My name is Shelby Everlove Lem. I am in my fifth year at Saint Mary’s College/the University of Notre Dame. I am part of a 4:1 dual-degree program between the two schools where I spend four years at Saint Mary’s getting one of my bachelor degrees (Computing and Applied Math) and one year at Notre Dame finishing up my engineering bachelor (Computer Science).
I was born in Fremont, CA, but moved to Grosse Ile, MI when I was eight. Grosse Ile is a small, residential island in the Detroit River. Please come visit our 3 golf courses, 4 boat clubs, and token Alpaca Farm!
I was in the Notre Dame Marching Band for four years and played the snare drum. This year I decided to take a step back from band to focus on finding a job. I also enjoy skiing and playing the piano.
While at Saint Mary’s I complete a Senior Comp on “A Combinatorial Analysis of Shift Spaces”. I observed natural patterns in binary numbers using a program I wrote and analyzed them for patterns using the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. I then gave three 40 minute talks on the topic and wrote a paper to accompany my research. It was not an easy process, but I am proud to have completed it.
I have had two industry internships at AbbVie (2016) and Roush (2017). At AbbVie I was an IT intern and acted as a Systems Analyst for the HUMIRA IT team. At Roush I was an intern with their newly formed Software & Data Analytics group. I got to work alongside developers, business analysts, testers, and project managers. I even went back and did some work for them during the four weeks I had off at winter break this year.
I am very passionate about supporting women in the STEM fields. This past Fall I was lucky enough to be able to attend the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing. I got to hear some from many inspiring women such as Melinda Gates, Dr. Fei-Fei Li, Diane Green, and Dr. Sue Black. I went to seminars on everything from Computer Graphics to “Am I My Own Worst Critic?”. Being surrounded my so many inspiring women and hearing their stories made me excited to do more for women in Computer Science.
I think that one of the more pressing issues for Computer Scientists right now is our moral obligation to do good in the world. One thing I think I would enjoy doing is working for a retail-like company to make online shopping more efficient and streamline. But what good am I bringing into the world by doing that? Am I helping people by giving them more ways to spend their money on things they may not need? But, if its something I enjoy doing, should this be a concern of mine? Technology is in every part of our lives, which is part of why I majored in computer science- I wanted to be a part of that revolution. But what if that revolution isn’t what’s good for society? Should we be fighting this move towards a digitalized world?