CS373 Spring 2021: Shayan Maradia

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in the Houston Area in Texas.

2. What high school did you attend?

My high school was Klein Oak.

3. What was your favorite extracurricular activity in high school?

The activity that I enjoyed the most was Zeta Omicron (CS club) when I went to Klein Oak.

4. Why did you come to UT?

I came to UT for all of the learning experiences I would receive as a student studying CS in Austin, and I had scholarships that made it easier to go to school without having to work.

5. Why are you majoring in CS?

I am majoring in CS because I feel like code is a great way to go about finding a technological solution to things we deal with on a daily basis. My first CS class in high school focused heavily on making 2-dimensional games using Java code, and the creative freedom that programmers have really got me interested in CS.

6. Why are you in this class?

The reason I took SWE is because I want to learn the languages that we will have the opportunity to learn in class such as Python and SQL because I have only slightly worked with them in the past. Also, I wanted to take a class where I can learn about the processes that programmers go through when working full-stack, and the project in this class will teach me a lot.

7. What are your expectations of this class?

My expectations are that SWE will be challenging, but I think there is a lot of concepts to soak in very quickly, especially when working on the project. However, I feel like I learn the best when I challenge myself, so I am excited to be taking SWE.

8. How much Javascript/Python/SQL/Web programming do you already know?

I have worked with Javascript and Python in my internship slightly, and I have seen SQL in my MIS class, but that was very brief and surface-level. As for web-programming, I don’t have much experience other than with a few very simple websites I have made in the past.

9. How did you like the two lectures?

The two lectures were good, and I feel like I was already somewhat familiar with the information presented such as parts of the syllabus because I took OOP least semester, and I already knew most of the concepts behind Docker because I used it last semester.

10. How did you feel about the cold calling?

Since I took already took OOP, I feel like I am already accustomed to it, and I think it has always been an incentive for me to be ready to answer questions. I think the class learns more because of it.

11. What made you happy this week?

I was happy this week when I got to set all of my things up in my new apartment in Austin and because I get to room with a couple of my friends after being at home in Houston for almost a year.

12. What’s your pick-of-the-week or tip-of-the-week?

My tip-of-the-week is that Ripplematch is a useful website for applying to jobs/internships because it uses your profile to match you with particular jobs before you even apply to them, and it has been pretty useful in getting me more interview opportunities in my experience with the site.