Computer Science Student Panel

Can you do you wanna after you introduce yourself? Maybe turn your video off?

OK.

Now it works.

Oh, I saw it now. Hope she's fine.

OK.

It's good, I think as you can.

I can just do the slides.

That should be fine.

Alright, well we're

I see that we're having a lot of company join us, so we'll just give everybody another minute to sign in and get settled. But we're excited that you're all here.

OK, well I'll go ahead and get started. Hi everybody, welcome to our computer science student webinar this evening. We're very excited that so many students are joining us this evening to learn more about the CS Department here at Rensselaer.

My name is Megan Potter. I'm one of the senior student services administrators in the Computer Science Department, which is what I like to say is a fancy title for academic advisor, so I wear a couple different hats in the Department I work with students to make sure that their meeting graduation requirements understand what their degree requirements are, and I also, you know, get to be involved in planning events like this. For accepted students. An I'm here tonight with.

My colleague Jen Yugao social pop in to introduce herself as well.

Are you there geniu?

OK, well she might pop back in just a second, but will go ahead and let our student panelists introduce themselves as well. We there are a fantastic group of students and we're really excited and lucky to have them with us tonight. They're going to be able to answer all of your questions and share their experience first hand is being a CS student at RPI, so will go ahead and and start with Gretchen.

Hi everyone, my name is Gretchen Forbush. I'm a senior computer science and math dual major with a minor in Mandarin Chinese. I'm from Northborough Mass about 2 hours East of here, which it seems like everyone's pretty much from around that kind of circle of two hours. I founded the Food Recovery Network here at RPI, which takes food from the dining halls and donates it to local homeless shelters. I was a resident assistant for two semesters.

I stayed abroad in Australia which is also my fun facts like I got there a little early. I was a student orientation advisor and a lack tutor, a CS programming mentor and I also belong to you PE, which is our computer Science Honor Society.

My next.

Right? Yep, go ahead land.

Wonderful, alright thank you so much for coming out. My name is William he I'm a computer science and mathematics dual dual major. I'm a junior. I'm from West Chester PA which is about an hour West in the in the suburbs of Philly. Some of the activities I do, our student government. I'm currently student sent a student senator for my class. I'm in the Web technologies group. It's a committee within student government as well as these aside, Asian scientists and engineers. How is a mental last semester had really involve myself this semester? And my fun fact is that I can play.

Both be violent and Viola.

That is really impressive.

And up next we have underscore.

Hi everyone, I'm anoushka. I'm a computer science major. I'm a sophomore. I'm from New Jersey about 3 hours away from RPI on campus. I'm a part of the women in computer Science Organization, which is called a CMW. I write for the school newspaper, the Polytechnic. I'm also an alac tutor and a CS programming mentor. Fun fact, this past year I learned how to juggle eggs on my feet.

I really like to see that someday.

And next we have Dylan.

Hi everyone, I'm Dylan. I am a sophomore and I am originally from Smithtown NY but now live down in South Carolina but follow away. I am the current treasurer for RPI SAC which is this cool cyber security Club and I'm also involved in the table Tennis Club, Andy Board, Game Club. I realize now that I forgot to mention this but I also MCS programming manual.

And a fun factor that obviously I'm a big fan of table tennis. Seeing as I play.

Thanks, darling, I'm sure the weather is much nicer in South Carolina this time of year.

And next we have Jacob.

Give me a German.

Yep, alright my name is Jacob computer science Major, last year senior from New Jersey, so not too far away from Troy and I'm part of EP so the Honor Society that was mentioned earlier as the recruitment chair last semester.

Part of our cosen Greek life and one fun fact is that I enjoy making latte art.

Thank you Jacob, and I see that Jenn, you have joined us again, so I'm gonna let genuine introduce yourself as well.

Sorry bout that. I had some Internet issues earlier so welcome MD new job. One of the four advisors in the swap science advising hub, so similar to what problem Megan talk about. So I advise all the undergraduate students in the School of Science, mainly computer science students, also collaborated with a lot of computer science clubs to, you know, you know, like plan some events like this.

Analyze, like the student clubs like in the CS Department.

Paint.

Although to introduce like this is my second year over here and my fun fact is I have actually moved 7 two yeah eight times in the 7 + 7 years from Texas to Ohio and then New York.

That's covering a lot of ground.

Alright, well thank you everybody. So to get started we received a handful of questions when students were registering and signing up for this event and we just want to start with answering some of those and after that we'll open up the floor for an open Q&A so you can put your questions in the chat feature in Slate and we will, you know, answer them as they come in. And if we don't get to your question tonight.

Genuine I'll provide our contact information so that you can follow up with us after the webinar.

So our first question that we're going to start with is which computer science class in the first year would you consider to be the hardest? And as a follow up, how did you manage it or get through it?

Whoever wants to start.

