Month: February 2018

Edward Snowden leaked over a million classified documents from the NSA to media personnel. He had access to these documents because he was a contractor for the CIA through the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton. He has sought refuge in Russia, and is hoping to gain a presidential pardon for his actions because he believes “that the disclosure of the scale of surveillance by US and British intelligence agencies was not only morally right but had left citizens better off.” In my opinion, he should not be pardoned. Edward Snowden was incredibly careless and selfish in the release of these documents and did not fully think through the implications to his actions. There are probably much better ways for him to make his point.

I understand his want to make us aware of the internal privacy rights that he felt were being violated. Unfortunately however, I think he hurt his own case with his execution. He was trying to let Americans know the extent that government agencies were encroaching on our privacy. However, as The Washington Post Article “Edward Snowden’s impact” states, the amount of information he provided was overwhelming in that it did not give people the chance to react “appropriately” (react how Snowden wanted). Although there were a few things reformed due to the information leak and people’s anger, I do not think it had the overall impact that Snowden wanted. Also, it was reported that Snowden did not even read all the documents that he leaked before releasing them. Because the NSA deals with such sensitive data, it seems very irresponsible to release documents from the NSA without first making sure you are not releasing very private information about individuals. Snowden is trying to argue that the NSA should not be collecting this data and we should have more privacy, so imagine if Snowden accidentally released some of this very private data about American citizens to the media. That would be accomplishing the exact opposite of the cause Snowden is fighting for.

Also, Snowden released many reports of foreign affairs. This is incredibly irresponsible because if the rest of the world did not already hate America, they sure do now. I was not surprised at all by the reports about domestic privacy issues. The National Security Agency is trying to insure security, and I am not surprised at all by their level of surveillance. Whether it is right or not, I am not surprised. However the information regarding foreign security breaches are very specific and in some cases a little surprising. However, this only infuriates other countries more, and could potentially lead to some sort of war. Countries spy on each other. I think this is something people know, but releasing official documentation confirming exactly who they are spying on and how is a great way to make even more enemies than we already have and to really screw over your own country. I would not be surprised if all the countries we have documentation of spying on are spying on us as well, but actually putting that information out there, and letting them know exactly what we are doing is a huge threat to our nations security, and makes me feel even more unsafe. Snowden’s irresponsible release of this information makes me scared for my safety, and not because the US government is spying on me, but because now other countries know.

Personally, I feel a lot safer knowing that the government is actively searching for terrorism. I would rather someone sitting in an NSA office listen to me tell my mom about my day and what I ate for lunch than be attacked by a domestic terrorist that could have been be stopped. I also feel a lot safer knowing that other countries do not know the extent to which our government spies. But unfortunately, we now live in a world where other countries can hate my country because they know exactly how they are spying on them, even though I am sure those countries are spying on the USA too. There are tradeoffs to safety that I accept.

The most important part of our guide, from my experience, is the section on interviewing. I had no idea what to expect when going into interviews for the first time and it would have been nice to have some understanding of how to prepare. It’s hard to tell someone exactly what to do to prepare for an interview because everyone prepares differently, just like everyone studies for exams differently. But it is nice to have some pointers of places to look for sample questions and an idea of what to expect when I step in the room. I actually did not find out about Hacker Rank until working on this project and I think that would have been an incredibly useful tool when preparing for interviews. The best advice I’ve ever received about the job interview process is that if you do not end up with an interview or an offer, you should not be discouraged. If anything it means you would not have been a good fit at that company which would have ultimately made you unhappy. If you do not receive an offer it means that is not where you are meant to be right now, and there is a better opportunity for you somewhere else.

I do not think that colleges should necessarily change their curriculum to prepare us more for the job interview process. I think if you pay attention in your data structures and algorithm classes you should probably be prepared enough. I prepare for interviews very differently than anyone I’ve ever talked to. Most people do a bunch of practice problems and read entire books on interviewing. I instead do the push ups of learning the concepts in my classes and then doing a quick review before an interview so they are fresh in my memory. I think if you know your stuff and you know your field, you should be prepared.

If I had to change the ND CSE program to better prepare students for the work force, the one thing I would add is testing. Some sort of explanation or practice testing would have prepared me a lot for the internships I had. It was one of the big components that my company looked at when it came to return offers. If I had to change the ND CSE program to better prepare students for interviews, I feel like I would maybe have one optional class, that students could take if they want to have a better understanding of the interview process. Even if it was like a 1 credit optional course that met once a week, at least having an open discussion about people’s experiences and possible problems would be very helpful.

