Bio
Course of Study: Computer Science & Math major, minor in Latin American Studies
Hometown: SE Portland, OR
Main Interests: Mobile/Web applications, Graph Theory, Latin American history, and salsa dancing
Website:http:// https://ahmedgedi.github.io
What project or experience (in computing) are you most proud of?
My favorite project/experience by far has been building a React application during my internship at Nike last summer. I got to explore a library/framework that was new to me, work with some tools i’d never heard of on different platforms and work with diverse teams from different parts of the company. I really stepped out of my comfort zone and learned a lot along the way. The most rewarding part of it for me was seeing how the final product made a direct impact on how the Nike Air Manufacturing Innovation department functions on a day to day basis.
What’s some advice you have for other computationally minded students?
You don’t have to be an expert in a programming language to work with it. If you want to experiment with a framework, library or a language, just go for it. You’ll learn a lot as you go, especially as you’re debugging. Take small risks and learn each mistake. Don’t be afraid to ask questions and don’t let confusing error messages or a lack of holistic understanding discourage you. Stay curious and keep digging into the topics that excite you. Even if you don’t quite know what that is yet, just stay open to trying new things and you’ll know when you’ve found what you’re looking for. Just get out there and explore. Remember:
“It is important to realize that the next solvable problem seldom coincides with the next ‘logical’ step” – Karl E. Weick
What’s your favorite thing about CS (or math) at LC?
The professors by far. You can tell how passionate they are about the subjects they teach and they will take the time to make sure you understand something thoroughly if you stop by their office hours. I actually changed majors from being just CS to CS & Math after taking a few math classes with Professor Sweta Suryanarayan. I also love how collaborative our student community is, if you’re excited about something and you want to make things happen odds are you can find a couple of like minded individuals in the Math Science Department that will be more than happy to help out.
What has been your favorite course at LC?
Definitely Networks & Information Security, I loved learning how to solve all of the NCL challenge questions. I felt I learned a lot about how vulnerable we really are on the devices we use daily and it was also pretty cool getting to practice things like password cracking/network traffic analysis in a safe environment.
How do you foresee yourself using the CS skills you developed at LC in the future?
After graduation, I intend to do some short term work for some tech start ups in Portland before starting my role at Nike Tech as a Software Engineer in the upcoming fall. Lewis & Clark has definitely taught me how to find the right questions to ask when I’m developing something, especially in Computer Science. I hope to be able to apply that to my work environments in the near future.
What’s your favorite programming language?
I really love Javascript, its very powerful and with how advanced Node.js is becoming it’s becoming extremely versatile as a programming language. I also enjoy using Python and Java for most other applications.
