My name is Victor Hawley. I am a senior Computer Science major born and raised in Los Angeles, California. I was always into technology and computers as a kid, and I got into programming because I wanted to learn how make video games. Specifically, I was a big fan of Warcraft III, which had the capability of making custom games using a basic graphical event scripter and a more advanced scripting language called JASS. Eventually, I realized programming can be used to make software outside of games, and I began to enjoy coding in general for any type of problems, which is why I decided to study Computer Science in college. I’ve always been a logical/mathematical thinker, and I enjoy the challenge of developing logic that can be converted into structured syntax that a machine can ultimately execute.
Throughout college, I formed a greater interest in cloud / connected technologies because they can enhance many other technologies. The cloud has many ethical issues facing it because, from a consumer’s perspective, someone else controls the hardware/software that your devices interact with on a daily basis. As software engineers, it is our responsibility to respect the users’ data. Throughout my studies, I’ve spent my time learning how to do certain things without taking a step back to truly understand the ramifications of the software I write. In this class, I hope to better understand such implications and form better moral guidelines of what I should and should not do when developing software, on a high and low level. For example, some types of user data are needed to an extent to be useful, but at what point is the data collection unethical? Can developers simply be honest about the data being collected and get away with collecting any data they want?
vhawleynd 