Alumni Profile

Steve Wehrend (Math'84, MCompSci'90, PhD'02)

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 17:21:17 +0000

Steve Wehrend (Math'84, MCompSci'90, PhD'02) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/13/2020 - 10:21

Why did you choose to study computer science?

As an undergrad, I didn’t initially care for computer science. This was partially due to primitive technology (e.g., programming on cards and slow mainframes), but mostly due to my not seeing a connection between the information I was learning and how I could apply it to solving interesting problems. As a result, I ended up pursuing a BA in math, while taking a handful of CS courses. However, after having a chance to do some programming to solve a personal problem that I couldn’t solve manually, I found that I really enjoyed computer science. That led me to a job as a programmer after my BA, which in turn led to a 35+ year career in CS as well an MS and a PhD in CS from CU.

Who or what had a strong effect on your interest/trajectory in computer science?

My father, who was a NASA engineer, initially sparked my interest in programming. In terms of my understanding of and appreciation for user experience, my MS and PhD advisor, Clayton Lewis, has been instrumental.

Tell us about your career path.

After my BA in math, I took a job as a scientific programmer at Lockheed in Denver. After ~3 years, I returned to �鶹��Ѱ��for an MS in CS, where Clayton Lewis was my advisor while I worked as a PRA at CADSWES (Center for Decision Support in Water and Environmental Systems), in the civil engineering department. After graduation, I went to work at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, but decided to return to �鶹��Ѱ��to pursue a PhD with Clayton. As before, I worked a PRA at CADSWES, which served as the basis for my research. Prior to completing my PhD and with a growing family, I took jobs as a programmer at US WEST Advanced Technologies and as a director of software development at a startup in Denver, where I finally finished my degree. Since then, I have worked at Cisco (senior manager), Juniper (director and senior director) and VMware (vice president).

What is your current professional role? What is your favorite part of that role?

I oversee a group that includes user experience, developer experience and data warehouse/analytics for most of VMware and user interface for a couple of business units. I enjoy building and working with a team that is focused on improving customers’ ability to use VMware’s products and services using both graphical and textual user interfaces.

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Lucy Sanders (MCompSci'79)

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 17:16:58 +0000

Lucy Sanders (MCompSci'79) Anonymous (not verified) Thu, 02/13/2020 - 10:16

Who or what had a strong effect on your interest/trajectory in computer science?

My father worked in an early data center with large mainframe computers, so I had a lifelong familiarity with computing. My interest was further formed by my high school advanced math teacher; she taught us not only how to program a small desk top Olivetti computer, but also the Fortran programming language. An excellent educator, she always went the extra step, assembling our Fortran programs to be run on a mainframe at a local college in Shreveport, Louisiana, where I grew up. That’s how I first learned that computers do exactly what you tell them to do despite your best intentions.

Tell us about your career path.

While attending �鶹��Ѱ��to earn a graduate degree in computer science, I also worked at AT&T Bell Labs in Denver. After graduation I stayed at Bell Labs, leaving almost 25 years later having become an R&D vice president and Bell Labs Fellow. Bell Labs was an exciting place to be in the early days of software development — I worked on operating systems, data management systems and large scale enterprise multimedia software. I now work at �鶹��Ѱ��focused on correcting under-representation issues in computing, seeking solutions to increase the number of women and other under-represented groups in the discipline.

What is your biggest career or life lesson to date?

Listen well and utilize the “spirit of inquiry” to understand what others mean before jumping to conclusions. Verbal and written communications are often imprecise and taking a bit of extra time to learn more and consider your reaction improves outcomes and relationships.

What is your current professional role? What is your favorite part of that role?

Today I am the CEO and co-founder of the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT), an effort started at �鶹��Ѱ��in 2004 with a grant from the National Science Foundation. We work with over 1,200 organizations across the country, and thousands of students, to both create a more diverse set of students interested in pursuing computing disciplines and careers, and a more inclusive technical environment in which everybody can study and work. I most enjoy seeing the progress that the United States is making in this area, and knowing that NCWIT is playing a leading role in helping others achieve success.

