Journal / 2014-05-19

Graduation Address

I meant to post this a couple of weeks ago, but I have actually been in Eastern Europe touring with the Heinz Chapel Choir. It was a really unexpected trip – one of the guys couldn’t go at the last minute, and I was invited on the tour a few days before they left. The trip was incredible, and I am forever thankful for the opportunity. I took just under 4,000 photos in about twelve days. They ended up in a few public Facebook albums, so if you’re interested, feel free to check out Part I and Part II.

At any rate, in between final projects and my trip through Europe, I was asked to give a speech to the members of my graduating class and their families at the Computer Science Graduation Reception. Naturally, I put off writing this speech until the very end, and my sister helped a lot. But I figured I would post it nonetheless, so here goes nothing…

The following speech was given at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Computer Science Graduation Reception on Saturday, April 26, 2014.

Thank you Dr. Mosse for those remarks, and thank you to the entire Department of Computer Science – all of the faculty and staff – and the University of Pittsburgh as a whole for not only putting on such a great event, but most importantly, for the past four years, which have been been truly incredible.

Believe it or not, Angela told me about this speech almost a month ago, but naturally I did not start working on it until a few days ago – alright, maybe last night. Point being: I honestly could not have done this without my family, and especially my sister Bri. They have been instrumentally supportive in every endeavor that I pursue. And these range from internships to music gigs and entrepreneurial ventures to some of my most challenging: the dreaded task of writing.

Yeah, now we can laugh about that now, but I honestly hope that nobody finds out what I have had to put my family through over the past four years – it got pretty bad towards the end.

Anyways, I love my family with all of my heart, and I think we can all agree that we wouldn’t be here today without the support we have received from not only our family, but our professors, advisors, mentors and peers. So before I begin, let’s give everyone here a round of applause because we definitely don’t clap enough at these sort of events.

Alright, so if you haven’t caught on already, I am approaching this speech in a rather untraditional manner. That is, I am beginning with the ending. I know this is a little strange, but if it makes you feel any better, we can all take some deep breathes, and I can assure you that we will get through this together.

But why begin with the end? Well, as programmers and software engineers, we are used to having a problem or some goal in mind before we can begin. So, to begin with an ending, I am going to follow the classic model of ending with quote, and this is one that really provoked my thoughts:

“Your job is not your calling. You are always more than what you do.” – best-selling author Diane Dreher

Now, I have to be honest, I was initially a bit disturbed by this quote, and I imagine that some of you are feeling a bit uncomfortable yourselves at the moment. I mean, most of us just finished sixteen plus years of schooling for what? To get a job, right? And isn’t the purpose of a job – or your career in general – to define yourself at the end of your life? To leave some sort of legacy – your stamp on the world? I thought so.

But let’s take a step back. All of the people in this room are graduating with a degree in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh. And throughout this process, how many times have you been asked by a friend to build the next best social network? How many times has a friend assumed that you would be gladly willing to work some magic on their broken machine – or even worse, walk someone through remote troubleshooting? How many times have you been associated with the “geek squad”.

In my experience, people outside of Computer Science still generally associate us with some of these similar stereotypes. You know – the hacker typing away in a small room with the windows shut and no communication with the outside world. A Computer Science major is the one with the computer; inseparable, right?

Well, not really. In fact, some of my greatest inspirations have come from the world outside of my computer; more specifically, music. Throughout the past four years at Pitt, I was lucky enough to pursue my two passions in life: Computer Science and Music.

Now, bear with me here, but computer scientists are all musicians in one form or another. Really, think about it. We have all heard that “music” is the universal language, but looking at the world today, I cannot help but believe that Computer Science plays an equally important role. Think about how the world is connected by technology today. It infiltrates just about every part of our lives. Even the language itself is becoming an increasingly valued asset to our primary education, and I truly look forward to the day when everyone knows how to code.

And without getting too metaphorical here, the logical structure of the programs we write are just like notes on a staff – properly orchestrated to produce a final masterpiece. Just as musicians play by a set of rules dictated in part by melody, harmony and rhythm, we as programmers must also adhere to language syntax and design patterns. But most importantly, the collaboration that occurs when building a product or solving a difficult problem is analogous to the interaction between musicians sharing the stage, between listeners who can appreciate that musical product and between one’s inner self as they strive to express their creativity.

So that’s music. But I am not the only one who has other passions – who has found inspiration in other places. I actually asked Angela for a list of secondary disciplines studied by the Class of 2014, and I was intrigued by the variety of interests we have engaged in together.

As a sidenote, when I find myself blabbing on about the latest startup, my sister usually responds with with a typical eye-roll. But honestly, she has a point. What makes one piece of software different from the millions of others out there. What does an app do to help humanity? What is the purpose of a startup? How are they helping the world? Who really cares?

I was privileged to sit in on several entrepreneurship classes taught by Babs Carryer at Thrill Mill over the past couple of months. And in addition to playing devils advocate to nearly everything we discussed, she made it clear that most startups do not fail because of inadequate technology. Nor do they fail due to the lack of financial resources. Most startups fail because there is no market. People simply do not need the product. The product fails to address a widespread problem, and in effect it does nothing to help better society.

Helping is a word that we do not usually associate with Computer Science. The helping professions are historically the nurses, the doctors, the teachers and the social workers of the world. But if there is anything that you take away from tonight, it is that Computer Science is and should also be a helping profession. One that is centered around the interaction with people. One that leaves society in a better place.

At the intersection of Computer Science and Linguistics, we have programmers building everything from natural language processing APIs used to help the disabled to human translation interfaces used to connect people from all over the world no matter their cultural background.

At the intersection of Sociology and Computer Science, we have companies providing predictive social intelligence used by advertising agencies.

At the intersection of Psychology and Computer Science, we have people analyzing big data in order to establish intelligent recommendation systems derived from personality traits. We have developers building mobile applications that assist users with cognitive and spiritual tasks.

At the intersection of Computer Science and Math, we have entrepreneurs like Sal Khan building a platform to provide free word-class math education for anyone in the world.

At the intersection of Computer Science and Business we have software platforms that enable entrepreneurs to manage their endeavor on all fronts from hiring to maintaining a desired culture in their workplace.

And those are just a few examples. The opportunities are endless. The world is a blank canvas, and as artists, we have the unique opportunity to have a direct impact on the evolution of society. Our approach must holistically integrate different disciplines. Only then will our talents – the years of coursework that have prepared us for this day – have the best chance to truly impact people’s lives. Only then can we inspire everyone who comes into contact with us, our passions and our dreams.

My name in Nick Amoscato, and today, we are are graduates of the University of Pittsburgh Department of Computer Science Class of 2014, and this is our beginning.