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Julia Lorello
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Hometown: Salem, MA
Class year: 2020
Majors/ Minors
BSc - computer science (concentration: software engineering)
What made you decide to study computer science at Salem State University?
[Salem State] was a great commuter school, but at some point it clicked for me and I soon found myself apart of the community of computer scientists in the department and enjoying what I do.
What have you liked most about studying computer science at Salem State?
All of the professors had a vast knowledge in their field and were open to feedback. I also appreciated that our voices ment something in the department. I really enjoyed the practicality aspect of some of the project based courses as well. It would allow us to have something to put in our portfolio/github to show to future employers, which I think is highly beneficial for anyone who's seeking a job after graduation.
What was your favorite course at Salem State and why?
My favorite course was actually the Capstone project, in the project the head of the department was my advisor/client and the project was to redesign and rebuild the CS department website from scratch. It was a really interesting project and gave me a lot of insight on the importance of working with a client, requirement gathering and delivering a project on time that left the client satisfied.
Why are you passionate about software engineering?
In general it's the problem solving aspect of it. I find great joy when it comes to digging deep into whatever problem is presented to me, figuring out how things work and finding out the best solution. I also believe there is a great creativity aspect to software engineering that isn't really talked about. There are so many different ways to solve things, so figuring out the most efficient way to solve a problem is a fun puzzle to solve itself.
What advice would you give to current or future computer science students?
I think the best advice for any computer science student is to learn your tools and learn how to search efficiently. Also computer science is a very broad field, I would also recommend to take the time to research the different paths you can take with the degree. Figure out which path best fits what interests you, and put in the time and effort to build up your portfolio to show future employers/higher-education facilities.
What career or further education have you pursued?
I'm currently a MSc Student at City, University of London. I'm pursuing a MSc in Software Engineering. I'm also working as DevOps engineer at Navteca (A company contracted by NASA), more specifically on the SMCE team at NASA.