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When organizers for a summer research program for undergraduates in the College of Engineering and Applied Science sent out invitations earlier this year, they probably weren’t expecting an application from South America.

But Florencia Cabral, a student in the online post-baccalaureate in computer science who has been pursuing her degree from Montevideo, Uruguay, decided to take advantage of the opportunity, and spent her summer researching recommender systems with Robin Burke from the Department of Information Science.   

“I think they were kind of surprised that someone from another country had applied to this program, which is targeted to on-campus undergraduate students, but it has been really helpful to have this real-world experience,” she said. “It’s a great way to bridge being part of the university remotely and getting to know the work being done at the university in person.”

The computer science post-baccalaureate degree is designed for working adults with a previous bachelor’s degree who are looking to make a career pivot. Students complete 45 credit hours of focused core courses and electives that culminate in a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Computer Science.

After earning her bachelor’s in psychology from Dickinson College in Pennsylvania, Cabral spent four years working for an international development organization in Washington, D.C. Through her work in cybersecurity policy and digital government, she was reminded of how much she had enjoyed the computer science courses she had taken in college.

“I was intimidated to pursue a computer science major while in college,” she said. “But after working for a few years, I decided I wanted to go into a more technical role and became very motivated to go back to school.”

Cabral said she’s especially interested in artificial intelligence and is looking forward to the new AI electives being added to the curriculum. She’s considering going on to graduate school to specialize in the topic.

“AI has such a huge implication for society, and it will increasingly affect public policy,” she said. “The organization I was in was always looking for ways to incorporate new technologies in development projects, and there is generally a huge movement for innovation in that field.”

Before applying to the post-baccalaureate, Cabral said she spent time researching various computer science programs, including coding bootcamps and online degrees at other universities. She ultimately chose ��ƷSM����ӰƬ based on reputation, as well as both the flexibility and rigor of the program.  

“It was better than a bootcamp for me because I didn’t want to be pressured for six months just to learn the basics and then have to learn important concepts on the job,” she said. “I chose to spend more time on my studies and come out with a solid foundation in computer science theory.” 

Cabral hadn’t taken much math in college, so she completed a self-paced calculus preparation course the summer before applying to the program. With that course under her belt, she has found the program’s math-based coursework very manageable.

“The discrete structures course was a lot more fun and useful than I expected, and I found myself applying a lot of the concepts in my algorithms class later on,” she said. “This program makes you realize you don’t need to be a genius in math to learn computer science.”

So far, one of her favorite classes has been algorithms, partly because the coursework felt like solving puzzles.

“It was very challenging, but what was great about it was thinking in a very theoretical level about how to apply computer science concepts to solving a variety of problems,” she said. “You have a lot of ‘eureka’ moments where you think ‘Oh, yes, I can use this structure in this creative way to solve this problem.’ It can be a lot of fun.”

And while she’s usually several thousand miles away from her classmates, Cabral said she doesn’t feel disconnected, thanks to discussion forums and regular meetings with instructors.  

“The professors have scheduled office hours twice a week through Zoom, where you can come in and talk to them about anything you want, from homework to the industry in general,” she said. “You never really feel alone or left behind.”