I enjoyed this week's presentation by Jeff Greer. The major point I took away from it is that big data and mobile development are important developing fields of Computer Science. He mentioned how he used data that was mined to help clients. He also mentioned how with smart phones becoming more prevalent, there is a bigger market for advertising on them and developing applications for them.
While I did not find too much of the presentation to be relevant to my career interests, it was interesting to hear about how he helps market companies and improve their reputations. It was also interesting to hear about how much of an impact the internet has had on reviewing businesses.
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Sunday, February 24, 2013
5 Ethical Characteristics
Honesty is the main characteristic of an ethical person. This word can be used not only to describe how one who lies is unethical, but can also be stretched to cover most other aspects of ethics. For example, stealing from someone is considered a dishonest act, because you are deceiving everyone into thinking you own something that is not yours.
Selflessness is a key secondary characteristic of an ethical person. Most of the time, in order to make the most ethical decision, one must make sacrifices. Very often these sacrifices are extremely miniscule compared to the damages that would be caused by choosing to do something else. It is therefore important for an ethical person to be able to act based on the good of everyone rather than just the good of themselves.
Kindness is a third characteristic of an ethical person. Kindness is covered mostly by honesty and selflessness, but it is important to act selflessly and honestly based on kindness. Selflessness basically states that you wont put yourself above others, but being kind specifies that it is important to treat everyone well.
It is also important for an ethical person to be thoughtful. Having all of the above characteristics means nothing if you are unable to think about your actions and act appropriately. Just because a person means to be honest, selfless, and kind means nothing if they do not think through their actions and verify that they are appropriate.
Finally, an ethical person must be strong. Not necessarily physically strong, but definitely mentally strong. It can be very hard to act ethically all of the time. It is very tempting to take an action that will benefit yourself and harm others simply because you will not see the effects of your actions on the others. It takes a strong mental state to realize that the small benefit to yourself is not worth harming others.
Selflessness is a key secondary characteristic of an ethical person. Most of the time, in order to make the most ethical decision, one must make sacrifices. Very often these sacrifices are extremely miniscule compared to the damages that would be caused by choosing to do something else. It is therefore important for an ethical person to be able to act based on the good of everyone rather than just the good of themselves.
Kindness is a third characteristic of an ethical person. Kindness is covered mostly by honesty and selflessness, but it is important to act selflessly and honestly based on kindness. Selflessness basically states that you wont put yourself above others, but being kind specifies that it is important to treat everyone well.
It is also important for an ethical person to be thoughtful. Having all of the above characteristics means nothing if you are unable to think about your actions and act appropriately. Just because a person means to be honest, selfless, and kind means nothing if they do not think through their actions and verify that they are appropriate.
Finally, an ethical person must be strong. Not necessarily physically strong, but definitely mentally strong. It can be very hard to act ethically all of the time. It is very tempting to take an action that will benefit yourself and harm others simply because you will not see the effects of your actions on the others. It takes a strong mental state to realize that the small benefit to yourself is not worth harming others.
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Ethics
Some of the statements in the conversation on ethics in class this week surprised me quite a bit. I have always considered myself to be a fairly selfless person overall when I compare myself to many of the people I see out in the world. Money has almost no influence on me and while there are definitely many material goods that I would like to acquire, I despise the thought of getting them in some fashion that would be unfair to or harm others.
While there were not many who did, the fact that anyone could fathom bringing up pro-piracy or other innately greedy concepts during a conversation on ethics was astonishing. I knew that greed and piracy are common, but always assumed that the person doing them knew that what they were doing was ethically wrong. I am not completely sure if these people in class were simply saying that they know it is ethically wrong, but they simply do not care and do it anyways, or if they truly see it as the right thing to do.
There is no legitimate argument to support piracy. One of the major claims of supporters of piracy is that the cost of the goods is too high, and they refuse to pay $60 for a video game(or whatever price for music, etc.). However, a team of several people put countless hours into developing that product, and deserve compensation for their hard work. In our economic system, if goods are priced too high, they wont be bought and the price will naturally drop. If a customer does not feel that they have the money to pay for the goods, they should not be able to enjoy the product. In my eyes, this is no different than stealing a luxury car and claiming that it was just because the price they put on it was too high for me to pay for.
Overall, my ethics come fairly naturally to me. They likely are based strongly on the set of morals my parents raised me on, but are constantly evolving. While the minute details change, the overall purpose of them does not though. My ethics are simply focused around improving the lives of others and minimizing the amount of "badness" in the world.
While there were not many who did, the fact that anyone could fathom bringing up pro-piracy or other innately greedy concepts during a conversation on ethics was astonishing. I knew that greed and piracy are common, but always assumed that the person doing them knew that what they were doing was ethically wrong. I am not completely sure if these people in class were simply saying that they know it is ethically wrong, but they simply do not care and do it anyways, or if they truly see it as the right thing to do.
There is no legitimate argument to support piracy. One of the major claims of supporters of piracy is that the cost of the goods is too high, and they refuse to pay $60 for a video game(or whatever price for music, etc.). However, a team of several people put countless hours into developing that product, and deserve compensation for their hard work. In our economic system, if goods are priced too high, they wont be bought and the price will naturally drop. If a customer does not feel that they have the money to pay for the goods, they should not be able to enjoy the product. In my eyes, this is no different than stealing a luxury car and claiming that it was just because the price they put on it was too high for me to pay for.
Overall, my ethics come fairly naturally to me. They likely are based strongly on the set of morals my parents raised me on, but are constantly evolving. While the minute details change, the overall purpose of them does not though. My ethics are simply focused around improving the lives of others and minimizing the amount of "badness" in the world.