I can start on that one, especially coming in as someone who had very little experience with computer science. I actually came in as an economics major, so I was not prepared at all for what computer science had to offer. CS One was a perfect intro and it gave me the right skills to move on to data structures the next semester, which was the big behemoth the class that everyone talks about says it is definitely the hardest class I had to take for my both CS.

And math major. Although Chinese can be a little hard, but data structures is definitely the hardest. However, there are so many mentors that are there to help you out. There are always so many opportunities. I think the CS Department I have found when I talk to my friends definitely has the most opportunities for any kind of mentoring or office hours or any kind of outside help that you might need. And I ended up getting an A in it. Anyone can get an A in the class. It's just how much you want to dedicate to.

Preparing starting the homework on time and making sure you have your whole semester Plano.

Anyone else want to chime in on that?

I guess I'll go next as someone with the total opposite end of the cone on that one, I came in having been on a competitive robotics team as a programmer for four years. So I came in comfortable with the computer science side, which means that I didn't take CS one. I went through the data structures, didn't find it to be too difficult, and then after that foundations of computer science ended up being the hardest class for me in my first year because that is something that you don't have a lot of experience going into it.

And it just takes a little bit of getting used to and justice. I got through it from just talking to the professor, going to office hours, stuff like that and not being too difficult in the end either.

That's good.

Alligator aggression that this was definitely the hardest. I also took physics to my freshman year. That is a science option. You don't have to take it, but I did. It's you know, physics is interesting, but it can be very difficult. At the same time, so bear that in mind. There are all the sides options out there.

Up

what?

Yeah, I guess you can add a little bit more info about the CSS classes like as long as you stress homework on time and focus and you know take care of it then it shouldn't be that bad. That being said, you always ask for help from BP or any of the alac depends. Resources help you needed, but they start everything on time.

And I think that.

And just for reference.

I can't remember what it stands for, but it's basically they're a tutors for everything and they have their home in the library and you can go to them for any subject. So they're basically just a general tutor that they have for all the different classes.

Well, that's a lie, correct?

Yeah, I like is the advising learning assistance center and they provide, among other services, group tutoring for a lot of the core foundation courses.

Not just in computer science, but in other subject areas as well. So they're definitely a great resource to take advantage of.

And kind of shifting gears for a second. We got a question which I think is related to this. Can you skip or take more CS more advanced CS courses if you're already very familiar with the beginner classes? Does anybody want to chat about that?

I'm I know from my experience, you not really able to necessarily replace a requirement with a more advanced class, but if you feel really comfortable with the subject matter of a prerequisite to a class you want to take, then I would say go ahead and talk to profess to alot of the CS professors are very open to if you think that you are comfortable and you're confident you can do it, they're open to signing you into it. If you with that interested in it.

And also I do know that for CS1 you're allowed to go straight to data structures your first semester. If you feel like you're very comfortable with the material.

That's right, and so even if you don't have a peer transfer credit, you can bring in our. Sorry you can start right with data structures and you know we just will need you to make up those four credits later on in your time at RPI with either another CS course or research credits, or getting involved in our renter center open source. But we do have students who feel very comfortable coming in with you, know CS knowledge and they start right with data structures.

OK, so I think we can actually, why don't we go ahead? And since I see that we're getting some questions coming in, will just start with you know what we're seeing an we can get back to these other ones that we received ahead of time later.

So somebody asked, um, could you expand a bit more on a lack? Another extra help or academic support opportunities?

And if some of our students are CS programming mentors, maybe somebody could talk about the mentoring program.

So for the different types of mentoring available, I think there's three main options. One is a lack which Gretchen and when he talked about another is programming mentor dedicated to CS specifically, and the third is.

Professor office hours. So office hours are normally held by professors. I would say, like maybe about two times a week after lecture or not, or at a different time when you can go into a queue or go in person and ask any questions you have about lecture, which is very helpful. There is sometimes also like a teacher assistant there.

And then there is the programming mentors. So we have a system called submitted that which we use. So there is normally a queue. There you can enter the queue and you can ask one on one questions with mentors about any programming questions you have and then a lack is also normally group or one on one mentoring. For conceptual questions, programming questions. So there's plenty of resources always available to get any of your questions answered.

Awesome, thank you Inishkea.

And then another student asked, did anybody here take AP computer science?

OK, so the question is, does AP computer science cover what is in CS1?

So I know I said I came in with no CS experience, but I did take AP computer science. My teacher wasn't that great, so I can't say I know exactly what we were supposed to learn, but I do think so. AP CS, at least at my school, was taught in Java, and I know that we teach computer science one in Python, which are two very different languages in my opinion. So having that background I, I'm really glad I got to learn Python, 'cause I use it.

Almost on a daily basis now, but in terms of the material someone else might be able to comment on that.

I can't comment directly 'cause I didn't take CS one, but I did take a pee and I can say that the knowledge that I had loaned from AP definitely made me feel ready for data structures.

So I would assume from that that it did cover much, if not all of the material, because I didn't feel like I was missing anything. Assuming you will comply with the AP material.

