Jonathan Chaffer named 2021 winner of the David Boundy Award

Jonathan has always been interested in creating things with and for computers. He grew up making drawings in Photoshop, composing music in GarageBand, and building games in Scratch. In middle school and high school, he gravitated toward becoming a cartoonist or graphic designer. But his curiosity about how computers work and how to build software for them eventually led him to study computer science in college. Now, he has realized that he loves creating things but doesn’t really like getting his hands dirty. He loves how in Computer Science he can play around, try new things, and experiment without ever having to clean up a mess afterwards!

In addition to receiving the Boundy award, Jonathan’s work as a teaching assistant and as a key staff member in the Computer Science Help Center led to him being awarded the Computer Science Leadership award for his leadership and service to the department.

Caleb Tallquist named winner of the 2020 Computer Science Senior Prize

“A high achiever who is unable to internalize and accept their success. They often attribute their accomplishments to luck rather than to ability, and fear that others will eventually unmask them as a fraud.”  This is how Kirsten Weir described the imposter phenomenon (often called imposter syndrome) in an American Psychological Association article about graduate …

Developing More Than Just Techies …

One of the distinguishing features of a Hope College education is the effort our faculty and staff make to help ensure that students think about more than just the technical aspects of their computer science education.  One way we have been doing this recently is in our “Exploring Computer Science” course by having students read …

Wrapping it All Up

(This is the third and final post in a series by Joe Bustamante, a Hope senior who spent the summer as an application development intern at Open Systems Technologies in Grand Rapids, MI.  In this series, Joe describes his internship experience and how it relates to his learning at Hope College.  Our apologies for not getting …

Students celebrate women in technology at Grace Hopper Conference

The Hope Computer Science department sent 8 students and 1 faculty member to the 2017 Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing in Orlando, Florida. Students were encouraged and empowered by their interactions with other women in the technology field and came back ready to encourage other young women to pursue their interests in CS.

The Learning Never Stops

(This is part 2 of a series of posts by Joe Bustamante, a rising Hope senior who is spending the summer as an application development intern at Open Systems Technologies in Grand Rapids, MI.  In this series, Joe describes his internship experience and how it relates to his learning at Hope College). One of the things …

What It’s Like to Intern as an Application Developer

Joe Bustamante (’18) is spending the summer as an intern in the application development practice at Open Systems Technologies in Grand Rapids. In this series of blog posts, Joe will be telling us a little bit about his experiences at OST and how being part of the Computer Science program at Hope has helped prepare him for this experience.

Reflections on Hope from a graduating senior

Cole Watson (’17) describes how his time @ Hope College has helped him grow in mind, body, and spirit. His participation as a Computer Science student, member of the football team, an Emmaus Scholar, and a student researcher allowed him to explore how his interests and passions could be woven together as part of a well-rounded education.

Pondering ethics in a Computer Science course?

As the world becomes increasingly dependent on software and hardware systems, it’s critical that our young computer scientists get a chance to think about ethical questions associated with these systems before they enter the workforce. Students in our Senior Project Seminar course spend a significant portion of the class participating in discussions of ethical issues that students might encounter in their careers.