Whoa... (UCLA c/o 2010, Bioengineering) UCLA used to use C# in the PIC10A series. I didn't take too many classes in these series, but did audit some while I was deciding as a non-CS major how technical to become. Personally, I think it's fine for the Math Department to use Python - there's plenty of opportunities to do the lower level stuff or unmanaged stuff in other classes at UCLA.
For CS/CSE and engineering majors we take the CS31 (intro to CS)/32 (data structures and algorithms)/33 (operating systems) series - these primarily use C++ (if not C, assembly, etc.)
Hey ElbertF - I'm on the product team at Sift Science and definitely want to understand more (33% is incredibly high). I took a brief look at your integration, but should take the conversation to email - send me a note! quan at siftscience dot com.
Ginger.io | San Francisco, CA | Full Stack Engineer | Full Stack / Mobile Internship | On-Site | http://ginger.io/careers
We're working to help people with depression and anxiety take control by building a digitally enabled mental healthcare provider. We’re currently looking for full stack engineers and mobile engineers.
It's an incredibly challenging & rewarding space to work in - send me a note if you want to talk, I’m a PM on the team here - quan at ginger.io
I'm off on vacation for a few weeks (unlimited vacation that's closer to the real thing?!) - if you're applying between now and the next time a post comes up, I won't be able to respond so please apply directly on our careers page!
Ginger.io | San Francisco (SF) | Full Stack, Mobile, Design Lead | Django, Python, iOS, Android | https://ginger.io/careers/
We're working to help people with depression and anxiety take control by fixing mental healthcare. We're currently looking for full stack engineers, mobile developers and designers (ideally interaction/UX/product & visual).
It's an incredibly challenging & rewarding space to work in, send me a note if you want to talk - quan@ginger.io.
I believe they covered this - and is somewhat related to your flagship comment. They sold more of the cheaper Lumia variants (targeted at other markets than the US/your part of the world)
Someone can still be a great engineer and struggle through an early class - there's plenty of reasons for this to happen and universities/colleges need to address these problems.
For example - someone who has never coded before in their life - there shouldn't be some expectation that you had a computer growing up, built a website for peers in middle school and are already an expert by the time you hit your first class. There's plenty of capable people who a) never had the advantages/wealth to support some of these things b) haven't discovered their interest and "weed out" core classes don't help with that. You may take longer to get up to the same place as someone with the advantages above, but that doesn't rule you out from being an effective engineer/computer scientist.
Friends who majored in music theory (not performance, which is worse) tell me that you have to pass a competency test to be admitted into the school as a college freshman.
(At least, at the good schools; this may not be true at third rate schools, I wouldn't know.)
This requires that someone spent years playing an instrument, typically with lots of instruction, both of which are very hard to do with no money.
Some may get this free in high school, but the high school I went to had performance exams to get into those high school freshman classes.
There was no music at all at my junior high.
I got 6 months of instrument training in 6th grade, and that was all that public schools offered me, and I know that some people had even less than that from the schools in their area.
The point being that it's not just computers. If we want to give an equal opportunity to students, there's a tremendous amount that needs fixing that is not at all limited to computers.
It definitely does need fixing, but not by simply admitting/hiring more minorities until the statistics are agreeable (easy) but by actually making those deep structural changes to enable true equality of opportunity for all (much harder).
Yes; I really dislike adjusting statistics, because it's off-target, whether it's easy or not, but I definitely agree that opportunity is the desirable thing to equalize.
Each racial group has subsets that trend towards different desires; e.g. as a white guy I knew lots of other white guys in high school who were anti-intellectual, and thought that going to college inherently meant you were a snob.
I don't know how to change subgroup attitudes like that, but at any rate it sure would be nice to give opportunity to those who want it.
The primary way that that is hard is that it costs hard money. In my example, money for student instruments and money for music instructors (typically far more than for the instruments, although both are nontrivial).
(In my areas public libraries have been cutting hours (and days) for decades. This is part of the ridiculously negative trend that we, as a society, must stop being foolish about, like these other issues.)
Statistics, OTOH, averages together those who don't want, along with those who do want, which is clearly unfair to those who do want.
Yes, there's definitely more that needs fixing. My stake in this fight is coming up with things that can happen so my industry (and really, the organizations I work for) can get great talent - and that involves training more & recruiting diverse engineers.
> The point being that it's not just computers. If we want to give an equal opportunity to students, there's a tremendous amount that needs fixing that is not at all limited to computers.
Absolutely agree. Reactions like this make it that much harder for folks in the industry to recruit talent through the pipeline because we're discouraging and reducing the ability of potentially qualified people from getting through.
I did research with Adam & Jim back in undergrad @ UCLA - I had a first stab attempt at creating these atomic switches & failed miserably. I'll see if I can get them to comment if there's a specific question here.
What would you try to optimize for in terms of learning and growth - good mentorship or fast growing companies? Or is there some other attribute you'd recommend optimizing for?
I live in Seattle and Uber is my preferred method of on-demand transportation, except for maybe rides to the airport where I might call a towncar service. It's cheaper than taking a Yellow Cab if you use UberX, and since I don't care about having a nicer ride, it works out great. No more waiting 30 minutes on Friday/Saturday nights and it's a huge improvement for after major events (even though surge pricing does sometimes lead me to select alternate means).
I'd really be interested to see how their revenue breaks down between larger cities with urban cores (SF, Seattle) and other areas that are more spread out (LA, etc.)
For CS/CSE and engineering majors we take the CS31 (intro to CS)/32 (data structures and algorithms)/33 (operating systems) series - these primarily use C++ (if not C, assembly, etc.)