Duke Computer Science Students Celebrate 2020 Graduation

I majored in computer science and statistical science at Duke, with a minor in economics. I enjoyed the flexibility of the courses I was able to take—through interdepartmental courses between computer science, statistics, mathematics, and economics as well as all of the graduate-level coursework available to undergrads. Throughout my four years, I've also seen the Duke computer science department rapidly expand to become the most popular major. One of my interests is machine learning, and during my time here, I've been able to take part in and see the several new opportunities available in this area, from seminar talks through the Rhodes Information Initiative at Duke and Duke Undergraduate Machine Learning's MLBytes speaker series; events such as machine learning days and datathons; and countless research opportunities through faculty research groups, Data+, and +DS. There are an immense number of opportunities available from day one, for both students just getting started with computer science and those with lots of prior experience.

After graduation, I'll be working on self-driving simulation at Applied Intuition as a software engineer, after having done a software engineering internship at Google and quantitative research internship at a hedge fund during my time at Duke. The computer science department's strong interdisciplinary coursework, numerous research opportunities, and great faculty and students were crucial to helping me reach where I am today. I'm really grateful to have won the DeNardis Memorial Award and am looking forward to coming back to Duke in the future!