Anna Friedlander

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Anna Friedlander came to Victoria intending to major in biology, and enrolled in first year computer science because she thought programming skills might be useful in the sciences. She soon found that she loved the problem solving of computer science and switched majors. “There’s nothing quite like the sense of achievement you get when cracking a problem that initially seemed almost impossible. This is still my favourite part of computer science.”

She found there was a real sense of camaraderie in the computer labs - always people who were interested in talking about their work and hearing about hers. A Victoria summer research scholarship gave her research experience from developing an idea through to publishing results, as well as working in an interdisciplinary team. These skills helped prepare her for studying for a Master's degree. She worked under Victoria's radio astronomy group, which developed machine-learning methods to automate the process of finding galaxies in astronomical images. She also built a great network of contacts at Victoria, and it was through this that she was contacted by a recruiter from Google, and is now a Software Engineer at Google Sydney.

“To students thinking of studying computer science I’d suggest taking a wide range of subjects across disciplines, which give different insights into your work. Work in the computer labs as much as you can, harness the brain-power of your classmates and lab tutors and take advantage of the many opportunities Victoria offers, from extra-curricular activities to summer research projects and internships. These will give your CV an edge and help you develop the networks to build a great career.”