That makes sense. Thank you guys.

Uh, what are some opportunities outside of the classroom that you recommend that incoming freshmen take advantage of, and I'm assuming?

Dante means when you're a freshman at RPI.

I guess I can chime in a little bit here. There's something called ARCO switches, renovated Center for open source. Essentially what it is is you get together with, uh, I think any team random team or selected team and you work on a package or any kind of project that is open source. So everything is let's give up, everything's open for the public to contribute to and work on.

And then in in accordance with this you can collect.

Credits.

Pass or we're just as a side project. A lot of people have had great experiences here. They learned a lot of good technology, at least on my end. There's like a very academic side of the computer science education, and there's like more applied or let's say, practical side, right? But you can learn through this ARCOS program, so if you're joining and want to not only get the theoretical, but also the practical, definitely definitely join that. It's definitely worth it.

Awesome, thanks Jacob.

Um?

This is all we just want to chime in.

I'm probably biased, but I would say that you will mostly just insecurity. Then all the Isaac is a great option as that ends up really becoming the core of cybersecurity loaning at the school where we have classes and in addition to that club really make up most of it, excluding research.

And you also want to add to that shameless plug for student government. I wish I involve myself earlier, but you don't. There's a lot of different ways and get involved. Whether it's with your counselor with the Senate, you can run. And if you're you know, if you're interested in getting to know more about it or not really getting to know more about getting more involved with helping student list in opinion and helping enforce that. And you know, being that kind of voice to the administration for students in governments, great place to go. You don't get a lot of people people from both your class and people from all classes above you as well, so it's a great opportunity to meet more people.

Anushka do you want to talk about a CMW a little bit?

Yeah, sure, um, so ACM W is the women in computer science organization and I found this really helpful, especially my freshman year.

Basically we have different mentoring events. There is different career mentoring events as well, so one example is we had like a pen pen group of panelists from Microsoft come in. They gave us some advice on our resumes on it.

Getting internships at Microsoft. We got to network with some of the recruiters there. We also have just like fun events like we baked last. I think it was, yeah, last semester we made like banana bread oatmeal. Just different things like that. We watch movies so it's a mix of both professional and.

Like bonding events.

And I definitely recommend it to anyone who's coming.

You wouldn't believe how much free time you have when you come to college, and it's almost bad how much free time you have because you don't know what to do with it and trying to figure out how to space out that time when you want to do your homework and when you want to maybe have some fun so it's best to fill that time with activities. And I would say that I was constantly stressed out in highschool constantly doing homework, trying to get stuff done. I go to swim practice and come back then I have cross country the next semester.

And then I wouldn't know when I would sleep. But then when I got to college, I felt like I could finally take a deep breath and I have been able to enjoy my time so much. Which is not to say that I haven't had nights where I stay up until maybe 11, but I've never had to pull an all nighter for sure, and it's never necessary unless if you wait to put off that homework until the day it's due.

So if you want to have fun, there's always time for fun, especially on the weekends and one of the things I always say is your mom's not going to be around to tell you to do the dishes or to do your laundry, or to clean up after yourself. So you're going to have all that extra free time just to be doing the things that you need to do for classes so that you're going to. You can spread yourself out a little bit more than you think you could.

Anyone else have any insight on the work life balance?

Definitely play sports as much as you can. I know there is a bunch of like clubs that you can join.

Uh, just bunch of intramurals that you can join. So there's no requirements there. You don't have to be. You know XYZ specialist in any sport can really join any that you want. I remember a platter of variety sports. I never played racquetball, started blank Rackable that was kind of fun. Yeah, just experiment. Play around Steven and that'll definitely make make life more interesting, especially when you're studying and getting things done.

I was going to say that it's really what you make of it. As much as I hate to be vague, it's really what you make of it. It's about what do you involve yourself in? What are you passionate about and what do you want to do when you're on campus? Do you want to spend all your time studying or do you want to get out there and meet people and do some fun things? You know, find some fun events. It's really all up to you to decide that.

To add on to that, I actually didn't intramural. I played softball in high school, but I was absolutely terrible. And then during the arch I joined a softball team with my friends. We were also very terrible, but having that time to just relax and have our games like for an hour every night was so much fun and I think it was actually during the arch that I really finally found my work life balance. So you can have fun and you can go to these.

Fun events at the school puts on while being able to study and still gets straight A's and not have to worry about anything, so I'm sure a lot of you might have questions about the arch, but in my opinion it was the best experience and.

After going to Australia, one of my favorite semesters here at RPI.

That's awesome, thank you guys.

Um, what is one thing you wish you'd known freshman year specifically for the science classes? So I'm assuming this is an academic related question.

I'll gladly chime in first. I wish I knew I didn't have to take physics 2 for my science option. I wish I knew that there were other options I can take. There's nothing. I have nothing. Yes, physics, it's a great subject. It's just a hard class. I love the professor, but hard class.

Fat that's good insight, William, thank you.

