Tyler Becker '22
General Mills
Cybersercurity Engineer - Identity
What is your fondest memory of your time in the CS department?
While I have a lot of good memories in the CS department, one of my fondest memories comes from being a TA for the data structures class. In my last semester as a TA, they introduced SAM (Student Academic Mentor) sessions and had the TAs assist in these sessions. Essentially, the goal of SAM sessions was to review content from class and allow time for questions from students.
During our last session where we were reviewing for the course final, we had the biggest turnout yet and had the most engagement from the students. We spent the whole time going through material and since we had a whole semester of sessions there were also jokes and good times being had, as we had formed relationships with the regulars who showed up. It felt good seeing them enjoy the session and afterwards hear the impact I had on them. Many of them commented on how the SAM sessions saved their grade, or how coming to my office hours allowed them to complete programs they would’ve otherwise failed.
I enjoyed being a TA so much that it has made me consider a return to academia in the future and be able to teach my own class someday.
How has your education impacted your career?
My education has impacted my career in ways I never expected. I can clearly think back to the classes that I struggled in the most, or ones that forced me to change how I approached my studying and homework, and I can say those are the classes that helped me the most in my career. From those classes I learned the most efficient ways I learn, the most efficient ways to find information, and how to adapt to the amount of workload I have on my plate. Aside from gaining new skills in helping myself learn, I saw once I gained familiarity with the environment I work in, I could quickly transition the knowledge I gained in my classes to my job. Examples being that the environment I work in is based off Java, so I was able to pull from my knowledge of Java libraries and effectively choose the right object for my goal. I was also well versed in java documentation which allow me to find knowledge faster and follow good coding principles. Another example being that my environment has a lot of parallelization and so I got to pull from my time in Concurrent Computing and remember the ways to handle “race conditions” and get things to complete in the correct order sequentially.
During my time in college, I often questioned why we did things, or why things were as difficult as they were, but now getting to see the impact an MTU degree has on my career I can say I am happy with the level of difficulty associated with it. I look at my degree with pride and know when faced with any challenge, I can overcome it thanks to the amount of effort required to graduate. I encourage current students to push through their challenges and even welcome new ones as it will help prepare you the most for industry. Keep an eye out for professors that you like, or learn well from, as they may be the best ones to help you push yourself or let you see how much more you can grow.
Tyler participates in the CS1000 Alumni Assignment project where alumni correspond with first-year computer science students and answer questions they have about the school, the program, the industry, or just life in general at Michigan Tech. He also recruits students at Career Fair. Tyler often returns to campus for university traditions like Winter Carnival.
"I have Professor Soner Onder and Professor Ruihong Zhang to especially thank for all the help they gave me and how they helped me realize how much I love this field of study."