The Challenger disaster was absolutely something that could have been avoided. The physical cause of the malfunction was a failed seal on a rocket booster cause by erosion on an O ring seal. The real root cause, in my opinion, is a failure of communication and terrible decision making.

In “How Challenger Exploded, and Other Mistakes Were Made,” we are provided examples of data and graphs provided to NASA by the engineers. I find the data and graphs hard to read and understand. I know nothing about O-rings, but I can see how the data provided may be unclear. However, despite the poorly constructed data, NASA should have listened more closely to the engineers, and the engineers should have pushed harder with their opinions. Also, whether the engineers shared easily readable data or not, NASA was informed that the O-ring would probably fail, and that should have been information enough to delay take off. NASA was warned about the major malfunction, and a NASA manager’s response was “My God, Thiokol, when do you want me to launch — next April?” The response to that statement should have been yes, wait to launch until it is safe. It is also shared that opposite to normal protocol, NASA requested the engineers try “to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that it was not safe” to launch. NASA should have been trying to protect the astronauts on board, not trying to launch no matter what.

I think Roger Boisjoly was ethical in sharing the information with the public. It should have acted as a push for NASA to do better in the future. Instead of being a situation for NASA to point fingers, it should have been taken as a lesson in better communication and a lesson in better, more thoughtful decision making. However, NASA learned nothing from Roger Boisjoly’s warning. Instead the same thing happened seventeen years later when the Columbia malfunctioned on re-entry and killed another 7 astronauts. This was another malfunction that could have been avoided and lives could have been saved. In this case, NASA managers and Thiokol managers were in the wrong by not sharing what they knew and taking responsibility for the deaths of 7 people. Roger Boisjoly should have been a hero. His opinion on his creation should have been taken more seriously and lives should have been saved. His sharing of information on the malfunction should have been a huge lesson for NASA saving lives in the future, but it was not. Instead, poor Roger Boisjoly was shunned from doing what he loved, for standing up for what he loved, and his career, life, and everything were destroyed.

The culture of “whistleblowing”has unfortunately  discouraged stepping up, speaking out, admitting fault, and making redesigns.” The way whistleblowing is handled makes companies less trustworthy. When faced with a serious problem that could have been avoided at General Motors, the CEO of GM said “If you are aware of a potential problem affecting safety or quality and you don’t speak up, you’re part of the problem, and that is not acceptable. If you see a problem you don’t believe is being handled correctly, elevate it to your supervisor. If you still don’t believe it’s being handled correctly, contact me directly.” However, an investigation from BusinessWeek “detailed the repeated, failed attempts of one internal whistleblower to fix the problem.” It makes me feel like I can not trust these companies and their products. If they are going to “go out of their way to hide [problems] and fight the people who expose them,” then why should I trust that their products are not going to malfunction and hurt me.

It seems to me that punishing whistleblowers who have the intent to better the company is wrong. I do agree that some people whistle blow for the wrong reasons, and these situations do require repercussions, however some whistleblowers, like Boisjoly, have a good intent, and should be able to continue to live their lives. In “How Challenger Exploded, and Other Mistakes Were Made,” it is said:

The trick is knowing which errors must be addressed and which can be accepted, and which are being accepted simply because we fail to see how dangerous they are.

I think some whistleblowers like Boisjoly truly are trying to make the world a better place, because some errors are being wrongly accepted as “risk.” Being an astronaut is a risky thing. The 14 astronauts killed in both Challenger and Columbia probably understood that there was a chance of death, but the were also probably under the impression that NASA had the best intentions to get them home safely. After hearing the accounts of Boisjoly, I would not have trusted NASA with my life. NASA should have learned.

I believe the lack of diversity is a huge problem in the technology industry. Diversity brings a variety of view points and ways of thinking. I believe this diversity of opinions and thoughts helps make better more well-rounded products and software. Not only is there a lack of diversity in the technology industry, there is also a lack of compassion for anyone who thinks differently. This makes for uncomfortable or unwelcoming work environments.

