WACM is excited to announce the first installment of WACM Explains..., a series of panel discussions on topics of interest to computer science undergraduates and graduate students. Our first topic will be the differences between grad school and industry, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. We will have several panelists who have experience with both grad school and industry, and we will try to provide a balanced look at the choices.

Not sure what to do after you finish your undergraduate degree? Want to hear about some of the differences between academia and the real world? Our guest panelists will be Polina Dudnik (now at Google), Irene Rae (current PhD Student), and Elizabeth Soechting (now at Epic)

Although this event is hosted by WACM, it is open to everyone and we encourage anyone who is interested to attend.

Panelist bios:
Polina Dudnik: Undergraduate in Computer Engineering from Binghamton University. Masters in CS from University of Wisconsin working in Computer Architecture, advised by Mark Hill. 2 years working at Google, Madison in the Platforms division. Previous internships at Microsoft Research and GE Healthcare.

Irene Rae: Undergraduate in Industrial Design from Rochester Institute of Technology. Masters in CS from University of Wisconsin working in Human-Computer Interaction, advised by Bilge Mutlu. Worked for 5 years as a freelance web developer and designer, then another 4 years on a small in-house information technology team as a web administrator, developer, and designer in an astrophysics research project. Previous internships at Willow Garage, Inc., a small robotics research company in Silicon Valley. After 9 years working, is now at Madison pursuing a PhD in HCI.

Elizabeth Soechting: Undergraduate in Computer Science from the University of Virginia working in Programming Languages and Software Engineering, advised by Wes Weimer. Masters in Computer Science from the University of Wisconsin. 3 years working for Epic (including during masters) on electronic health records. Previous internships at Epic and Cisco.