About
Comp-Sci Interests
My interests in Computer Science aren’t exactly cutting edge. If you’re expecting to find artificial intelligence somewhere in this section, this will be the only mention, which is
to tell you that it’s not among them. What is on this list, however, is the following:
- High-speed graphics rendering & visualization
- Specifically I’m interested in the handling and representation of volumetric data sets.
- Think point clouds, signed distance fields, and voxels!
- Specifically I’m interested in the handling and representation of volumetric data sets.
- High-speed data structures & algorithms.
- SIMD Instruction Sets
- Parallelism (The Rust language is on my list of things to learn!)
- Programming language design
- Not to be confused with compiler design– I’m not quite so bold, yet.
- Internationalization is also an interest in this area. Programming should not be limited to those fluent in English.
- Educational pedagogy and accessible educational tools.
My favorite programming languages are C and Smalltalk. The former for the unparalleled memory control, the latter for the design and historical significance.
A Brief Bio
My name is Jess, and my journey into the computers and computer science began at a very young age.
Starting off with having interest in my Grandfather’s old computers, specifically a Tandy 2000 machine running DOS, my interest has expanded well beyond
antiquated computing into Computer & Information Science. That machine was ancient, even for the time, sporting a radiation warning sticker on the side of its display.
At the age of 14 I taught myself Java. My reasons were simple: I had the free time, and I wanted to know how Minecraft worked. What a motivator, right? At 16 I went on to teach myself C++, diving head-first
into the rabbithole that is template metaprogramming.
I was able to take that self-led experience to college, where I skipped all 100-level courses and all but a single 200-level barrier course.
That transition gave me an interest in education; I continue to be amazed at the wide variety of ways theory is communicated to entry-level students. It was a far cry from my own experience, which relied
on stubborn perseverance rather than any specific structure.
During college I had the privilege to work as a teaching assistant under the teaching faculty for everything from Digital Humanities to the Computer Science program capstone course.
I had an absolute blast with this, and if I were ever afforded the opportunity, I likely would choose to do so again. I eventually graduated with a 3.6 GPA and a much, much richer mind.
For now I work as a Cook at a restaurant. I enjoy what I do but goodness knows I’m ready to move on. I do regard working in a restaurant as an invaluable experience, however.
There’s a wealth of soft skills to be learned from this kind of work. I collaborate, handle stress, and receive feedback so much better than I did when I was fresh out college.
A component of that is learning how to fail; very rarely is there a failure that will truly be the end of the world. Failing is a component of how we grow, and we’re all growing every day.
I believe the phrase is “failing gracefully”.
When I’m not cooking professionally (which does, unfortunately, take up most of my time), I’m researching, listening to music, programming,
cooking, or fiddling with some art and music tool. I’d love to find the time and energy to be out in nature again more, but that’s just a matter of time.
That’s me in a nutshell. I sling hash by day, and hash keys by night. Have something interesting for me? Drop me an e-mail, I’d love to hear from you.
- Jess W.S.