Career Day

A local high school is hosting a career day tomorrow, and I am going to be presenting with my supervisor here at Carleton's School of Computer Science. I am hoping that this opportunity to talk about what computer science is all about in front of two different groups of high school students will help me determine which topics they are interested in and use that information when preparing for the mini-course I'm giving this spring.

The presentation as it already exists is pretty good. The main idea is to show the students various aspects of computer science -- from graphics and geometry to computational biology to networking and security (and a few in between) -- using some fun examples the students can relate to.

I added a few fun slides in hopes that we might be able to keep their attention for the whole 40 minutes we have to talk. For example, after mentioning games and graphics, I stuck in a video trailer for Grand Turismo HD, which showcases the best graphics I've ever seen for a video game. To tie together the slides on networking and security, I added a snapshot of Facebook. I'm hoping to add just a little bit about audio because not many people realize how well computer science and music can tie together.

Here's hoping that we can convince a few young adults to consider pursuing a career in computer science, particularly here at Carleton!