Reading 00: A little about me
Hi! I’m Marcus Schimizzi, a senior at the University of Notre Dame studying computer science. I grew up in Fort Wayne, Indiana and currently reside in a small town called Defiance, Ohio.
Some of my general interests are computers, sports, music, and politics. I grew up with two die-hard Pittsburgh sports fans and some of that rubbed off on me. Additionally, I’m a strong supporter of the Italian football club Juventus. Furthermore, I enjoy listening to all types of music ranging from indie rock to 90's hip-hop to contemporary jazz. I’m also very interested in music from a performance aspect in playing guitar and am fascinated by the intersection of music and technology that occurs with music production.
My interest in computer science stemmed from my own experimentation with programming back in high school. Out of a curiosity of what was possible with programming and some spare time at school I discovered that it was what I wanted to pursue academically and professionally.
From this Ethics and Professional Issues course, I primarily want to get thoughtful discussion and a view of other perspectives on some major and controversial issues in technology.
To me, the most pressing issues in technology all revolve around privacy and artificial intelligence. With some major developments recently, especially with Facebook and Google, the issues of privacy and protection of customer data have become extremely apparent. How transparent should companies have to be about the data they collect? How much should companies be legally held liable for ignoring customer wishes on privacy? Furthermore, the impending and inescapable revolution brought on by AI poses many more ethical questions. How do you program software that is accountable for the life and death of humans (e.g. self-driving cars)? How can we responsibly use AI so that it doesn’t significantly harm our economy?
I look forward to discussing these issues and others in the coming semester.
