The main degree path of Computer Science I am aiming for is the security path. As such, I had little interest in software engineering. It wasn’t until I started taking ICS courses in UH Manoa where I learned that Cybersecurity isn’t just about using already built programs to effectively secure a system. It has made me more appreciative of the companies that created these programs for ease of access and use. For that reason, I’ve begun to show more interest in software engineering. Although my interests lies more in the Cybersecurity realm, coding classes like ICS 111 and 211 has taught me to appreciate software engineers.
I hope to develop various skills and experiences in the future while pursuing a degree in Computer Science. For the software engineering side, learning coding languages like Java, JavaScript, C, and C++ are what I hope to develope a skill in as they are the main languages being taught in this curriculum. I’m especially biased towards JavaScript because it is one of the very first coding languages I had my hands on, and according to the ICS 314 instructor Philip Johnson, it’s better than Java and C++. I’m glad that I took ICS 111 and 211 though to brush up on my Java skills because previously I hopped onto coding JavaScript without any prior experience. Looking back at a Discord bot I created, my entire code was filled with if statements which I could have easily turned into switch cases had I learned more about them. I was content with just having the bot respond to messages and it excited me. I still code similarly as to when I started out, but the one main difference is that I try to find more efficient ways of modifying the code after I create it instead of leaving it as is as long as it gets the job done.
An ambitious goal of mine would probably have to be learning about AI software on the side. I may be more focused on the Cybersecurity aspect of Computer Science, but that doesn’t mean I’m not intrigued about the topic of Artificial Intelligence. From simply witnessing a talking AI named Cortana from the Halo franchise to the implementation of Siri on iOS devices, the fact that an AI can easily interact with people is astounding. While working in the Cybersecurity field, I may find myself looking at AI papers on the side just because I am fascinated at how they work.