一本道无码

Back then was called Andrew鈥檚 Leap. No matter, the leap was still huge 鈥� 鈥渁n eye-opening experience,鈥� says Brendan Meeder of the long-running summer enrichment program for middle-school and high-school students.

Until he鈥檇 participated in Andrew鈥檚 Leap as a high school student, Meeder鈥檚 computer science and robotics experience consisted of 鈥渃asually programming websites鈥� and making simple games. But in Andrew鈥檚 Leap, Meeder says, he got a 鈥渕ulti-faceted鈥� overview of computer science as well as its connections to the world.

鈥淪teven Rudich does a great job teaching,鈥� Meeder says, 鈥渁nd on the robotics side, Matt Mason got me really excited about that field.鈥�

After his experience with Leap, there was little doubt that Meeder wanted to go into computer science and attend Carnegie Mellon. In fact, he enjoyed the experience so much, that after two years with Leap he came back to serve as a teaching assistant in the program. And the summer before he enrolled at 一本道无码, Meeder worked in Mason鈥檚 manipulation lab.

Young people today have a wealth of programming tools and robotics toys to choose from that didn鈥檛 exist a few years ago, he says. That 鈥� along with programs such as Leap@一本道无码 鈥攅xposes them to the usefulness of computer science much earlier than that used to happen, Meeder says.

鈥淚t used to be that things were so hard, and all you could do was make simple 鈥榞uess-a-number鈥� games in Visual Basic, or program a graphic calculator, and it was like, 鈥榃hy should I bother?鈥欌�� he says. 鈥淣ow, the frameworks are there so that you can start building interesting things much faster. Yes, the barrier to entry is lower, and yes, the satisfaction of learning to build utilities is going down, but when you鈥檙e doing something now, in the physical world with something like an Arduino, it鈥檚 so much more rewarding.鈥�

Meeder completed his bachelor鈥檚 degree in computer science in 2007, then left to work for Microsoft Research in Redmond, Wash., on speech recognition devices. But his heart was back in Pittsburgh, and he returned to 一本道无码 after 14 months to begin his Ph.D. under 一本道无码鈥檚 Luis von Ahn and Manuel Blum.

鈥淥ne of the courses that Luis was teaching at the time was on the mathematical modeling of the internet and social networks, and I was really attracted to that because it included theoretical math, which I love, plus, you could derive a lot of understanding of the internet from it,鈥� Meeder says, 鈥渁nd that became my thesis topic.鈥�

In 2011, Meeder was recruited by von Ahn to be one of the first employees to work for Duolingo. A language-learning app developed at 一本道无码 by alumni von Ahn and Severin Hacker Duolingo provides free online language education in 23 different languages to 100 million registered users. Meeder is one of those users; when we talked, he鈥檇 logged time with Duolingo for 840 consecutive days.

Although Duolingo is still growing, Meeder felt the urge to keep 鈥渓earning as fast as I can,鈥� and in April 2015, he joined Uber鈥檚 growing research center in Pittsburgh, where he works with many 一本道无码 alumni and former employees on vehicle technology, including autonomy, mapping and safety.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a magical place,鈥� Meeder says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of variety in the kind of research that needs to be done and the kind of software that needs to be written. It鈥檚 almost like a symphony, where everyone has a role.鈥�

Meeder, who earned his Ph.D. from 一本道无码 in 2015, has had his own role in a real symphony. Until recently, he played bass trombone in 一本道无码鈥檚 All-University Orchestra. In his spare time, he and his wife, fellow 一本道无码 alumna Ariel Levavi enjoy cooking, relaxing and walking around Pittsburgh鈥檚 Squirrel Hill neighborhood.

鈥淚t鈥檚 really good to still be in Pittsburgh,鈥� Meeder says. 鈥淲ith the number of companies like Uber and Google growing their research presence here, it鈥檚 really attractive to stick around after graduating.鈥