I shared that with students too. When I talk with them so.

Yes, I'm glad to know that that's a valid point.

Um, what was the most fascinating CS class? You took an Y?

Alright, I guess I'll. I guess I'll start so the best class I took was last semester as a class called Data Mining.

I've always heard about here, but all these like AI things and Kernel Destin kernel that you really need. At least I don't know what all that was, and I took the class and it was just like ******** data science finally getting to like you know, the deep side of data science to, you know, get the basket. All that and it was really interesting. So you covered the deep learning study, cover the unsupervised learning an it's really nice to like, at least for me to feel the stretch from data data structure to switches.

You know experimenting between instruction.

Yeah, I'm not gonna talk about it as much, but it's definitely great fundamentals class and then all the way down to data mining which is like very applied, very abstract and really math puppy, but at least for me it was really interesting class really stretched me.

Going off of that, I took a machine learning class last semester and it was the first semester that they had this specific machine learning class, and it was probably the most challenge I've ever felt 'cause it was combining linear algebra and like the math behind all of the machine learning with the actual algorithms and then coding the machine learning. So we were training these models and I feel like I've always heard about oh AI. This AI that old machine learning, or there's this botan I just so it's just like machine learning, you know. And then I finally learned what it actually was, and I felt like.

I had a complete understanding of what everyone's talking about in the news, and I realize that I really didn't know what machine learning was before then, so I feel like I finally had like a real practical experience in my class rather than just oh figure out how many trains can fit when you code that there are this many pounds that have to be pulled in. Like all these problems that we've had, so definitely machine learn.

Um?

Great oh go ahead.

I guess I'll go next. I think my favorite class definitely would be attical SMS to our modern binary exploitation class.

Um, which was one of the most applied classes that I've ever taken an I think that is something that I personally enjoy a lot well. Every week you just be given these three programs and they just say hey, there's some bug in this program. Find it and then get admin control over the server that's running it.

Have fun.

And that was a class full. I learned so much because it's so relevant. And then it's still things that you'll see today. Some of them I know I found out recently, will actually based off of recent bugs that the people who helped design the labs actually found in actual software like two years ago.

Kind of. On a related note about classes, um, so we've got a couple of questions about how do you know what your requirements are for the CS major and what kind of resources are available to, you know? Make sure you're on top of those requirements and how can you make a four year plan. That sort of thing.

Since I came in as a different major, I actually changed my major. I think three or four times my four year plan was kind of haphazard, but I knew that I'd get there eventually, and I think my biggest regret is not taking classes that I just wanted to take an I didn't have them on my plan, and making a plan kind of pigeonholed me into doing what I planned from the beginning, whereas the concentrations for computer science are very broad, so I probably could have taken one class.

Lee and I would have been able to do it. Would have applied to a different concentration, but I would have been able to take a completely like almost the same set of classes. I specifically did data and AI. I took database systems into artificial intelligence and machine learning and a few other classes, but I think I mostly just picked classes that piqued my interest. Had I known previously that they were up going to be some other classes.

I probably would have done a few different ones, but that's The thing is, every semester there are so many new classes that the school is offering. So basically if you just go with the flow and take things one semester at a time, I found that it's helpful, but I do know that a lot of people like to plan ahead.

Did we lose Megan?

I think.

Yeah, the way with her.

I.

I can, I'll put on one.

Do you question? Yeah, go ahead.

So a few people have asked about internships and specific ones that we have.

Participated in personally I so over the arch. What I did was I did. I studied abroad in Australia which was not my art semester. I just took classes to the study abroad programs that RPI offers are affiliated, which means that you just pay your RPI tuition and there are these partner schools that you can just sign up for classes there that have been pre approved by professors at RPI and they just count directly towards your major. So that was great. 'cause I got to travel well. I also got to.

Check some boxes off my major so that was a normal semester for me in Australia. After that I came back and I did the arch that semester and that next spring I did. I worked for an actuarial Consulting Group, so that's more of the math side of my majors and that was a great experience. I actually found it through RPI's handshake board so everyone has access to it as a student.

And companies will post jobs in handshake and you can just apply directly through there without your LinkedIn, or they'll have specific applications that you have to fill out and then that following summer I didn't internship in as a computer science say machine learning intern for an insurance company in Worcester, Mass. And that I think I also found that through handshake so there are. Besides handshake there are actually live people that can help you find jobs in the.

The CPD which is the.

Here.

Career counseling

Center career professional development.

yes.

And they helped me with a lot of my interview prep and getting ready for the career fair, which happens twice a year. But I'll let someone else talk about it. But there are so many opportunities as long as if I think my biggest piece of advice is use the resources so many people don't use the CPD, they don't use alac, they don't know how to get into this room in the library. But once you find it.

Your whole career path course path will completely change in RPI has so much to offer.

