Hi!

 

My name is Katie Quinn and I am a senior studying Computer Science at the University of Notre Dame. My interests include fashion, reading, knowing an obscene amount about current pop culture and makeup brands, as well as spending quality time with my friends. I grew up in a small town in central New York called Red Hook where the arts, history, and literature were favored over the studies of mathematics and sciences in my public school education. I come from an overly passionate Notre dame family whom are still emotionally damaged from the outcome of the past football season as well as a heavy percentage of engineering backgrounds. Both of my parents attended Notre Dame and my mom graduated with an Electrical Engineering degree in ’84, which she still upholds was as “trendy” as computer science is today.

 

I grew up having a hard work ethic and a strong interest in math and science but with little to no exposure to the field of computer science. I was fortunate to attend an introduction to engineering camp on Notre Dame’s campus in high school, which allowed me to learn more about engineering in general as well as to finally convince me of the fact that my family was smart to continuously choose this university to attend. I realized that the field of engineering was where I wanted to be but I had no idea what engineering major to pursue. I found computer science to be the most exciting possible career path from what I had heard but I initially believed it would not be a field that I would be able to succeed in. Simply put, it sounded too hard on paper. Consequently, when I enrolled as a freshmen I decided on Mechanical Engineering but thankfully due to the introduction to engineering freshman class I realized I picked up MATLAB much more easier than my most hated freshman subject – physics. Another large influence on my decision to switch into computer science was my brother. My brother, also a Notre Dame grad, once explained to me that choosing computer science was one of his best decisions he made in his life. He’s currently at Apple so it is safe to say it worked out well enough for him. Although the two of us are rather different, I have been impressed at the range of opportunities in computer science that allowed both of us to find opportunities best suited for our respective skill sets.

 

What am I looking forward to getting out of this class? I want to be able to have smart discussions with my classmates, even though at some situations they may disagree with me. I want to become more aware of possible ethical issues that could come up in my career and I want to be better prepared such that I know where my beliefs stand on certain issues. I should be able to realize when an ethical line could be crossed instead of realizing after the fact that I have crossed it blindly.

 

I think Computer Ethics is extremely relevant now. With issues like whether or not companies should create Muslim registries or what can be done to combat fake news, it seems essential to discuss the potential ethical issues we could face in our career. I think issues like these surrounding our election and country are the most pressing ethical and moral issues we can take as Computer Scientists. Personally, I am most interested in discussing the ethics of hacking, leaking disclosed information, as well as diversity. Diversity in Computer Science is one of the most pressing ethical issues for myself personally because I can tell to some extent how it affects my life. I am interested in hearing from other students who have other opinions that differ from my own.