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Nima Keivan (PhDCompSci'17)

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:18:46 +0000

Nima Keivan (PhDCompSci'17) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/12/2020 - 17:18

Tell us about your career path.

I started out studying mechanical and aerospace engineering. For my PhD, I switched to computer science to follow an interest in robotics and computer vision. Part way through that program, I was fortunate to start a robotics company (CANVAS Technology) with three amazing co-founders. That company was later acquired by Amazon, which is where I work today.

What moments in your career have been most exciting or defining?

The most defining moments have been that of adversity, where constraints and unfortunate circumstances have motivated creative problem-solving. I've been lucky to share these moments with an incredible team.

What is your biggest career or life lesson to date?

To be patient. Many of the best outcomes that I observed or were involved in had to be nurtured and carefully guided over long periods of time.

What do you expect or hope to see in the next 50 years of computer science?

I hope to see a new generation of more powerful tools, better equipped to deal with the increasingly complex and multi-disciplinary systems that will be developed.

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Michael Dean Jenkins (MTelcom'93)

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:14:06 +0000

Michael Dean Jenkins (MTelcom'93) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/12/2020 - 17:14

Why did you choose to study computer science?

I chose �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder because of its strong reputation in telecommunications. I have always had a passion in technology and received a bachelor’s degree in Arts & Science from the University of Nebraska majoring in computer science and human factors. I earned an MS in telecommunications engineering from �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder in 1993 with distinction. I continued to work as a software developer while I studied for my master's.

What life lessons did you learn during your time at CU?

I have been privileged and fortunate to have had a 25+ year career in an industry I love, and a career which has taken me internationally and through which I have contributed to building world class telecommunication networks spanning North America, Europe and Asia. I gained important life skills during my master's at �鶹��Ѱ��Boulder — the importance of life-long-learning, the value of learning from failures and the strength of a diverse team. These lessons gave me a strong foundation to access global opportunities.

Tell us about your career path.

Over my 25 years in the telecoms industry, I have been fortunate to deploy critical submarine and terrestrial networks throughout the world for carriers such as Verizon, Level 3 Communications, PCCW in Hong Kong, Telstra in Australia, and Tata Communications in Singapore. I returned to Boulder with Zayo Communications to lead the technology, engineering and capacity planning for Zayo's global network.

What moments in your career have been most exciting or defining?

My significant career achievements include the design and installation of one of the world's first private protected fiber rings; the first optical interface onto the public internet at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratories; and the design and engineering of more than 50 data centers and cable landing stations around the world.

What is your favorite part of that role?

I’m very excited to have reached a stage of my career where I can give back to the community which has given me so much personally. I serve on the advisory board of the (College of Engineering and Applied Science), and I’ve also recently engaged as a mentor for a Boulder-based company (Unreasonable Group), which has the goal to support growth-stage entrepreneurs to solve some of the world’s biggest problems. I love mentoring young people and sharing life experiences that they may find relevant as they pursue their own passions.

Are there any “words to live by,” credo or top values that you follow?

My top values are family, community and pursuing purpose. After working abroad (based out of Hong Kong, Taiwan and London) for most of my career, I relocated back to Boulder with the loves of my life, my wife, Edlyn, and our 12-year-old daughter Joyanne. Edlyn is an accomplished lawyer/corporate executive who I met in Hong Kong. Joyanne was born in Hong Kong and attended schools in HK, Taipei and London. We moved from London to Boulder to be closer to our extended family in the U.s. and to pursue opportunities which enable me and my wife to apply our international experiences and contribute to a community which is now our home. I believe that if you live life with purpose, the rest will follow.

Photo at left: Michael at his master's graduation in 1993.

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Jud Valeski (CompSci, PoliSci'96)

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:08:42 +0000

Jud Valeski (CompSci, PoliSci'96) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/12/2020 - 17:08

Why did you choose to study computer science?

I actually started at �鶹��Ѱ��with an emphasis in art. After a couple of semesters, however, I realized that the art coursework felt like "work," and I was spending all of my spare time writing software. It became pretty clear to me that formalizing my education around what I was more interested in spending free cycles on would be more appropriate, thus computer science.

