Send Ken To College

In my ongoing effort to put off my homework as long as possible, I found myself reading through an old copy of Communications of the ACM.  It was the July/August 2008 edition and in it was an article written by Rick Rashid.  Mr. Rashid, a senior VP at Microsoft, was talking about how to inspire a new generation of computer scientists. 

Apparently computer science suffers from the image that it is nothing but a bunch of solitary, male, geeks sitting around gobbling junk food, swilling caffeinated beverages and hammering out cryptic looking code.  This image crisis seems to be discouraging women from entering the field.  

Mr. Rashid talks about a number of meetings that he had with high school and college students that were interested in computer science.  His goal was to find out what motivates and inspires them and to get feedback as to how to motivate and inspire others to enter the field.  One of the students that he mentions is Evie Powell, a PhD candidate in game design at UNC-Charlotte.  Evie lists one of her big motivations as a professor that taught an introductory game design class.  That one little spark has motivated her to grad school, has motivated her to be active in the STARS Alliance among other things.

Some days it takes a Herculean effort for me to drive 60 miles to school just to set through a few classes.  I think part of the problem is that I have yet to find a professor that is really all that enthusiastic about their subject matter.  In fact many of them seem like it is a major chore to get up in front of a class and teach.  You can not help but get the impression that they have their PhD so that is all they feel to be important.  Dr. Gray was probably as close to a motivational professor that I had, or will have in the near future, in the computer science department.

It is a sad state of affairs when my favorite class this semester is a general physics class.  I wonder what the professors are like in the Art department…

Ok, so it has been 5 months since my last post.  Just for the record, I did indeed graduate (magne cum laude even).  This did not rip a hole in the fabric of the universe as some may think.  I didn’t fall through to another dimension or anything like that.

Where have I been?  Fair question!  I have been lazy. 

During my off time I worked an internship for a cereal manufacturer.  I programmed in Visual Basic and along the way I learned a lot of lessons.  The most important of those lessons was planning.  Planning a software project is very important.  I also learned that contrary to what development methodology you use, it is not a good thing to add features willy nilly contrary to what certain upper level management seemed to think.  I don’t like computers very much anymore.

I also did manage to make it to UNI for grad school so my dream of being my family’s first grad school drop out is still alive.  I am not certain what is going on however I really can not get my head in the game.  I am 4 weeks into the semester and I am already plotting and planning which classes I will be retaking. 

Stay tuned for more woefully tales!

I have one final piece of school work left.  I have to write up a document on my independent study and submit it, otherwise it is all over but the crying.  Since I am graduation, grades have to be in by Wednesday or so.  The question is whether I will stay above 3.67 or not.  Right now I am at 3.6709.

I am also gunning for dean’s list for the third time in four semesters.  Yes, I know, I did bad one semester and missed the list because I could only manage 3.45.  If that semester had been a bit better, then I would not be on the edge right now.

Remaining on my plate -

1. Use document for software project – 80% COMPLETE
2. 10-15 page research paper on Iowa in the Civil War – 80% COMPLETE

I am THAT close to being done.  Class work should be done by the end of the week and then it is relaxation until the actual ceremony.