career – Computing Crossroads

December '21

The Animal-Centred Designer

As a product and service designer, tackling a Ph.D. in the computer science department felt strange to Luisa. She was surrounded by people with a traditional computer science background. However, she quite quickly realised a striking advantage she had over others. As a designer, she believes one’s fear of failure is naturally very low. In this department, she was the one who felt most comfortable taking risks.

The Communicator
When Silvana Togneri MacMahon took her first role in computing as a software tester at a contact centre of a retail bank, she had no formal background in computing let alone what software testing was. The three-week project turned into a year as a tester, followed by two years as a test lead, leading to a higher diploma and Ph.D. in computer science. Now, Dr. Silvana MacMahon is an assistant professor at the Dublin City University School of Computing and is passionate about highlighting alternative pathways into computing, like her own.
The Computing Education Innovator
Lisa Kaczmarczyk grew up in New England and is currently the owner of a program evaluation consulting business that specializes in computer science and engineering education. A computer scientist and educator herself, with an interdisciplinary background, Dr. Kaczmarczyk has extensive experience evaluating NSF-funded STEM projects at the primary, secondary, and post-secondary levels, and has served as project co-PI. Her expertise is in interdisciplinary computing and engineering, outreach to women and girls, and computing for social good.
The Anthropologist
Gustavo Landfried Social Anthropologist and Computer Science PhD Student Gustavo Landfried was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He is a social anthropologist currently completing a PhD in computer science at the University of Buenos Aires. When he began his PhD, he was looking for tools to apply to the social sciences, and what he found was better than […]
The Social Scientist
Bob Edmison was born in Virginia in the US and is currently a Collegiate Professor of Computer Science at Virginia Tech University. He has spent over 20 years as a professional software engineer and has been employed by his university since 2001. He enjoys some audio engineering on the side for his local church and has tried over one thousand different kinds of beer.