Calvin Wiebe, BCS/11
Calvin Wiebe graduated from the School of Computer Science’s Software Engineering stream in 2011. He then began his career as a full stack engineer in Ottawa. We caught up with Calvin to find out more about his work now and asked him about his time with us at Carleton.
So you’ve spent the last few years in full stack engineering. Where are you working now?
My current work is with an electronic design automation company, and I am helping them with a semi-secret project.
And before that?
I was at a Wesley Clover startup working on a customer engagement SaaS product. I had to start at the bottom, since I had little to no web experience, but.. the theory and computer science foundations that the Carleton program gave me more than prepared me for the world of full stack software development. I ramped up very quickly.
What is your favourite part of your job?
The work life of modern web application is quite fun. New technologies are always coming out, and we tend to build things in a way that can take advantage of those technologies without full rewrites. With the advent of NodeJS and Github, the community is ever growing and a great place to learn constantly and get answers really quickly.
Thinking back to your time at Carleton, why did you chose to study here and specifically in the School of Computer Science?
I chose Carleton for two reasons. The first being the program structure; allowing the students to experience a couple years of study before embarking into the co-op world. The second was the draw of the campus.
Which area of study most interests you?
The study of algorithms was definitely my favourite. To me, the efficiency gain that comes from, sometimes very simple, data structures and algorithms is really cool, and can be applied to a lot of real life problems. These are things that you don’t really find in other fields of study, so they are both unique and very interesting.
And looking forward, what would you say excites you about the future of computer science?
The communication/open source avenues provide a conduit for great software and great ideas to be spread more easily. Now you can see tons of source code, ask questions, and learn at a much more rapid rate through other means. The theory and computer science building blocks your textbooks and professors give you are still essential. This lets us, in the field of computer science, evolve the field faster and for the better. I am excited to be in the middle of this.
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