Sunday, February 10, 2013
Randy Pauch's Last Lecture
I found this video to be very inspiring. I had seen excerpts from it at my sister's departmental graduation from UNC Chapel Hill, but in class last week was the first time that I had seen the entire thing. Randy Pauch's view on how to live life is amazing. The concept that we can and should achieve our childhood dreams is fairly foreign in modern society.
Most of the time I ask someone why they are in, or are studying to be in, a particular field of work, I get responses dealing with money or that they have to do something to get by. I find this concept of being forced to do what you can to get by as appalling, especially when I hear it from people in college. I chose computer science as my major because I am passionate about the subject and have wanted to do research in the field of AI since I was a little kid. Granted, since I am in the field of computer science, I am not really sacrificing anything monetarily for pursuing my interests, but the fact that there is money in Computer Science did not and does not really affect my decision in the matter.
I realize that my life has been considerably easier than many others, who may be struggling to get by with their low wage jobs. However, I believe that given enough effort, anyone can succeed and get to achieve their dreams. I realize it will be significantly harder for some than others to achieve their dreams (and this is a major flaw in the idea of America being a "land of opportunities"), but I believe that everyone has at least one thing that they can be so passionate about that they will put in whatever work it takes to achieve that dream. I also believe that is is possible for everyone if they put in the work. Unfortunately, our current society focuses more on encouraging children to get by rather than to succeed at achieving their dreams. This culture of laziness is holding our country back from achieving true greatness by limiting what our children's expectations are in life.
Most of the time I ask someone why they are in, or are studying to be in, a particular field of work, I get responses dealing with money or that they have to do something to get by. I find this concept of being forced to do what you can to get by as appalling, especially when I hear it from people in college. I chose computer science as my major because I am passionate about the subject and have wanted to do research in the field of AI since I was a little kid. Granted, since I am in the field of computer science, I am not really sacrificing anything monetarily for pursuing my interests, but the fact that there is money in Computer Science did not and does not really affect my decision in the matter.
I realize that my life has been considerably easier than many others, who may be struggling to get by with their low wage jobs. However, I believe that given enough effort, anyone can succeed and get to achieve their dreams. I realize it will be significantly harder for some than others to achieve their dreams (and this is a major flaw in the idea of America being a "land of opportunities"), but I believe that everyone has at least one thing that they can be so passionate about that they will put in whatever work it takes to achieve that dream. I also believe that is is possible for everyone if they put in the work. Unfortunately, our current society focuses more on encouraging children to get by rather than to succeed at achieving their dreams. This culture of laziness is holding our country back from achieving true greatness by limiting what our children's expectations are in life.
Sunday, February 3, 2013
Once I graduate...
The assignment for this week's blog is to write about what companies we are interested in interviewing for this semester and why. My response to this is hopefully none. I have already submitted applications for Ph.D. programs at NCSU, UNC CH, Georgia Tech, Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and Cornell and am hoping to get accepted into one of those programs. I am hoping to get into one of those programs to pursue my research interests of Artificial Intelligence.
I should have responses from all of the schools I've applied for by early March, so if I do not get into any of the schools that I have applied for, my backup plan is to apply to the graduate program at ASU (which has a application deadline of March 15th) to pursue a Masters. I would be shocked if I did not make it into the graduate program at ASU considering my success here as an undergraduate student.
The reasoning behind why I want to go to graduate school rather than simply get a job and immediately start making money is fairly complex overall. The simplest way to put it is that I really enjoy learning and figuring out how things work, and research seems to be exactly that. I looked at the job market last semester, and even applied to Eastman Chemical Company, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized how much I would miss academia.
If accepted into one of the Ph.D. programs listed, my tuition is going to be covered, and I will be offered a stipend to live off of (although it will barely be enough to get by). Many people have brought up the fact that if I just went into the job market, I would be making significant amounts of money rather than barely getting by. My response to that is that I have lived like this throughout my undergraduate degree and while it might be nice to have more money, I would not know what to do with all of it. Money has never really been much of an issue to me - as long as I have enough to get by, I will be happy. My major concern is to make sure that I am doing something I love to make that money, and that is why I have decided pursuing a Ph.D. is exactly what I want to do.
I should have responses from all of the schools I've applied for by early March, so if I do not get into any of the schools that I have applied for, my backup plan is to apply to the graduate program at ASU (which has a application deadline of March 15th) to pursue a Masters. I would be shocked if I did not make it into the graduate program at ASU considering my success here as an undergraduate student.
The reasoning behind why I want to go to graduate school rather than simply get a job and immediately start making money is fairly complex overall. The simplest way to put it is that I really enjoy learning and figuring out how things work, and research seems to be exactly that. I looked at the job market last semester, and even applied to Eastman Chemical Company, but the more I looked into it, the more I realized how much I would miss academia.
If accepted into one of the Ph.D. programs listed, my tuition is going to be covered, and I will be offered a stipend to live off of (although it will barely be enough to get by). Many people have brought up the fact that if I just went into the job market, I would be making significant amounts of money rather than barely getting by. My response to that is that I have lived like this throughout my undergraduate degree and while it might be nice to have more money, I would not know what to do with all of it. Money has never really been much of an issue to me - as long as I have enough to get by, I will be happy. My major concern is to make sure that I am doing something I love to make that money, and that is why I have decided pursuing a Ph.D. is exactly what I want to do.
Tuesday, January 15, 2013
Ideal Job
When I graduate from ASU, I plan on continuing my education by pursuing a Ph.D. My career goal overall would be to obtain a research position in industry working for a major company such as IBM or Google. I would like the position to be related to research of Artificial Intelligence in some way.
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