Yeah, going off all about us. One of the questions I ask along with that was how does this do? CS? Didn't get one easy answers apply. The more extensive answer is, you know go to career fairs, apply online and from there it's really a combination of luck and skill. The reason why I say luck is because coming into college usually people won't have a lot of courses they won't have, you know, a call GPA yet and you will sometimes. Sometimes you may have an experience. Most people don't, so sometimes if you're in the right place at the right time, usually you might be able to get a computer.

Are you at that point? You know it's not done yet, 'cause then companies know OK, do you have problem solving skills? Do you have strong fundamentals in data structures and algorithms from there? That's where skill comes in. That's where pricing comes in. If you all have heard over only code hackerrank cracking the coding interview element supporting it, elements of programming interviews, practice, practice practice is kind of the kind of best way to nail that part. So that's kind of up to you at that point.

Yeah, I definitely want to double down on what he said with apply. I've seen a lot of people will plateau very few places at least what I've been telling people and the people that I've seen that have achieved really nice internships as they apply to like 50 or 60 more than they expect that they need to remember. I applied to about 100 last year. I know many other people applied to, you know, even higher numbers.

Really easy to apply to a lot of people to apply to other places, so if you want to be competitive, you also apply to a lot of places. It's just the rat race you got to participate. If you want it, but definitely apply apply to alot.

Something that's really helpful also is that a lot of clubs have like smaller career events where you can meet one on one.

More likely that you can meet people when one there than at larger career fair, but both are really helpful. Some things we mentioned the CPD before and something that I only found out about recently is that they offer mock interviews. So if you give them like the job profile, they will come up with questions on their own and help you prepare an in person or by phone. And then they also offer things like helping you with your resume and cover letter and all those things are really helpful.

And this kind of all transition this to another question that someone had a little while ago, but I actually found even though I didn't go to Grace Hopper two years in a row, I almost went the first year and then this year it was on line, but the Grace Hopper Conference is conference for all. For women that's usually held. I think it's in Orlando and the school you can apply to go in the school will pay for your travel to go.

Attend the conference and that has been a great opportunity for me, even though I didn't attend it. They have a resume board and you can post your resume on there an I think I probably got at least 12 emails a day for different companies advertising the jobs that they had and saying we want you applied to this and I just got in the habit of every day I'm going to apply to one and he finally you get those blurbs down of the things like, oh, when was the time that you did this and one of the so then by the time if you have a Google Drive just filled out with all of your perfect answers in applying won't take anytime.

Um, but then so I'm going to transition that into being a female in RPI's computer science Department. I know someone asked a question about that.

There you may know that there aren't as many women as there are men in that arm in an. I never notice it at all because I don't pay attention to it and I think that it has not affected me at all as a woman. And there's also just such a great network for us in the Department. There's sisters, which is spelled SYS tours, and I think they meet Tuesday nights and I really wish I had gotten involved in that since the beginning. It's just a nice.

Group of girls and you do homework together. You talk there. Sometimes events. There's also a CMW which Anoushka brought up a little while ago.

There is a Grace Hopper conference and I don't know if I'm missing anything, but there's just such a great network in the Department an I I don't think that should detur you from deciding to go anywhere for a computer science degree.

I completely agree. So one thing I'd like to add is I think they're being maybe like there being fewer girls that when we like there's quite a strong community amongst us like we all know each other really well. Like Amber and data structures like we would see each other randomly around campus. And you can always ask anyone questions, questions and anyone. Even if you don't really know them, is willing to help.

And just that there being fewer of us, we would just be able to form groups more easily for studying an. So, even though it's not the best that it's not equal representation, there are advantages to it as well.

We also had a question about if there is a similar.

The support network for African American students at RPI.

Does anybody want to talk about nesby or some of the other cultural groups like Shep?

William, do you know, as a student government?

Member do you know more about those groups?

I've been in safe Society of Asian scientists, engineers. We did events that are, you know, kind of joint with lesbian ship and we have some, you know, kind of liaisons with them. Besides that, I sadly don't know whole time about their clubs in like the events they hold. So the best place would probably be like contacting someone on their club or going to pick their website or something.

I just sent a link in the chat. They actually nesby the National Society of Black Engineers, has a website and then Nesby and Shep, which is the.

Hispanic Cultural Group on campus. They both actually run the career fair in the spring usually, so they're very involved on campus, and there's usually a cultural week in February where lots of events go on, and I'm constantly looking through Facebook for the events. And it's always so exciting just to see all the things that are going on.

Awesome, thank you.

Um, another question we received was about the CS concentrations within the major.

Sorry, I know that my Internet cut out, so did we address this question already?

OK, so the question was about you know how did you choose your concentration in computer science and what was your experience like? You know, taking courses within a more specific area within the CS field.

When it comes to the concentrations, it's something that you really don't have to pick only and odds are you're going to get one anyway.

Because odds are you going to have one topic that you tend to like the most other words.

Theory and algo, AI machine learning systems and software, or anything like that. You probably going to just naturally focused towards one or maybe two of those when you're taking electives, you need to take anyway. I know I've spoken to many people who have accidentally gotten multiple of them just because they were taking the classes they want.