Who or what had a strong effect on your interest or trajectory in computer science?

While I was at CU, the public, graphical, internet was coming online thanks to Netscape and Mosaic, and the broader impact software was about to start having on everyone on Earth was becoming clear; I wanted to be a part of that!

What life lessons did you learn during your time at CU?

CU's resources across the board are world-class and unique, yet, they weren't handed to me as a student. If I wanted to take advantage of them, I had to be the one to initiate and engage with them. You get out of something what you put into it.

Tell us about your career path.

Started my own software consultancy to build accounting programs for local area businesses while I was at CU. After graduating, I worked on client-side networking protocol stack software at Netscape, and progressed into software management/leadership positions across a few different companies. I eventually started a SaaS software company, Gnip Inc., in Boulder with a friend and operated that for several years before selling the company to Twitter. I now spend my time helping companies scale their software capabilities via board positions, advisor roles and general management. I am always writing software in the background somewhere.

What moments in your career have been most exciting or defining?

The first time I created a virtual server instance blew my mind. I realized we software developers could start treating hardware like software (boundlessly and without limit). The rest is history — "The Cloud."

What is your biggest career or life lesson to date?

It's cliché, but, it's all in the risks you're willing to take. Low-risk, low reward. High-risk, high-reward (with the occasional skinned knee).

Are there any “words to live by,” credo or top values that you follow?

"Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect." - Mark Twain

URLs are all that matter.

"Software is eating the world." - Mark Andreessen

What advice would you give to current or future computer science students?

Understand the bigger picture. If you find yourself specializing in one language, or exclusively on server-side/cloud or client-side software, you can wind up narrowing your options out in the world. Pursue breadth in understanding and knowledge in software. If you want to specialize later in your career, that's fine, but go out into the world with a wider stance.

What do you expect or hope to see in the next 50 years of computer science?

Machine learning and AI are our future. Whether you put energy into the underlying algorithms/systems/engines, or simply the application of various model execution frameworks, spend time understanding how these concepts work. We spent the first 50 years of writing software trying to be perfect and highly accurate. The next 50 years are about acquiescing and letting the software be 95-99% accurate, and that being enough.

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Jesse Rosenzweig (CompSci'98)

Anonymous — Thu, 13 Feb 2020 00:03:51 +0000

Jesse Rosenzweig (CompSci'98) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/12/2020 - 17:03

Who or what had a strong effect on your interest or trajectory in computer science?

When I was about 8 years old, my father brought home a Commodore 64 personal computer. After booting it up and writing my first couple of programs from the manual, I was hooked! In addition to creating my own programs, I would spend days typing in hexadecimal programs from BYTE magazine that would result in playable video games. It seemed like magic, and I developed a strong interest in understanding how the machine and its software worked. I had several great software engineering mentors in high school as well. Bill Paxton, a founder of Adobe and one of the inventors of PostScript, mentored me during a high school senior computer science project where I built a program to automatically balance chemical equations using recursion and ranking patterns. Some great internships later and the computer science program at �鶹��Ѱ��solidified my desire to pursue a career in the field.

What life lessons did you learn during your time at CU?

I had many preconceived notions of what computer science was before coming in to CU, and I quickly realized that I had a lot to learn. There were several ‘aha’ moments in operating systems, computer theory and artificial intelligence that gave me a deeper understanding of the science and what is possible. The senior project class taught by Bruce Sanders was one of the best preparations for the real world of the software industry. It demonstrated that industry is a dynamic place where requirements change, schedules flex and teams with mixed roles and backgrounds work together to solve problems. I had such a great experience with the senior project that I went on to host several senior projects at Elemental and would ask job candidates about their senior projects during interviews.

Tell us about your career path.

