CS graduate headed into career and graduate school
CS graduate headed into career and graduate school Heading link
After a college career filled with internships, undergraduate research, and student teaching – all while maintaining a 4.0 grade point average–Salvador Tranquilino – Ramos graduated in May from UIC with a bachelor’s degree in data science.
Tranquilino-Ramos joined UIC after two years of studying at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional in Mexico, where he was pursuing a bachelor’s degree in artificial intelligence. When Covid-19 hit, and his classes moved online, Tranquilino-Ramos decided to move to the Chicago area.
“I thought I might as well just start studying here in the U.S. I was born here but my parents live in Mexico,” Tranquilino-Ramos said. “I knew that eventually, I would want to live in the U.S., so I thought I might as well get a degree here to make things easier when I try to find a job.”
Tranquilino-Ramos was accepted to UIC and moved in with his aunt in the suburbs. None of his credits transferred, so while taking introductory classes such as CS 111, Program Design I, and CS 141, Program Design II, he was able to finish projects quickly and would hop onto Piazza, an online learning management system that allows students to ask questions of their peers, to help his fellow students.
As a result, Tranquilino-Ramos got the attention of faculty members and was selected to be a teaching assistant (TA). He worked with Lecturer Ellen Kidane and Clinical Professor Dale Reed during his three years at UIC. He recounted how he came to TA additional courses beyond CS 141.
“I visited Professor Reed during his office hours, just to catch up,” Tranquilino-Ramos said. “There was a line of students waiting to see him, so I figured I might as well help them while we waited. Professor Reed finished with a student and asked who else had questions, but I had already answered them. That’s how I became a TA for 211, Programming Practicum.”
Tranquilino-Ramos’ path to success
In addition to being a TA, Tranquilino-Ramos had internships and conducted research throughout his time at UIC.
After his first year at UIC, Tranquilino-Ramos interned at the University of Chicago’s Data Science Institute as a research assistant intern. He worked with a Uganda-based nonprofit organization on a data science project, creating a database and website to track their work more effectively, replacing their previous system of Word documents and Excel spreadsheets. When his internship ended, Tranquilino-Ramos wanted to continue his work with the group, so he enrolled in CS 398, Undergraduate Design/Research, and continued his work with Clinical Associate Professor Gonzalo Bello and the University of Chicago team.
“We extended the project into not only storing information, but created a machine-learning algorithm that was able to predict fires in Uganda,” Tranquilino-Ramos said.
He went on to work with Assistant Professor Stavros Sintos on geometrical computational programs. Their aim was to improve Google search algorithms by making them fair, diverse, and random.
This summer, Tranquilino-Ramos will join the online reservation platform Tock, where he interned last summer as a software engineer with the front-of-house team, creating tools for restaurant owners and hosts. He received a return offer last August.
In addition to his new job, Tranquilino-Ramos will begin UIUC’s Online Master of Computer Science in Data Science degree. He plans to take one or two courses at a time.
Before Tranquilino-Ramos starts at Tock, he plans on visiting his family in Mexico and exploring new hobbies. His love of music inspired a DJ software purchase so he can mix songs, and he enjoys playing video games.
Tranquilino-Ramos has a piece of advice for incoming students:
“Talk to your professors; they are the first people you can contact if you’re looking for an opportunity,” Tranquilino-Ramos said. “If I hadn’t expressed my interest in data science to Professor Bello, I wouldn’t have obtained that first University of Chicago internship.”