Hello!

Happy 2017!

My name is Allison Walker. I am a senior studying Electrical Engineering at the University of Notre Dame. Hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, I find pride in all sports black and yellow (go Steelers, go Pens, go Bucs). I have four amazing siblings, two brothers and two sisters, who make family the most important part of my life.

As I look back on my last 7 semesters as a Notre Dame student, it is nearly impossible to name the best or most memorable part of my time here. I was placed into Farley Hall, and developed lifelong friendships with girls in the dorm and will forever be grateful for the randomness of Notre Dame Housing. Although I live off campus now (with Farley girls), I am extremely involved in Farley Hall. Along with filling several roles in the Farley Hall Council, I grew to love the Flag Football team and participating as a "D (defense) girl." Outside of Farley, I participated as a Catechist at Our Lady of Hungary Parish in South Bend for 3 years, teaching a class of pre-communion students. In the fall of Junior year, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to study abroad in Dublin, Ireland at University College Dublin. My experiences in Dublin and traveling around Europe were unforgettable, and I am extremely grateful to the wonderful friends I made across the pond. A dream of mine would be to work for several years in Ireland. This final year at ND, I am focussed on strengthening important friendships before we graduate and head on our own separate ways.

Academically, I enrolled to ND as a Physics major, but switched to engineering second semester of Freshman year because of its applications of physics. Once I started in engineering, I originally chose electrical as my specific discipline because three Farley girls also decided on electrical. While, my motives for choosing electrical seem silly, I formed a real interest in the major because of its focus on technology, which is booming at the time in this world. Electrical Engineering is an area of study with versatility, enabling a myriad of career paths. The major has allowed me to accept a job as a Product Marketing Engineer with Texas Instruments in Dallas, Texas after graduation.

I think some of the most pressing ethical issues with regard to computer science and technology are privacy, intellectual property, and social implications of design. To me, privacy is especially concerning because it affects almost everyone who interfaces with technology and computers. How many times have you typed your address, phone number, credit card number, social security number, etc. in a website? This issue with privacy becomes an alarming concern with regard to ethics. When delving into this issue, we have to be aware of how this information is being protected from hackers and other people. I am particularly interested in this course because I believe it will give me an understanding of how to handle ethical grey areas in my future career(s), especially within a large company.