Hi, my name is Luis Prieb. I’m a senior Computer Science major. I was born and raised in Nicaragua, a small country with 6 million people in Latin America. I came to Notre Dame with the intention of majoring in Mechanical Engineering. I was always fascinated with Math and Physics and thought ME was a great fit for me. With this in mind, I joined the school of engineering and started my intro to engineering class, where we were introduced to LabVIEW. Before this, I had never coded in my life. I heard of a lot of people hating LabVIEW, so I wasn’t particularly excited, but at very least I thought it would be interesting to learn. In the end, I didn’t think much of it other than that it wasn’t too hard, but not particularly enjoyable either. The real kick happened the next semester. We started working with MATLAB, which I also heard people hated. I loved it. The homework assignments were like mini games to me. It was always the first homework I would start when I got back from class. Programming felt just right.
At the end of the semester, the moment arrived to decide our majors. I’m often stubborn in sticking with my decisions. I was still planning on being an ME major, but a thought had sparked in the back of my mind. It so happened that the information meeting for CSE overlapped with the times for the one for ME. I went to the ME meeting, but managed to make it to the last 5 minutes of the CSE information meeting. I grabbed an information sheet and took it home. That night I sat in my room looking at both information sheets, battling with the decision. After more thought, I decided I should just follow my growing passion. Of all decisions I’ve ever made, that’s the one I’m most thankful to myself for. Despite all those sleepless nights and the occasional class I hate (just one actually), I have never regretted my decision.
Being a CS major, I’ve done my best to explore most broad topics of it. Of all, the one that has interested me the most is Artificial Intelligence. I’ve read on the manner on my own and I have also started courses online on the topic. This semester I can finally take Machine Learning and fully explore that realm. Besides that, I’m also fascinated by Quantum Computer and by how it can revolutionize programming (despite destroying current encryption systems). Although I don’t fully understand the mathematics behind the theory, I try to keep up to date with the advances of the technologies and what can be made with it currently and in the future.
For this class, one the topics that interests me is the problem of privacy vs security. How can we find a point in the middle to compromise both sides? What are some possible solutions now and in the future? One interesting case to discuss could be Apple in the San Bernardino Gunman case. Another interesting topic is how to address liability of software product failures. For example, if a man dies because of a bug in a self-driving car, who goes to jail for it?