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MS in Software Engineering, Technical Track Blog

Wondering if a Carnegie Mellon degree is right for you? Read about our students' experiences through the MS in Software Engineering, Technical Track program.

Rahul is a full-time MS Software Engineering, Technical Track student. He loves traveling, trekking, swimming and is a complete movie buff.
Anthony is a 2nd year part time student in the MS Software Engineering, Technical track program and works at OSIsoft as a Software Engineer. He loves spending time with his family, hiking, biking, gardening, cooking, and sometimes photography.
Suma is an alumna of the MS Software Engineering, Technical Track program. A Mechanical Engineering undergrad, she loves writing and is passionate about music, shopping and dogs.
Minh is a Software Design Engineer at Microsoft and alumnus of the MS Software Engineering program. He is also a Vietnamese community activist, a cat-lover and passionate fan of film music.
Nick is a Software Engineer at Google and a first-year grad student at Carnegie Mellon Silicon Valley. He loves hiking, gaming, and both really extremely good and extremely bad movies.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Attending the Class of 2008 Commencement Ceremony at the main campus in Pittsburgh


Last month I joined more than a dozen Carnegie Mellon West students and faculty who flew to Pittsburgh to attend the Class of 2008 commencement ceremony at the main campus. No, I haven't officially graduated yet--I am in the middle of my practicum with PayPal right now. Our actual graduation ceremony where each of us will be walking will actually happen this August here at the Mountain View campus in Silicon Valley, but I didn’t want to miss the commencement ceremony with the entire Class of 2008 at the main campus.

I flew in on a Friday morning, took a shuttle into downtown and met up with my classmates to do all the touristy stuff in and around Pittsburgh. We visited the Andy Warhol museum, ate at Primanti Brothers (a popular sandwich deli in Pittsburgh), visited the Frank Llyod Wright’s famous Fallingwater, went up the Duquesne Incline, and checked out the strip. The next morning, we met up with our CMU West faculty to visit the Phipps Conservatory and went on a tour of the campus.

Carnegie Mellon University was smaller than I expected it to be. Having heard of CMU as this grandiose, private, top-notch engineering school, I envisioned a large campus, but was surprised to see that one can get from one point of the campus to another within ten minutes. Nevertheless, it was a very cool experience to see all the buildings, visiting the computer labs, the library and hearing the history behind each building and the campus as a whole. Up until this time I’ve seen many pictures of CMU through brochures, and pictures, so it was kinda neat to be able to actually see the real buildings and how they relate to each other. It was like seeing all the puzzle pieces coming together.

Of course we couldn’t miss a visit the campus store to fill up our reservoir of CMU paraphernalia (which we can’t so easily get at the west coast campus), and had a nice dinner with CMU West students only and attended various pre-graduation cocktail dinners. The next morning, amidst grayish weather, we joined thousands of other Tartans in Carnegie Mellon’s 111th commencement ceremony. Keynote speaker was 2007 Nobel Peace Prize Winner Al Gore who pulled again his joke-introduction of “Hi, I am Al Gore, and I used to be the next president of the United States” after which he talked about us being the generation that can change and tackle the environment issues we face today. However, Al Gore’s appearance was almost overshadowed by a short surprise-appearance of the CMU professor Randy Pausch whose inspiring “Last Lecture” on achieving your childhood dreams after being diagnosed with cancer became an internet sensation last year. Again, Randy inspired the students (and myself) about life’s purpose of finding passion and following your passion as well as the love for the people that matter most to you. I am glad that I was able to see and hear from Randy Pausch myself, for I have been inspired by his last lecture months before (click here if you haven’t seen it yet).

It was a very fun weekend out of town, and I thought that it was very worth the money to spend for such a short weekend. Of course, the harder part now is to concentrate on my last two months at CMU West on my practicum without being fooled into thinking that I am already done. Ah, senioritis.

posted by Minh Nguyen @ 2:52 PM 

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