Pursuing A Degree In Computer Science: Personal Statement

I was first exposed to the world of robots and computers when I took a course on Lego Mindstorms. We worked on various projects including a sumo wrestling robot that participated in a tournament in which the objective was to battle other robots and push them out of the ring. It was a very fun experience. I would continue coding the robot after class, sometimes almost missing lunch! We even made it to the finals and scored second place. Programming and building the robot was not the hard part of the design process, it was thinking about every single little detail that of the competition and the possible strategies that our opponents could use. When something happened that we did not account for, the robot became helpless and clueless. Although I liked programming the robot, I thought it would have been great if the robots could learn from previous battles.

I also took an Honors Python class I learned about the fundamentals of data structures and object oriented programming. With the newfound knowledge, I coded the old game called Space Invaders. The class gave me confidence in my ability to program, as it taught me how to make steady progress in a longer project. I continued on to take AP Computer Science and excelled. These courses and experiences helped me affirm my interest in a Computer Science career. Last summer, I was fortunate to find an internship at a Virtual Reality startup called VRINCO. There, we developed software for Virtual Reality headsets using C#, Unity, and Git. I really enjoyed the experience. It was one of my first opportunities outside of school to work pretty independently while having enlightening discussions about the software design with other team