My first job was during summers in high school writing software for a local company called TIC (The Industrial Company). I also held internships at Qualcomm’s Boulder office through 1997 and worked there full-time as a software engineer after graduating. The CDMA infrastructure division at Qualcomm was acquired by Ericsson in 1999, at which time I left Qualcomm and moved to Portland, Oregon, with my future wife who I met freshman year at CU. She received a doctorate at OHSU in Portland, and we made the journey to Oregon to do so. At the time, I found a customer support engineer position at Pixelworks in the Oregonian newspaper. Pixelworks was a startup where we built a system-on-a-chip to power display devices such as projectors and flat panel TVs. There was a surprising amount of software in these devices, and I traveled to Asia countless times to work with consumer electronics customers like Samsung, LG, Sony, Panasonic and NEC to integrate our technology. Pixelworks went public in 2000, and I continued in more senior roles until my co-founders and I decided to leave and launch Elemental Technologies in 2006. We built Elemental into a market-leading streaming and video compression company and merged with Amazon Web Services in 2015. I continued with AWS for several years and helped launch the six native AWS media services that now power streaming services around the world.

What moments in your career have been most exciting or defining?

I have been lucky enough to build highly impactful technology in my career including mobile communications, LCD display devices and video streaming. I am most proud, however, of building a world-class company with my co-founders at Elemental. In 2010, Elemental really started to take off. People were already watching video content online, but our business was supercharged by the introduction of the iPad. In 2012, I found myself sitting with production engineers at the BBC streaming the London Olympics and thinking how amazing to have one of the oldest broadcasters in the world using our live video compression technology streaming to millions of people in 70 countries! That was a truly exciting time and a pivotal moment for the team and our careers. The merger with AWS and further integration with such an inspirational company was also a defining experience. I learned what it takes to build software and businesses for scale far beyond what we ever envisioned, and it has been rewarding to see the company and the Portland campus continue to grow. The team even won an Emmy this year!

Are there any “words to live by,” credo or top values that you follow?

One of the biggest career lessons I’ve learned is that it is difficult to determine who is a competitor or a customer or a partner. I grew up playing and watching sports, where there was a clear understanding of competition, but in my career I’ve had partners that became competitors and competitors become customers many times. I learned that making the end customer happiest is what made our business thrive. This focus on the customer sounds obvious, but we found ourselves focusing too much on competitors enough that we decided to make ‘customer centrism’ an official company guiding value so we wouldn’t forget it.

What do you expect or hope to see in the next 50 years of computer science?

One of my favorite classes at �鶹��Ѱ��was artificial intelligence, where I learned about neural networks and how they can be used to autonomously drive a car across the country. Twenty years later, AI is everywhere in our daily lives from self driving cars to fraudulent credit card transactions, to near instant facial recognition and tailored suggestions as to what and who we may be interested in. In the next 50 years, I expect to see increased pressure on the computer science industry to build technology with privacy, security and social impacts in mind. Large data sets and powerful AI tools are now accessible and economical to anyone who wants to build applications; however, there are very few laws governing how these tools can be used. The technology will contribute to solving some of the world’s hardest problems, but it also has the potential to create new ones.

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Laura Mather (AppMath'94, MCompSci'96, PhD'98)

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 23:59:32 +0000

Laura Mather (AppMath'94, MCompSci'96, PhD'98) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/12/2020 - 16:59

Tell us about your career path.

I started my career at the NSA both during and after working on my degree. Next, I worked for Britannica.com – building website traffic analyzers for them. In 2003, the phenomenon that we now call “phishing” was becoming a problem for eBay. The biggest challenge was that no one had a degree in “how to fight computer crime” since computer crime didn’t really exist at scale before then. eBay decided they needed someone who had “both a law enforcement background and an online background.” Given my work at NSA and then Britannica.com, it turned out I was one of the only people who fit the bill. After fighting online criminals for four years, it became clear that they were targeting websites other than just eBay. It seemed like someone should help these other sites defend themselves. My soon-to-be husband (who had also worked at eBay) and I decided we could help. We started a company called Silver Tail Systems that analyzed web traffic to detect malicious actors. It took a while, but eventually companies like Apple and Microsoft and banks like Bank of America and Citi realized that our software gave them visibility that was valuable to them. By the time Silver Tail was acquired by RSA, we were protecting 80% of all U.S. online banking traffic. We also changed the lives of our employees, and made our investors VERY happy.