It is unfortunate that the technology industry took such a turn to “brogrammer” culture, because it makes the industry so unwelcoming to people who are “different.” It was not always this way. In the article “Why Women Stopped Coding,” it is pointed out that”A lot of computing pioneers — the people who programmed the first digital computers — were women.” On top of being the original coders, the percentage of women in technology was on the rise until the 1980’s when the personal computer came out. The early personal computers popularized the idea that “computers are for boys.” This seems to be the start of the downfall of the percentage of women in computing. Computers were only being bought for boys, and “as personal computers became more common, computer science professors increasingly assumed that their students had grown up playing with computers at home.” In my opinion this created the exclusivity of the technology industry. I felt this pressure to already have a basic understand of coding and technology when I took my first computer science class, and it definitely felt exclusive.

The unwelcoming workplace statistics provided in the article “A new survey explains one big reason there are so few women in technology,” are both alarming and unsurprising at the same time. Same with the fiasco that happened at Uber. Some of the statistics and stories told are very alarming and would absolutely deter women from even entering the industry. To read that 60% of women in a survey of women in technology reported sexual harassment, is shocking because that is two times the national average. However I was actually very unsurprised by a lot of the stories a read because they are similar to things I have already experienced and I have not even worked in the technology industry full time yet. This summer I worked at a large tech company and was the only girl in my friend group of interns. I was constantly made fun of or talked down to for being a woman, whether they realized they were doing it or not. At the Grace Hopper Conference, I listened to the story of a Black woman who was the CEO and founder of a company, that was eventually kicked out of her position when she was pregnant because “It’s already hard enough having a black woman as CEO, let alone a pregnant black woman.” It’s this type of culture that made me decide I could not live in a city like Silicon Valley where the majority of the population is computer scientists and “brogrammers.”

I need to live in a city not made up of “brogrammers” because I need to be surrounded by people who think differently. That is what the technology industry is missing, people who think differently. In an interview, Melinda Gates discussed when she made the decision to just be herself:

 And I started to learn that being myself could work. By then, I was a manager and I ended up inadvertently attracting huge teams around me who wanted to act in the same way. And people would even say to me, “How in the world did you recruit that amazing programmer to one of your teams?” and I would say, well I think they just want to work in this type of environment.

Melinda Gates detailed that she attracted the top talent by forming teams of people who did not want the competitive nature of other teams. People want to be themselves, and they want to be surrounded by other creative people who think differently. By making diverse, uncompetitive teams, we can make a much more welcoming environment for everyone, not just women and minorities, and this can help make the workplace more fun and less stressful.

The lack of diversity that currently exists in technology, is bad for business, and bad for the future of technology. When asked about the risks of not diversifying technology, Melinda Gates says:

I think we’ll have so much hidden bias coded into the system that we won’t even realize all the places that we have it. If you don’t have a diverse workforce programming artificial intelligence and thinking about the data sets to feed in, and how to look at a particular program, you’re going to have so much bias in the system, you’re going to have a hard time rolling it back later or taking it out.

The longer we wait to make the workplace comfortable for diverse individuals, the more technology suffers from bias and lack of diversity, and the deeper we dig a hole that we will not be able to get out of. Women and minorities bring different points of view and different ways to solve problems. It also can be argued that women bring a level of compassion to their work that men might not. Compassion can make for a more meaningful experience not only for the user of the product, but also make it easier for future computer scientists who work on the product.

The best way for me to talk about work-life balance, is to talk about my family experience. Both my parents worked before they had kids. When they did decide to have children, my mom stopped working to become a stay at home mom. My dad worked his way up and became successful in his company. The “classic” american family. What makes us a little less “classic” is my dad’s ability to balance work and life so well. When my dad was young, his dad worked 2 hours away, so he only saw him Friday through Sunday. My dad decided that he did not want his children to have that kind of relationship with their father, and he decided that he was going to prioritize his family. My dad never  missed a dance recital or dance competition. He never missed a field hockey game or ski meet, and even helped coach both those sports. He is with me for every birthday and every holiday. He drives the two hour drive from Grand Rapids to South Bend to come to Notre Dame football and hockey games with me. He even flew to Virginia Beach last year to watch me play in the college club field hockey nationals. His job requires him to travel a lot, but he calls every night to say good night and makes sure he is home for big events. This means sometimes he has to take a conference call on the sidelines, or he has to bring his computer in the car while my mom drives, but he has made it very clear to his daughters that we are a priority in his life.

I know it can not be easy on my dad all the time. But I think if both parents decide and agree exactly on what their family dynamic should be, and then make that a priority, it is possible to have it all. It probably would not have been as easy for my dad if my mom was not a stay at home mom, but she made that decision, and she does not regret it. To me, “having it all” means your family is happy and healthy. Jobs can come and go, but I know my family will always be there for me.

