Michael Trick was the special guest at a lunch-time gathering of students and faculty members in the Computer Science Program.

“I’ve gone through a lot of what you’re going through now,” said Trick to the students, referring to his own undergraduate education in mathematics, combinatorics and optimization and computer science. Trick recounted his first foray into computer science in the “punch card” era, and detailed how his career ultimately made use of his skills in computer science within the field of operations research.

“Your education doesn’t end when your degree ends,” he remarked. “In this field, things will change, even computer languages will change once or twice, and you will have to stay fresh.”

The session was part of the CS Talk Show series, a student-led, interview-style forum within the Computer Science Program. The series, which began in the 2016-17 academic year, is a casual venue for students to ask questions and receive mentorship and advice from faculty members. Past guests of the CS Talk Show have included Andrew Moore, dean of the School of Computer Science at CMU, Kemal Oflazer, associate dean of research, and Khaled Harras, the program director of computer science.

The session with Michael Trick was moderated by computer science sophomore Hari Krishna.