able to complete those courses.
What led you to choose computer science as a career path?
When I was a small boy, my father brought me along to a computer store where he was looking to buy a motherboard. I was very impressed the first time I saw a motherboard. At the time, I thought that the motherboards looked like little cities. After seeing those motherboards, I always liked looking at circuit boards and simply observing the extreme complexity that went into their operations.
Around 2001, my father bought me several computer components, and together we built them up into my very first computer. I remember being more interested with what was inside my computer than with actually using the computer. Whenever something went wrong with my computer, I was eager to open it up and diagnose the problem. I enjoyed shopping for memory chips and graphics cards to upgrade my computer with.
In high school, I took an academy course called Computer Systems Technology, where I was trained to become CompTIA A+ Certified. I was among the first few people in my class to pass both of the tests required to obtain the certification. After I became certified, my parents bought me my first laptop, which was an Apple laptop. With the Apple laptop, I was able to become experienced with UNIX based operating systems. I was able to put together older computers and install UNIX based operating systems (primarily Linux) to make them more efficient. This started my new passion for UNIX development and the Open Source Community. After that year, I was able to build and maintain Linux desktops and servers. I had even set up a Linux web server to host web pages and share files in my home network.
In my last year of high school, I took my first programming course where I learned Java programming. I enjoyed Java programming very much because it seemed so simple. It is also a cross-platform language, so I was able to write my programs on my Linux desktop and still run them on the Windows computers at my school. After high school, I felt a great passion towards computer science, and these series of events influenced my decision to major in my field.