My name is Alexandra Bennett, but you can call me Ali.
I am a senior computer science and mathematics major at St. Norbert College. After graduation in
May, I will be attending the University of Notre Dame where I will be pursuing a PhD in Computer Science.
I stumbled into computer science my freshman year of college with absolutely no knowledge of the field. I was absolutely terrified, but I soon fell in love with the things we were learning about and declared a double major. As I progressed through both of my majors, I found myself drawn to the theory courses. Both in mathematics and in computer science, I found myself enjoying courses that moved away from programming or computation and focused more on why the things we take for granted actually work. Not only was I enjoying learning about these new concepts, but I was also getting joy from teaching other people about these theories. With this capstone being so linked to the theory side of computer science, I hope to further this education and teach people a little bit about why this stuff is so cool.
While at a math conference in Boston, I stopped by the NSA's booth where they were displaying an original Enigma! It isn't one the Germans would have used in the war, rather an earlier model. So cool to see in person.