The beginning of the end (of the beginning, part 2)

Hey everybody. My name is Maggie Liu and to kick off my last class in the OSU Computer Science Post-Baccalaureate program let’s wander back through how I got here.

Part 1, a Recap

I took my first programming class in high school and capped it off by writing a knock-off Minesweeper in Visual Basic. Later, in college The First Time Around, an Intro to Java classmate told me I should have turned that into an app and monetized it. He was probably right, financially. But at that point I didn’t think I was good enough at coding to justify turning it from a series of fun puzzles into a daily slog, and I wanted to work in the energy industry to progress the use of renewables. So instead I graduated with a Bachelor’s in Chemical Engineering and went off to deploy what computer skills I did have in an engineering context to make the world a better place.

Interlude

Okay, actually I spent a lot of time running around in a fire resistant onesie with a notebook full of set points, trying to get transmitters recalibrated. Occasionally I would get to make logic trees, mess around with macros that had broken two engineers ago, and write awesome reports that I’m pretty sure only one other person ever read. Your usual industrial cubicle stuff. It was neither particularly renewable nor particularly fun.

And then, of course, in 2020 the End Times came. During quarantine I realized the Before Times hadn’t been that great either, and like many of us finishing up the program this quarter I enrolled in OSU’s online Computer Science Post-Baccalaureate program. I wanted to develop some skills that would let me join a series of fun puzzles into a career in data and clean energy.

The Second Time Around

While at OSU I spent my time outside the virtual classroom:

1. ULA’ing for CS 161 (Intro to CS)
2. Researching wildfire impacts on air quality as part of an alternative Research Experience for Undergrads (altREU)
3. Interning as a decarbonization data analyst at an energy efficiency implementation company
4. Skiing
5. Baking
6. Wandering the woods, stopping occasionally to think about my place in the universe
7. Acquiring garish holiday sweaters

Points 1 and 2 reaffirmed that academia probably isn’t for me, although I love learning new things. Point 4 saw me ski into a tree and fall off a cliff (separate incidents). Point 6 is something I think everyone should do more often. Point 3 edged really close to what I want to do when I grow up, whenever that is.

The End

And here we are at the beginning of the end (of this degree program). My main professional interests at the moment are data (see: extracting, transforming, loading, analyzing) and decarbonization (see: climate goals). I was bummed to see the climate-focused projects removed from the course list, but am looking forward to working with a team of my peers this quarter regardless. I know whatever capstone we craft it’s going to go beyond the structural requirements needed to finish the archway of our education (get it, get it). So please follow along and provide any encouragement, advice, or commiseration you have to spare as I document my capstone project through a series of posts on this blog.