While I was at Silver Tail, I realized that I had not always hired the best person for the job. I started looking at the science around hiring and found that there are a few straightforward techniques that can improve a hiring manager’s decision process. It seemed beneficial to productize the strategies that had been proven to be effective in the hiring decision process. My next company, Talent Sonar, built systems that did just that. We removed information like names from resumes and insured interviewers asked all candidates the same questions. In addition to making better hiring decisions, these techniques have been shown to improve corporate diversity by combatting the unconscious bias in hiring managers. Unfortunately, I misjudged the timing of the market and the influence of the country’s shifting politics. Talent Sonar closed in 2018.

What moments in your career have been most exciting or defining?

My career has had both highs and lows. It was amazing to be a world-renown expert whose software protected some of the biggest brands in the world from online criminals. At the same time, I learned more from my entrepreneurial failures than I did from my successes. There are very different lessons in each case.

What moments in your personal life have been most exciting or defining?

Given that my husband has been involved in both my companies, meeting (and marrying) him has been extremely influential in my life. While most couples couldn’t imagine working together, we can’t imagine working apart. We are super complementary to each other. To be perfectly honest, I never would have done either of my companies without him doing them with me. I did most of the fundraising. Asking people for millions of dollars can be quite intimidating. But having a partner who believes in you and shares your vision for success emboldens you to do things you wouldn’t imagine otherwise.

What is your biggest career or life lesson to date?

If you believe in something, go for it. For Silver Tail, I talked to over 40 investors to raise our first round of financing. There were a lot of very smart people who told me “no one is going to pay money for what you are building.” But we knew there was a market for our software. We were seeing the criminals target other companies, and very few people understood how to protect these websites. Sometimes I understood things better than some of the smartest people in Silicon Valley.

Laura Mather with her advisor, Jim Martin, at graduation.

Are there any “words to live by,” credo, or top values that you follow?

It’s OK to not know what to do. When you are building a startup, you are making many, many decisions a day. Some can seem obvious, but a lot of times a decision can feel really tough. The way I’ve always dealt with these tricky decisions is to collect data. When I am not sure how to proceed, I try to ask three to five people who I consider “experts” in the situation I am facing for their advice. What may be unexpected is I usually don’t take any of their specific advice. The decision I make is often an amalgamation of all of their comments into some new direction that none of them suggested. Hearing different viewpoints can often help crystalize my gut on something. To add to that, it’s important to realize you will make mistakes. I make mistakes frequently. What’s much more important than the mistake itself is what you do to recover from that mistake.

Finally, try to work with people who don’t have egos. I’ve found that when building a team, if someone who has an ego gets hired, it messes up the dynamics of the entire team. Data has shown that the best teams are able to disagree respectfully – they like it when people challenge their thinking so that they can make their thinking better. I want to be around those types of people as much as possible.

What advice would you give to current or future computer science students?

Be aware of what you are putting out in the world and what ramifications it has. For example, if you are building AI systems, make sure your data isn’t biased. Or if you are building a financial system, make sure the criminals can’t readily exploit it. I worry that technology is moving so fast now that sometimes a product with amazing potential ends up doing more harm than intended. My generation didn’t really understand the harm we could do. The latest generation will be able to go into the field with eyes wide open, and I hope you all will take that responsibility seriously – both to clean up some of the mess that has already been made and to ensure that things don’t get messier than they are now.

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Scott Hudson (PhDCompSci'86)

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 23:44:02 +0000

Scott Hudson (PhDCompSci'86) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/12/2020 - 16:44

Why did you choose to study computer science?

I realized soon after I first got to use a computer in high school (1976) that they were an incredibly versatile way of creating things. I could sit down starting with just my thoughts, write those down in a certain way, and work them into something that actually did things — interesting and powerful things. After that I was hooked, and I knew what I was going to do: I was going to be a computer scientist.

Tell us about your career path.