Balance in a family is also important. In the article “Why I Put My Wife’s Career First,” the author discusses the “balance” that he has in his family, where his wife is the successful business woman, and he is the “lead parent.” I guess if this “balance” works for his family, and is what makes his family happy, then good for them, and I am glad they found something that works. Personally, I have a hard time with the term “lead parent” because both my parents parented me equally.  Even though my mom is the one who stayed home I would not call her the “lead parent.” The author of the article details his role:

Despite many days of weariness, I would never give up my years of being what the journalist Katrin Bennhold has called “The One”—the parent my child trusted to help master his first stage role, the parent who shared my child’s wonder at his first musical composition, the parent my boys called for when they needed comfort in the night.

In my life, my dad worked really hard to not let this be a reality. He still wanted to be a big part of my life. I go to both parents equally for advice, comfort, love, and laughs. I hope that some day my children have the same kind of strong relationships with both their parents that I have been lucky enough to have with mine. Although I am not sure yet that I want to be a stay at home mother like my mom, I will talk with my husband to find the best way for our family to achieve the same amount of love, attention, and fun that my family has had my whole life. It will take compromises and sacrifices, but it is possible.

As far as burnout goes, I can see how it happens. I sometimes feel burned out at school when I have so much work and get so little sleep. I have to miss family member’s birthdays because of homework and school and this makes me sad! It helps me to have something to look forward too! This year I am going to Hawaii with my family after school is done, and that is one thing that is really getting me through!

I think companies should help their employees avoid feeling burned out. Giving their employees more vacation time, or more flexibility, allows them to not feel as “trapped in the office.” Giving employees something to look forward to, like happy hours and catered lunches, helps them feel more appreciated and less like a cog in the machine. Encouraging employees to try new things or to change teams within the company is another great way to avoid burnout. Some companies require or allow “hack days” to encourage employees to pursue their own projects or research new technologies. This helps employees to  change it up every once in awhile and try new things.

It is important for companies to allow these kinds of things because it tells it’s employees that the company cares about their mental health and overall happiness. Happier employees will be more willing to stay, and probably produce better products.

In order to find balance and avoid burnout, I am going to try to stick to a schedule. I will work hard during work times and try new things and schedule time with friends and family outside of work. To avoid burnout, I will try to change up this routine every once in a while, give myself things to look forward to, form good relationships with my coworkers, and try to balance me time and social time outside of work. It is important to have relaxing evenings alone with a movie but also to maintain positive relationships outside of work.

Our code of ethics is broken into 3 sections: Integrity, Community, and Engagement. Integrity is important as both a student and a computer scientist. Our work should be our own and our work should better society, or at least be used for good and not evil. Community is important because computer science requires a lot of group work and open source contributions. We should be the best computer scientists we can be. We should be supportive of each other and try to be good ambassadors for our field. Engagement is important in everything we do. We will do our best learning if we are totally engaged in our studies or work, and if we are passionate about the subject. We can help others learn better by being engaged in class and asking thought provoking questions. We can help others be more excited and passionate by sharing our love for certain topics with them. By being engaged in any sort of group work we can produce better more cohesive products. And finally by being engaged in our own projects we can help others (or ourselves) in the future who may try to use or read your code.

I think one of the major weaknesses in our code of ethics is that there is a lot of overlap in our three main sections. The overlap makes the document cohesive, but also makes the separation confusing in some parts. If someone were to give you each individual bullet point, and ask you put them in the correct categories (Integrity, Community, or Engagement), it would be pretty difficult. In order to fix this problem we could try to elaborate on each bullet point more and further discuss it’s relation to the section it’s in. We could also give a better description of what separates each section.

I believe a code of ethics can be very useful! It is a great way to let key values for a group of people be known. However, it is only effective if people actually abide by it. Unfortunately, there are a lot of people out there who think they are above these rules. I think this brings me back to the “Community” aspect and being a good ambassador. By being a strong representative of a “good” or “ethical” computer scientist, we can hopefully inspire others to do the same, and show the world that we are ethical people.

I found it useful to discuss with others what makes a “good” and “ethical” computer scientist and student. This helped me find goals to strive for and ideals to abide by. Hopefully others will try to strive to be “good” and “ethical” as well.