Computer science students receive scholarship from BAE Systems
The scholarship is presented annually to Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science students who excel academically and are involved in the community.
Earlier this year, two undergraduates from the computer science program were awarded a special scholarship from BAE Systems. The scholarship is presented annually to Thomas J. Watson School of Engineering and Applied Science students who excel academically and are involved in the community. Kristen Boscarino and Ryan McCormick were given the award during the first time-out of a Bearcats basketball game. Learn more about these two stand-out students below.
Where are you from?
Boscarino: Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
McCormick: I’m from Rockland County, N.Y., and I went to Clarkstown South High School in West Nyack.
Why did you decide to study computer science (CS)?
Boscarino: I enjoy mathematics and problem-solving. Computer science just happened to be a mix of the two! I started programming in high school with basic HTML and worked my way up to learning how to write basic programs with C. I actually started my Binghamton career as a computer engineering major, but soon realized that I liked software better than hardware and decided to switch majors.
McCormick: In my senior year of high school, I was clueless about what I wanted to study in college. My guidance counselor recommended that I study engineering because I did well in my math and science courses, so I came into Binghamton University as an engineer. I also enrolled in the Freshman Research Immersion (FRI) program. After my first semester, I switched majors to computer science because I absolutely loved the C++ programming done in FRI with Shaun Canavan. This was a leap of faith, but after starting CS110 in the spring semester, I knew I made the right decision.
Why did you decide to attend Binghamton University?
Boscarino: I decided to attend Binghamton because of the opportunities provided to me by the Binghamton University Scholars Program.
McCormick: I applied to Northeastern University and Binghamton University for their well-known engineering programs. Binghamton ended up being significantly cheaper, so I came here to avoid future debt.
What has been your favorite class, professor or club so far?
Boscarino: My favorite professor so far has been Mike Lewis! I have taken both his Data Structures and Operating Systems courses. He makes difficult concepts easy to understand and gives us a lot of freedom in writing programs. He is kind and accessible to his students.
McCormick: My favorite class so far has been High Performance Computing (CS480F) taught by Ken Chiu. This class focuses on making full use of our computer’s hardware to solve problems as quickly and efficiently as possible. This leads to heavy analytical thinking about not only how to solve problems, but how to implement our solutions. While most classes teach topics in a specific way and require your code to follow a rigid structure, every assignment in this class only requires an end result and how you get that result is up to you.
Do you have any hobbies?
Boscarino: I enjoy working out, hiking and solving Rubik’s cubes.
McCormick: In my free time I enjoy both CS and non-CS related activities. For CS activities, messing around with new languages and technologies that aren’t necessarily covered in my courses is fun for me. Particularly, I enjoy creating useful and fun tools for developers to use from the command line. Outside of CS, I enjoy playing video games with friends, competing in intramural volleyball and playing Ultimate Frisbee on a nice day.
What do you hope to do after graduation?
Boscarino: I can’t say I know exactly what I want to do after college, but I do know that I would like to work for a large company where I can both write software and work in project management. Particularly, my passion lies in working for a company that specializes in energy efficiency.
McCormick: After graduation, I plan to go into industry and find an engaging job in computer science. I haven’t yet decided on any particular fields that I want to go into such as finance, healthcare, networking, etc. As long as I’m given interesting and challenging problems to solve and am not working on weapons software, I think I’ll be happy. If I don’t enjoy working in industry, I’ll probably go back to school for a master’s or PhD.