From Teaching to Teb’s Lab — Tyler Bettilyon on his Computing career
“Learning a basic programming language will pay dividends whatever industry you end up in.” — Tyler Bettilyon
Based in San Francisco — home to Silicon Valley — Tyler is an instructor at Bradfield School of Computer Science, as well as the founder of ‘Teb’s Lab’, which launched last week. We caught up with Tyler to discuss his passion for STEM and his experience as a software engineer, teacher, entrepreneur and all round “curious human”.
Tyler, tell us how your STEM career began?
My mum will you tell you that when I was young, I always said I was going to become a game developer. That was definitely part of why I studied computer science, but the video video game industry is a very tough one with long hours and hard deadlines. There is lots of interesting code to write but, I didn’t actually pursue that career. I graduated in Computer Science (BS) from the University of Utah and then a friend offered me a job as a web developer. I had studied a lot of math but the bulk of that job entailed things that I hadn’t done before: HTML, Javascript and CSS. I was so unprepared for the role, even with my degree, but I had good mentors and people willing to help me learn. I also worked on a couple of projects closer to what I studied at university, involving image analysis and AI. From there, I went on to develop and refine my skill set further by joining a tiny company, where I was in way over my head — sink or swim. I figure that if you sink, just hope your feet touch the bottom and you can jump to the surface and take breath.
What qualifications, skills and experience do you have that enable your career?
The Computer Science degree I took included low level components in computer architecture and operating systems. For example, learning how the operating system facilitates individual components of a computer to collaborate, and how computer memory is managed to protect programs from each other. I took electives in Artificial Intelligence, math and a couple of industry focused software engineering and programming classes but there was little focus on web developing at that time. Whilst studying as an undergraduate, I was a teaching assistant for the graduate level Artificial Intelligence course which I loved, teaching the course really helped me understand the topics much better. I spent five years working as a software engineer and then tried to fuse both teaching and software engineering into one role. There are a bunch of coding boot camps to choose from in San Francisco so I applied to many of them and it was my teaching experience as an undergraduate that helped me get the job at Galvanize. I spent two years there and then wanted to get back to my computer science roots. I found myself having disheartening conversations, where I was trying to convince my peers that computer science mattered. I wrote an article (A Lifetime of Learning to Code) that in some ways is my manifesto about what topics someone should study in order to enjoy a long career in computer science and programming. This article opened the door to my job at Bradfield School of Computer Science because the founder approached me after reading it.
What do you do at Bradfield School of Computer Science?
I teach in an intimate school in San Francisco, where we offer mainly night classes that are all a deep dive into computer science topics. Our entry level class focuses on algorithms and data structures, and there is some expectation that students will have prior knowledge of a programming language. The topics are very similar to what you’d expect from a university level course: covering topics such as graph theory and dynamic programming. Our class sizes are small, around 8–12 students per course, and we run each course once per month with multiple courses operating in parallel. A standard course pathway would be to take our algorithms class, then the computer architecture class, then databases or maybe networking. For more advanced students, we have classes such as the cryptocurrencies class, a programming languages class, and a new class on deep learning. The classes mainly attract young professionals with about a year’s worth of experience working as a programmer, such as people who have trained at a coding boot camp and self-taught engineers. We definitely try to give more inspiring experiences than we had in our own education but we have also fallen into some of the same traps. It is so ingrained in the learners, and in me too, to expect lecture style learning but we try to create the freedom to run with ideas organically.
What is Teb’s lab and how did it come about?
I write articles, educational materials, and other projects that come with code provided and a call to action. My aim is to bring people together, leaning towards people who are interested in programming, but what I really want to create is a cross over between different kinds of scientists. To me the magic happens when people with different ideas collaborate, so I am trying to build a community to explore what computing is,what it could be, and what it should be. Teb’s Lab came about because I wanted to take some time away from the classroom after several years’ teaching and do some work that doesn’t fit cleanly into a syllabus or course outline. When I starting working on my project ‘Teb’s Conway’s Game of Life’, I began coding it and didn’t stop for 3 weeks! That ignited a spark in me about what I really want to teach and share with the world. Of course the standard computer science curriculum is important, but it’s also important to muse about and explore beautiful, cool ideas, that might not have an obvious “killer app”.
What advice do you have for someone starting out in STEM?
The best thing is to stay curious. Not everything you do in life and your career will be inspiring, so when you find something that does inspire you — hook into that and really go for it. Also, don’t think that just because you graduated you now know everything you need to know. To stay on top in STEM (and anywhere really) you need to keep on learning and growing throughout your life. I would say that learning to learn is a skill you need; knowing where to look for resources and which questions to ask is sometimes more important than the answers themselves.
What is the proudest moment of your career, so far?
Seeing the graduations at Galvanize (the coding boot camp I worked at) and watching the students one-by-one get jobs and start to change their lives and move their careers forward in the way they wanted to — that feels good.
If you could meet anyone STEM-related, who would it be and why?
Aristotle because we only have copies of his work, translated many times through the ages, and I want to find out first-hand what he thought and believed. I would also want to meet Carl Sagan because I want to be an inspiration to people the way he was — what a guy! He is one of my role models, as is the American public broadcast painter Bob Ross. Some people just want to watch the world learn.
Where do you see yourself in 5 years’ time? What are you planning to do next?
I want to try to find a way to live a lifestyle where I just keep on getting Master degrees! I would study subjects like genetic editing, astrophysics, and quantum computing so that I could understand all the incredible papers on emerging STEM topics when they are published.
You can follow Tyler on Medium, or visit his website Teb’s Lab.
Tyler recommends reading the guide ‘Teach Yourself Computer Science’, which was put together by Oz, the founder of Bradfield School of Computer Science. Tyler also recommends checking out the Recurse Centre, they offer a self-directed, community-driven educational retreat for programmers in New York City.
Oxbridge Inspire delivers innovative STEM education and provides guidance and inspiration to young people wishing to pursue STEM subjects at University and beyond. To find out more about Oxbridge Inspire and the courses and activities we offer, visit our website.