I have pretty much always been an academic computer scientist. I started with a BS and MS in CS at Arizona State; I got my PhD at CU. After that I’ve had three jobs as a professor. But in the end, I have always considered myself to be an overgrown PhD student. So part of my heart has always been at CU.

What is your biggest career or life lesson to date?

I would boil down a series of lessons from some great mentors as this advice: “surround yourself with really smart people and listen.” This is not the “listen” from your mom which means “do what I say.” It’s the “listen” that means “hear what is really being said, and carefully consider it.”

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Mark Weinberg (Math'83, MCompSci'88)

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 23:37:14 +0000

Mark Weinberg (Math'83, MCompSci'88) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/12/2020 - 16:37

Why did you choose to study computer science?

Learning to develop software was by far the most compelling thing I had ever done in school. Something about computer science and the way my brain worked just clicked. It was like puzzle solving with an element of art. I was hooked after my first CS class.

What moments in your career have been most exciting or defining?

Starting at Microsoft in 1995 and working as a developer, technical lead, manager and executive on Windows Media, Xbox and IPTV. Being part of Microsoft in the “early days” was incredibly exciting and rewarding. I got to work with so many smart, passionate people on projects that really changed the way people used computers. I couldn’t believe they paid me to do this work.

What moments in your personal life have been most exciting or defining?

After spending five weeks climbing in the Himalayas, I got sick on our final summit push and ended up with a “mild case” of cerebral edema at 24,000 feet. That experience made me contemplate whether mountaineering was a great choice to feed my endurance sport addiction. So I took up triathlon and trained for many years (ultimately qualifying for and competing in the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii in 2008 and 2011). Triathlon is a humbling sport that teaches you the value of hard work and commitment to a goal.

What is your biggest career or life lesson to date?

If you want to do something great, do the work and stick with it for the long term. Success doesn’t come quickly or easy. Find your passion, work your butt off and keep going.

What advice would you give to current/future computer science students?

Develop expertise with core data structures and algorithms. You will use that knowledge for your entire career.

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Curt Stevens (MCompSci'90, PhD'93)

Anonymous — Wed, 12 Feb 2020 23:26:32 +0000

Curt Stevens (MCompSci'90, PhD'93) Anonymous (not verified) Wed, 02/12/2020 - 16:26

Why did you choose to study computer science?

I first got into computers in junior high because I didn’t enjoy math and I wanted to write programs to do all of the repetitive math for me. I eventually chose CS as an area of study because I grew to love it ("geek," as my daughter would say) and I believed I was more likely to have some positive impact by focusing on something I truly enjoyed doing every day.

What moments in your career have been most exciting or defining?

Traveling to Germany to present to a packed auditorium at my first academic conference. Graduating �鶹��Ѱ��with a PhD and my sanity intact. Working on tablet computing more than a decade before the iPad, and then watching tablets go huge. Being recruited and hired by Apple’s research group. Having my software released on the box cover of MacOS 9 to be used by millions. Having a manager who was so awesome that he changed my mind about the value of engineering managers. Learning that startups are my jam. Being acquired by Disney Interactive and getting to contribute to the genius that is Disney. Leaving Silicon Valley to return to Colorado and start afresh on new challenges.

What is your biggest career or life lesson to date?

There are no guarantees of company success so always choose to work on problems that excite you and challenge you. You’re never done. Be a lifelong learner.

What is your current professional role? What is your favorite part of that role?

I'm launching a new company in a new domain. It’s an opportunity to learn an entirely new industry.

I’m also spending time on the �鶹��Ѱ��campus mentoring students, helping them launch companies, and trying to impart an appreciation for what it’s like to work in startups and large companies as a software professional.

Are there any “words to live by,” credo, or top values that you follow?

The success of the team is everything. Individual success flows from there. If you’re not having fun, you’re not doing it right.

What advice would you give to current/future computer science students?

Large companies and small companies are very different environments and very often engineers have a hard time adjusting to one or the other. Spend some time considering how much structure you need to be comfortable and conversely, how much chaos you can comfortably handle on a day-to-day basis.

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