So I would say it's something to keep in the back of your mind when you're planning out like a full year schedule, but it's nothing to be super concerned about.

I'll definitely say that as a math major, in addition to CS.

Siri and that sort of thing is kind of interesting. More just as I've taken a bunch of math courses, so I've had to deal with a lot of theory. Deal with a lot of numbers so you know three element is kind of. When I took all my courses, I kind of looking around like oh wow. It just kind of fill up entire categories. Nice so you know just like Dylan said, as you progress as you take your courses. I used a course that you're interested in. It will come to you and it's not so much of a fuel pressure, but you have to find it.

And I was also just looking at the concentration courses. All I'll send the link in the chat, but I just realized that I think there have been maybe 12 courses offered since I first since the last time I looked at this. So RPI is constantly adding new classes. So like I said before, I wouldn't stress too much about the four year plan 'cause so many things are going to change in so many new opportunities are going to come out and you'll find a way to find a concentration no matter what.

Yeah, to clarify. So um CS Majors have to take for 4000 level CS option or CS elective courses as they get into their junior and senior year. And three of those courses can be in one concentration area and so we have four concentrations that students can choose from, which are AI and data systems and software theory and algorithms, and then vision, graphics, robotics and games.

And the link that Gretchen shared lists all of the courses that we've offered that fall within each area, so you know, usually as you get into the you know your end of sophomore year beginning of junior year. That's when you start thinking about the concentration that you want to pursue within the major.

OK, so let's see. We found the questions about computer systems engineering and computer science. Have anybody taken any engineering courses or?

Have any insight into the computer systems?

Program. If not, I can talk a little bit about this.

OK, no worries. So um computer engineering there is a lot of overlap with the computer assistant or the computer science major computer systems engineering is going to focus more on.

You know hardware, that sort of thing, whereas computer science is more the theoretical underpinnings of computing and computer science. We do have a lot of students who dual in those two programs, because there is a great deal of overlap. There is also a possibility somebody asked about doing a minor in computer engineering that would definitely be possible as well. Usually miners are about 16 credits.

So that would be very easy to fit in with a computer science major, because the CS major is very flexible. There's a lot of room for free elective credits, and those minor courses would count as free elective credits.

OK, and um.

Somebody asked this is kind of shifting gears for a second. What was the transition like from in person to online learning over the last year?

So when I was last spring was the spring that I was away for my art semester, so I wasn't here when RPI had to transition to online classes. But considering that RPI had zero online classes, it was even hard to find recordings of any lectures if you didn't make them. I think that the transition that they made technologically was very admirable, and.

Just coming in last fall was a great surprise to see how organized everything was. Granted, there are some flaws here and there. A few technical difficulties which you can expect. As you've seen from the call today, but I think you're going to have trouble with online classes wherever you go, and hopefully you guys won't have to take online classes once you get here. But as long, I think my hardest.

Like my emails, my biggest difficulty with it is I have a hard time focusing when I have my monitor up next to me and I can pull up Facebook or I can pull up like whatever games or homework I've been working on, so it's more of a personal struggle with the online classes and it is on the professors side of things.

Yes, add on to that, OK.

In my opinion, it was actually one smoother. Yeah, actually, you go ahead.

OK yeah I was gonna say just to add on to the correction. Said I I was. I was on campus at the time that we made the transition. It was very smooth. All my professors. They did not recording recorded lectures so you could play them back as many times as you need it if you didn't understand something.

And in addition to that, there were plenty of office hours. TAS and professors both hell officers. There are plenty of others. Obviously you don't get the same effect of you in a face to face sort of learning experience, but still there there and there there to help you in there. The help you get understand things.

Yep, but I also wanted to say was it was also really smooth because we a lot of the homework assignments and a lot of the exams and a lot of the materials are passed over through something that a lot of CSS classes use which is submitted, which is essentially like a big file folder folio classes which can hold like class nodes and presentations. I think now they link to all of the lecture videos, but they're also used for homework submissions, so even before we moved over to fully on line, we were submitting homework through submit. The online thing which was.

Is actually built through ARCO, so that's another issue with the bonus joining our fiscal you contribute contribute to the system that you stay today.

Yeah, generally I would say almost 70% of the curriculum was already online. Only 30% was actually the lectures and potentially homeless admissions for exams.

But for the most part is relatively smooth and at least from what else? At least from what it seems. It seems like once once you guys get back on campus, there won't be two different. You'll still get the same materials, and the only thing you'll get is the live lectures I guess, but I guess other people can comment more on that.

It's also nice that other campus events have had a pretty smooth transition to online, like on campus. I always enjoyed going to the MPK. Witches are Performing Arts Center to see different talks and a few weeks ago, for example, there was a documentary screening and then my friends and and some other people who were there got ask some questions to the director and producer. So there is a lot of different even like individual talks by different scientists. There is always different.

Events that have had a great transition on line as well.

