Introduction

Hi, I am Rylan, a senior Economics Major and Computing & Digital Technologies Minor living in Duncan Hall. I transferred to Notre Dame prior to my sophomore year here as a part of the Holy Cross-Notre Dame Gateway Program. Our group of 20 students were only the second to be accepted into that new arrangement where we were guaranteed acceptance as a transfer if, as a freshman, we achieved a certain grade point average in our classes both at Holy Cross and at Notre Dame. It was a stressful, but rewarding, year and I am so glad I persisted. The friends that I have made and the experiences I have been through thus far have been amazing.
 I am from Lake Forest, Illinois, north of Chicago where I spend most of my free time playing golf or running, and following the World Champion Chicago Cubs. Throughout my childhood, I grew up loving numbers and statistics, calculating distances, analyzing relationships, thinking about how things work, and I always knew I wanted to do something that relied heavily on real world data. I decided to study Economics because I find the concepts very intriguing and challenging and help provide a good understanding of how our world works and what drives many aspects of human, corporate, and global interaction. I have found that it has provided me with a good background for many fields within the business world. I may, after a period in the working world, apply to MBA School.
In addition to studying economics, I decided to minor in Computing and Digital Technologies when I heard how interesting programming and computer science was from my friends focusing in that area. I started my course experience with Video Gaming, and since then I have gone on to concentrate more on Cyber Security, though honestly, each of the potential focus areas are intriguing.   While I am not as tech savvy, yet, as many Computer Science majors might be, I believe that my minor in CDT has provided me with a strong fundamental background in the world of technology and will help open many doors moving forward toward a career. Cyber Security seems to be the major “buzz word” today, and I can only imagine how much we don’t know about what we don’t know.

Some aspects of the evolution of computer science and technology that really interest me are artificial intelligence and self-driving cars. I noticed that there is a unit on AI later on in the course and am looking forward to covering that topic and real world examples of just how smart AI can become. I hope we address ethical issues that may arise with the implementation of self-driving cars such as what does the car do when an accident is inevitable - for example, does it swerve to avoid contact or will it attempt to stop forward motion, and does the vehicle prioritize passengers or does it favor pedestrians when quick decisions are needed.

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