The Panelists

  • Colin Szeto: Going to UCSD for mechanical engineering
  • Antohny Vo: Going to UC Irvine for computer science
  • Andrew: Going to Mira Costa, hoping to transfer to UCSD
  • Mabel Szeto: Going to UCSD for aerospace, transfering to cognitive science/machine learning
  • Allison: Going to UCLA for cognitive science w/ computing
  • Nitya: Going to UCSD for computer science

Insights

  • Try to look at many different options when considering your major and do what you are passionate about
  • Have perserverance to keep trying in the face of errors and seeing other people that may be better than you
  • PBL & Working together won’t leave you any time soon so make sure to develop those skills, especially in CS, and figure out strategies to work together
  • CS is really applicable even in other majors such as using MATLAB software, problem-solving skills, and automating tasks
  • It is really important to create a resume early as a lot of the interns are hired in September
  • It is good to work on personal projects to help you learn and stand out a lot
  • Learning fundemental algorithms such as path finding is really key to CS and real world applications

Notes

How did you choose your major and how did CS classes help?

  • colin: I can code pretty well and 3D model even better, look outside of your classmates
  • anthony: started compsci from a very young age and really liked problem solving and leetcode, hooked from the intro to cs class
  • andrew: intro to cs allowed him to see the complexity and the theory behind the computer really likes the backends and deployment, reflected on what he wanted to do
  • mabel: kinda didn’t like his class and CS but knew that it was important to learn, haas been interning at northrop grumman, even aerospace and other majors needs programming, helping w/ mission planning for auto robotics
  • allison: more of an artsy/business person originally but wants to web design stuff in the future focusing on the UX/UI and knowing what the users want, learned the technical background from the CSP class
  • nitya: always interested in computer science while she was young, AP CSA helped her to apply the skills to solve the real world problems (covid 19 database)

What is the biggest challenge you reached with CS?

  • colin: starting is the hardest part and github errors and keeping the motivation is really important, facing a lot of error messages and there is a solution, googling is really key
  • anthony: my biggest challenge is clashing egos because comp sci majors are not really kind and are just trying to flex to everyone which is frustrated, focus on your own path rather than everyone else
  • andrew: the theory behind CS is really hard and is about complicated things that you have to think about now which is a huge transition
  • mabel: it was hard finding the motivation to do CS, there is someone better than you, having a specific project and purpose helps you a lot, the syntax is frustrating originally
  • allison: starting is the obvious answer but another answer is the temptation to BS assignments and its important to actually try on the assignments properly, don’t cut corners and don’t focus only on the points, try to go above and beyond
  • nitya: just getting started in a new area in the computer science and you have to lose structure in computer science and everything is interconnected, you don’t need to have a fully fleshed out plan in the class

Is there any PBL in College comp sci classes?

  • colin: one hands on project in freshman and one in senior in UCSD which is way less than what you are using in the CSA class so take advantage of that
  • andrew: there is PBL and tests which are both pretty equal so it is important to know the PBL and also be ready for the exams, especially in the upper division courses there are less exams and more of the PBL
  • mabel: first few years is a lot general education with a lot of people per class where the teacher can’t help you one-on-one so study groups are really important where you can use the PBL, some project classes and her friend had a “capstone project” class where they had to spend most of her time managing her group bc they were incompetent, this class is MUCH more structured than college where people can freeload off of you, find the style of working with others that is most efficient for you

Have you applied CS in your major if you aren’t majoring in CS?

  • colin: there is a lot of menial tasks that can be really useful to be done using CS and that’s why scripts are really useful in other majors, coding is everywhere, MATLAB is really important for the mechanical statements were you use all the programming concepts
  • andrew: with high level math the CS can be useful especially with python and the math libraries
  • mabel: MATLAB and other tools like that and CAD softwares are where you can really use the CS in your major, and 3D printing you could code as well, had to do software in her internship, jupyter notebooks are also being used for technical papers to have the graphs
  • allison: creating a UX and UI you need to know the front end programming which is used in the cog science, stats courses make the computer science really useful to compute statistical values, programming in R is common for stats, MATLAB stuff even used in psycholo9gy where you wouldn’t even think of it

For existing college students, have you had a job?

  • colin: put together a resume because that is important to apply for jobs, talk with teachers and go for the above and beyond and stand out with the teachers, show up to office hours and ask a lot of questions, you could be a teacher’s assistant, CSP python and scripting was really useful for the northrop grumman internship
  • anthony: this is a great coding school and he works at code ninja where he can teach people to code
  • mabel: one of the robotics lecturers is a lecturer at UCSD and you can see their research labs and clubs in other to get with the professor and ask if they have any space for you
  • allison: had an internship last year with a church group in order to design their website and do their branding and stuff
  • nitya: internship for northrop grumman as a highschool intern, exposed

Did you focus on personal projects

  • andrew: balance on what you want to do and what you want to in school, have 2 or 3 personal projects
  • anthony: something for basketball teams

How does algorithms help with CS?

  • andrew: path finding algorithms, freedy, sorting, graph, data vis
  • colin: a lot of simulations and stuff like in order to convert them into CS
  • mabel: titan AI is a cool club that does a bunch of robotics stuff, machine learning is cool because it stays in STEM major and it isn’t really CS, enjoyed cognitive science type classes, can pick electives that you want, also applies to the robotics team

Any advice for internships?

  • anthony: expos let you make a resume, don’t focus too much on the other people’s linkedin
  • mabel: know when to apply and companies start hiring in september or november (year before), have a resume done by then, also have some linkedin and proof of what you have done, the SCHOOL doesn’t matter that much, clubs and personal projects really differentiate yourselves, smaller companies take high school interns and find things you are interested in, use parents to your advantage
  • andrew: build a giant network and the referrals can help you a lot