Great, thank you.

Um, here's a good question which we touched on a little bit already, but this is kind of a more specific question with proper time management. What is the daily workload?

Or how many hours per day do you put into your coursework?

Approximately.

It's kind of hard to tell now, especially because I feel like I'm constantly just at my desk because I'm taking classes at my desk and I don't know when I'm not doing homework and taking a class. But I would say that.

I probably put in maybe 2 hours of homework a day, including on the weekends and that's give or take. But I also because I love doing the work that I do. I often find that.

I'm just I I do it because I liked you and I can never tell when it's homework and when it's just for fun. I also do. I guess this is another topic I should bring up. I do computer science research and I have done it for four semesters now. RPI has so many opportunities to do research and one of my biggest. I keep saying my biggest piece of advice is, but here's another one is never ever be afraid to send out an email and make friends with professors. They're always.

So willing to help an A lot of them will give you opportunities to do research with them or even be able to recommend other professors that are looking for students to help them with whatever they're working on specifically. Right now I'm working with a group that does machine learning training on different questions, answering sets, so we're trying to teach a computer how to answer true false questions and.

It's the strangest thing I've ever done, but I think applying my knowledge to doing this stuff and you can get paid for it. Or you can even get credits for the work that you do so that also adds to the work that I do on this side.

Great, so we'll just answer a couple more questions because we are getting closer to the 8:00 o'clock mark on there just a couple of slides I want to go over quickly before we wrap up one other question we received was why did you choose the CS Major RPI and what aspects of it grew in?

I guess as someone who was not a CS major to begin with, I took computer science because I came in as a Nikon major. I wasn't too sure about it and then I was like, well, I like math too, so I might as well just start checking off those requirements. I saw that CS one was on there and I absolutely hated AP computer science in my senior year of high school. Like, well, I might as well just get it out of the way and it turned out to be.

The best class I had ever taken, mostly because Professor Dolly was the professor that semester and the way that she taught us the material and the different assignments that we had were the most interesting things that I'd ever been able to apply my knowledge too. And I think it was just the passion of the professors my freshman year and also the community that I fell in the class. I immediately had a huge group of friends that could help me with my homework and that I could reach out to if I ever needed anything, or even if we didn't want to do homework.

But just having that common major in the common bond really brought me into the Department.

Anyone else have any insight on that?

Alright, we have another question. I realized we didn't have too much about this yet. What was your experience with the arch program and there specifically asking about?

Coop's and do you think RPI's art program gives you an edge on other schools when it comes to things like Co OPS or internships?

So who here has gone through the arch already? So, Gretchen.

Um?

Like half of it.

Oh, I just I didn't want to talk in case someone else had something to say. 'cause I know I've been talking a lot, but I can answer it.

So I was actually the first year that the arch was offered, so there were definitely a few kinks, but I know that there they've been trying to work them out. It's been a little difficult since the pandemic and that kind of through last year's arch for a loop, but I would say that having the arch program experience early on it, so it was difficult getting an internship before my junior year. 'cause, like someone said earlier, it's hard to get an internship when you've only taken intro classes and you don't really have that edge compared to other students.

But having that arch semester when people are normally in classes and you are applying to these jobs that have much less competition, allowed me to try something new and having that internship experience that they actually offered me a full time job immediately after that and being able to have that really intimate experience being with a group of 10 kids instead of probably the group of 80 summer interns at that company would have had was really, I think, important for my development and important for my.

College experience and I would never ever decide to go anywhere else. 'cause I loved the arts program so much and I think it just it through a little bit of excitement into my experience in RPI.

Yeah, I definitely had an interesting object sperian's. I did early arch, which is well if you on track too. If you have enough credits and you're on track to graduate early, you can do your art similar you earlier than normal and then it gives you a little longer to try and find an internship with hopes you can potentially still graduate earlier, which made that made it so that my art summer was this past summer when it was right in the middle of switching to online so it didn't really workout exactly as it was intended on paper.

And I also had a very unique situation of trying to find an internship where I don't know anyone mentioned it. Only I don't remember but a really good way of finding internships is also just talking to people that you meet through like clubs, especially if you get into a CS club in specific.

Because they're going to have connections from past internships they've done, but maybe they have alumni connections or anything like that.

So I talked to one of my friends who had an internship at the small security company and then he just sent my resume over to his boss and then couple interviews later. Now I have an internship there.

Excellent.

But see.

So.

OK, somebody was asking again about.

The you know the workload, especially if freshman year. They had heard that many freshmen are up until 1:00 AM every night. Or you know, working all hours of the night.

Can somebody talk a little bit more about that? You know about the the boiled down version of like, how much work you can be expecting to do in your.

There may be. Let's talk about like when you're taking data structures. I think that's a good reality. Check for the workload.

Yeah.

And you say you just took data structures your sophomore correct? You want to put about that?

I would say OK, like.

