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Meet Lauren Allpress: Computer Science alumni

A Colorado native, Lauren found a love for programming at her local community college. After earning her associate's degree, she transferred to IS&T where she quickly earned valuable internships and her degree.

  • published: 2019/03/25
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Degree: BS in Computer Science (Class of 2018)

Job Title/Employer: Developer/Silverline

Hometown/Country: Centennial, CO, USA

Q: Why did you decide to come to UNO? What opportunities here did you see helping you with your future career?

I took my first programming class at the local community college and absolutely loved it. I quickly realized I wanted to keep progressing with programming so I transferred to UNO after earning my Associate's degree. Several of my friends completed Computer Science degrees at UNO and were able to quickly find internships and jobs in software development or cybersecurity. I got the sense that UNO definitely has a reputation for producing quality developers and software engineers so I was confident that my degree program would prepare me for the future.

I got the sense that UNO definitely has a reputation for producing quality developers and software engineers so I was confident that my degree program would prepare me for the future.

 Lauren

Q: What about your major drew you in? Why were you passionate about it, vs. the other
majors out there?

Computer science instantly drew me in because it's both logical and creative. I like that a writing a program essentially has a 'right' or 'wrong' solution - it either works or it doesn't. But there are so many ways to get to the right solution that it's a different puzzle every time. I was a non-traditional student and it took me a long time to figure out what major was really the best fit for me. I think computer science let me combine different aspects of lots of different fields into a path that works for me.

Q: What class did you love the most, and did you have a professor that you learned a lot from?

lauren-allpress.pngMy favorite class was definitely Natural Language Processing with Yuliya Lierler. It was so different than the type of work I'd done in previous classes and I loved the combination of scripting, text manipulation, statistics, and literature. I also really enjoyed learning about Yuliya's research as it related to the class.

Q: What do you do for fun in your free time?

I love to knit, bake desserts, play video games, and while I think I love to garden, I am way better at killing plants than keeping them alive.