My name is Ronaldo Menezes. I'm the
head of the computer science department and
a professor of data and network science.
The misconcepts related to computer
science is that people think that 'I can
only do that if I know how to code'
Curiosity and the ability to express
your ideas is actually perhaps more
important than the coding itself.
But computer science is unique in a sense
because it is the glue in every other
area of study.
In medicine computer science is
important, in physics it's important, in
mathematics. It is important even in the
arts and humanities.
You can be working in chemistry doing
models of chemical reactions, you can be
working on space exploration at NASA
for instance. This is something that is
necessary in any field. One of the things
that attracted me here personally is the
department of computer science is one of
the fastest growing departments in the
university with huge investments in
terms of new staff, facilities,
laboratories... Learning computer science
allows you to express your ideas in a
more unambiguous way. The legacy that we want to leave to our students is that
they become global citizens,
that they actually are able to make a
difference to society wherever they go
and they carry the name of the
university because their legacy is
our legacy.
