By Charminae George
In a few years, when the history books of UWI Five Islands are explored, one name that is sure to pop up is that of Julian Andrew Piper, the first graduate of the university’s School of Science, Computing and Artificial Intelligence.
After tackling three years of assignments and group work, Julian walked across the graduation stage and collected his Bachelor of Science (Computer Science with Management) on October 7.
“It’s definitely worth it,” he told Observer recently.
His course of study covered many topics including web design (website creation), software building (software instructs a computer what to do) and data analysis, and as expected, the workload was heavy.
“It was a heavy workload…but it’s manageable if you have great time management, and you’re persistent in what you want,” he stated.
The next step in Julian’s academic journey is a master’s degree, however, he is still deciding between two areas of study.
“I want to look further into cybersecurity. Maybe a Masters in Cybersecurity…or an MBA (master’s degree) in Project Management,” the graduate said.
Julian mentioned that the degree is a pathway to specialise in different areas of computer science.
“There are many different things you can do with this degree, so it’s not just stuck at computer science. You can go into security, analysis, pen-testing (simulation of a cyber-attack for purposes of identifying weak points in a computer system),” he explained.
Additionally, his advice to persons who are thinking of pursuing a similar area of study is to expect change, in addition to being dedicated.
“It’s a continuous learning field. There’s always going to be new things to learn, new things to build and adapt,” he stated.
Julian, 22, is a past student of the St Joseph’s Academy and the Antigua State College (ASC). While at ASC, he studied the natural sciences and computer science from 2017 to 2019. After graduating, he took a gap year before pursuing a bachelor’s degree (Computer Science with Management) at the University of the West Indies, Five Islands campus.