In mid-2013, while searching for a purpose in life greater than running marathons and eating at the best restaurants, I came across Python programming. Solving problems using programming became my obsession. I wanted to become the best programmer that I could be. After learning Python, C++, and Java in school, I set out to learn a new language every year in order to differentiate myself. This led to my 2016 journey in Go whose elegant abstractions opened my eyes to distributed computing and systems. My 2017 journey has been with Elixir/Erlang which initiated me into programming real-time, fault-tolerant systems. From this endeavor, it became clear to me that different programming languages taught different things. Each implemented its own abstractions for solving a unique range of complex problem domains in computing. This realization sparked my mission of working with others to adopt, understand, critique, and hopefully contribute to programming languages.

Therefore, at UC Irvine this year, I want to lead the effort to create a student-led class that enables students to learn a programming language of their choice and produce a project using that language. Moreover, the class provides a platform for students to discuss what differentiates a language from another. Its objective is to foster a community of technical diversity that encourages members to adopt and share their crafts to solve problems collectively. Essentially, I want to forgo any centralizing authority that enforces every person to use Python, Java, C++, or any language for whatever reason. I believe this is detrimental to the growth of programming languages, the programming community, and the future of computing.

As new problem domains in computing arise such as AI and blockchain technology, I want to be able to identify the shortcomings of current programming languages so that I can either enhance existing ones or spearhead the design of new ones. While reading about the history of several programming languages, I was intrigued to discover that many languages come from a small team of developers from a company. In the interest of gaining the leading edge in their fields, these companies decided to create a new language perfectly suited to the computing problems they were facing. Ever since, I have been consumed with the thought of working for such companies in order to help direct the new wave of programming languages.