As the great wingman Barney Stinson once said: Have you met Ted?
Hello world. My name is Ted Cogan and I am a senior Computer Science major at Notre Dame. If one of my friends were to describe who I was in college, I don’t think “engineer” or “computer scientist” would be at the top of anyone’s list. I spend the majority of my time in extra curriculars and find my calling in leadership positions and more outgoing and social outlets. I am the social-chair for the Hall Presidents Council here at Notre Dame, which means that I sit on a board to help guide and shape the Hall Government in dorms. I am also a member of the co-ed pop acapella group Halftime. Free time isn’t really I thing that I believe in, as I find myself busy with meetings, classes, or working on some random project, but you’ll notice that I always make an effort to make these things feel like free time and have a good time. Next year, I will be taking my talents to Chicago and working as a consultant for Pariveda Solutions.
I never quite know what to say when I get asked why I chose to study computer science. I find myself defaulting to answering that I enjoy the combination of creativity and logic to solve meaningful problems. I don’t like this answer because I don’t really think I know what that means in the true context of what I’m learning in my studies. I chose computer science because I like the feeling I get when I am able to make a program work properly. I like the challenge of getting to solve a problem however I want and constantly learning better and newer ways to do so. I think the challenge for me is tying the technical things I am learning to real world scenarios and making use of this interest and talent. Solving meaningless problems and coding away on random projects is okay for learning the tools, but I think my real challenge is going to be applying these skills in the real world and still feeling that rush of excitement every day.
I think some of the biggest ethical and moral issues in the Computer Science world have to deal with the effects of a product on a group of users. An example of this is the app Yik Yak. While it was created for good and as another social network, there is a lot of controversy over who is responsible for what happens on the app and whether any harmful effects fall on the responsibility of the creators of Yik Yak. I also think this ties into the issue of security and privacy. I think it is a big problem right know of knowing who to blame for security breaches and invasions of privacy online. Is a simple agreement to terms enough to transfer blame to a user for taking a risk on trusting an app, or should a company/coder take responsibility for putting its users at risk of a security breach. I think these topics are the most pressing because they involve the harm of millions of people and someone needs to take responsibility. While other ethical topics are important, these topics have much more serious outcomes if not taken seriously.
Ethics Blog 