It's very it's very variable like some people. If you're if you're good at time management. For instance, like I since I had heard that it was a difficult class, I made sure that the minute that the assignment was posted, I would get together with a group of my friends and we just discussed the homework.

Um and this really helped because.

Even if you're not directly coding the assignment, just thinking about it and having it in your head as you're just walking around campus can help. So with that, like if I when I would start the assignment the day that it was due, I didn't find that I would have to stay up.

Really late hours to complete the assignment, but again, if other students are procrastinating, then yeah, I can understand staying up really late, so I think it's like completely controllable to have a good schedule. As long as you know how much work there is and.

As long as you get started early and divided equally among the week, I think it's completely possible to have good sleep like I remember last year I never had less than.

7 hours of sleep for the whole semester, which I think is pretty good, so I think it's definitely doable and a lot of people also, I think, get that much sleep.

Thank you.

I guess you can add a little bit of info, I mean some some nights you will be staying up late just 'cause of nature of the classes in our interleaved. Sometimes you get a lot of work that just clusters up during some weeks and you know some weeks later than others. So even though sometimes it could be staying up till 1:00 o'clock just because you know the work adding up and just having multiple exams on the next day or something like that. But for the most part like an escape that you know to be relatively manageable.

Thank you guys, that's helpful insight.

So I want to just. I know we've got a couple of additional questions, but I want to just move on into some of our closing slides just to give a quick overview of our campus resources. Some of them we've talked about already, but the websites are listed here as well. Our computer science website not only does it have a lot of information about the CS curriculum or faculty and other important topics, but it also has a page specific.

Or accepted students and all of our events that we have planned for the next two months will be posted on that page. We're also going to have a QR code on the next slide so you can link right to that. Our school science advising Hub site that has a lot of resources for an information about all majors within the School of Science, so that's a good page to look at if you're thinking about a dual major within another program in this School of Science.

The arch is where you can learn more about away semester opportunities, different policies and procedures related to the arch program, a lack the advising and learning assistance center we talked about already in terms of you know, they're offering a group tutoring. They also offer one on one study skills advising with their counselors and the CPD as well, which is our resource for helping students find job and internship opportunities. Both, you know, during your archway semester over the summer and post graduation full time employment.

And then finally we have a lot of really great events planned for accepted students over the next two months. I was just saying the the QR code here goes right to our accepted students website, so that's where we have information about our upcoming events. More details about our student organizations and clubs and you know some interesting news articles that have featured RPI students or faculty.

So this was supplied is also highlight some of our upcoming events, including a panel next week about the difference between computer science and the information technology and web science major at Rensselaer will have some faculty and a couple of students as part of that. And then we'll also have an awesome women in computer science webinar and panel on Wednesday, March 31st, so definitely encourage you to join that if you're interested in learning about the resources for.

Women and gender minorities within computer science.

And throughout the next couple of months, we'll have several Mia computer science professor events where you'll get to talk with one of our computer science faculty in a smaller group setting. Ask questions you know, get to know them and their research, so look for those on our website and the registration links as well.

And then we're also planning an opportunity to talk one on one with our current students. I think this is a really great way just to learn more about the CS program here. They, like you've seen tonight. You know they're willing to provide really honest insight about their experience. This date might change. Right now. We have it planned for Thursday, April 8th, but any updates to that date will definitely be posted on our website, so continue to check that out.

And finally, I know that there are probably some questions we were not able to answer tonight, so if you have other questions that you want to talk about in more detail, please feel free to email myself or jenu and we'd be happy to help you or direct you to the right resource on campus to help answer your question.

And so I just want to say thank you so much to our student panelists tonight. They were fantastic and you know, we are just so grateful to have such amazing students in our computer science Department here. I always joke that I want to be an RPI computer science student when I grow up. It's, you know, panels like this and nights like tonight that really, you know shows me why. So thank you guys so much for your your insight tonight and thank you so much to our attendees for joining us. We hope that we'll see you.

On campus in the fall at RPI. And please let us know if you have other questions and we hope to see you at our events coming up over the next few weeks.

Thank you so much.

Thank you guys very much for being here. Really appreciate it.

You did awesome.

At work pleasure.

It's nice to meet you all. Like I said, it's nice to see some other faces.

Yes.

Definitely.

Take care everybody, stay safe.

Oh my God, you watch my lecture.

And Dylan, it's so funny. I recognize your voice as soon as I hopped on. I was like where have I heard that before and I just got into our picek like 2 weeks ago. I was like oh I really want to learn cybersecurity knows like that's what his friend.

Oh my God, yeah, like I did a few like half of them on my roommate.

Yeah.

Hopefully.

I think it was. I think I was listening to the ones from last fall.

Yeah, that would make sense out of anything anything yet this semester, although it might be throwing in like a web oil crypto one this semester.

Oh cool.

You never know who you're going to meet at a student panel.

It's like a celebrity.

Alright guys I'm going to signoffs. Thank you guys so much again.

Morning sounds good. Thank you bye everyone.

Last night

I made one.

Hi.