A couple of weeks ago, Microsoft had a lunch for Turing Scholars in the GDC. It was an interesting experience — pretty standard as far as lunches go, with free pizza predictably running out in 20 minutes, a couple of tables with different conversations clustered around a visiting engineer or recruiter, and of course, the perennial problem: no one-on-one time available to talk to the recruiter.

It’s wonderful to see familiar faces this fall, as girls who were formerly First Bytes campers are now undergraduate computer science students.

This summer I had an opportunity to work in a dual role as a software developer and a systems analyst. Being the indecisive person that I am, this setup was perfect for me.

I am in the sad business of NOT being a tea-drinker or a coffee-drinker. So you can see my problem: As my already exorbitant workload forces me into becoming a nocturnal creature, I have nowhere to turn, to keep me up at night. Yes, it’s only been a few weeks since the semester has started, but my initial energetic, squirrel-like excitement has been reduced to the excitement of squirrel droppings. I’ve already had multiple urges to abandon all pretense of a healthy lifestyle and consume large quantities of chocolate cake while binge watching Netflix. It’s a sad state of mind.  

I’ll come out and say it: programming is cool right now. And as much fun as it is to be a tech hipster, I have to admit that before I got to college I couldn't've cared less about coding and was actually slightly afraid of computers. (My $300 Toshiba would take so long to boot up I ended up writing a comical number of my college application essays on my phone.) I was lucky enough to transfer into computer science in the Fall of 2013 right before things got weird (refer to the remnant steam in the UTCS Facebook group for more details). So I wasn’t here before it blew up.

This is my fifth (of eight) semesters at UT. Since adding my math degree during my first semester, I have taken 6 math classes and 2 math-y CS classes (311 and 331, if you’re wondering). This semester, I’m taking two more of each, bringing me up to a total of 8 and 4, respectively. (Proof that I am in fact a math major.)

The science of mathematics is based on taking existing facts (theorems, lemmas, axioms, and so on) and figuring out how to make them into new and different facts, otherwise known as the proof—the bread and butter of mathematics.

Where do you see yourself in five years?

Registration is upon us.

By this point in the year, I’ve agonized over my schedule for next semester ad infinitum. I have spreadsheet upon spreadsheet and Google docs galore. But have I reached a decision about what to take yet? Nope.

We recently had a guest speaker in a computer science ethics class that I’m taking. He was a researcher, and his work was centered on the use and effect of video games in society. We began class with a series of iClicker questions about our habits towards video games - how often we played them, what kinds, and a myriad of other questions.

The first question was easy: How often do you play these games? My answer: Never.