Throughout my life, I had a knack for sharing my interests and skills with others. I’ve always thought of myself as an engineer since I like to make stuff. I still do, and I actively enjoy it. Theres nothing better than seeing my friends and family light up with glee whenever I show them my weekend software projects or niche electronics I’d hack together in a few days.
However, I recently noticed that I rejected a part of myself for the longest time, which is I may be even better at “showing” people how to understand stuff I’m interested in. Kind of contradictory, isn’t it? Wouldn’t any engineer know how to explain something if they made it work? Wouldn’t an engineer want to nerd out about all their fancy gadgets and gizmos? Well, it turns out it might have been a deep-rooted anxiety of mine. I ended up being afraid of myself for possibly falling behind in the wake of the AI revolution that started after the pandemic.
Five or six years ago is when I graduated with a degree in computer science. “Time to get a job!” I thought. While I was job searching, I balanced my time between further honing my skills and a part time job as a camp counselor at a STEM after school program.
Then, 2022 rolls around. Two years of camp counseling and getting ghosted by companies flew by. Now new AI technology like ChatGPT is making its debut. This is when the panic started to set in. I started to develop a defeatist attitude. Why would any sensible company want to hire some washed programmer like me, who hasn’t worked in a professional setting as an engineer, when AI could possibly do my job better than me? I forced myself into a depression by worrying about what could happen to me in the future. I wanted to do something about it, so I went back to school and got a master’s degree. I also studied AI when I went back to school so that I could fully understand what I was up against. And to my disbelief, I was freakishly impressed with the tools I discovered.
I convinced myself that engineering and software development would be nothing more than a hobby to me at this point, so I decided to explore new areas of work. I decided that being a teacher would be an excellent course of action, since I’ve consistently held positions in education. And in record time… I started a job as a professor at my alma mater in 2024! So… how did that happen?
While I was getting my master’s degree, I decided to reach out to Dr. Lee Stemkoski, one of the many great professors at Adelphi I can thank for inspiring me. I had the intent of opening a dialog about taking on an independent study with him to share insights and research regarding AI. Unfortunately, Lee informed me that he did not have the time to take extra courses due to his new responsibility; he became the department chair of the Innovation Center. However, this ended up being good news for me since Lee was looking for alumni and grad students to help him conduct research in this new facility. Lee asked me to come back once I finished my master’s program, and I did. Now, I’m working as an adjunct professor and associate researcher at Adelphi University. In just 6 years, I went from the student to the professor. This experience proved to me that I am capable of great things. I’m about to start my 4th semester as a professor at Adelphi. I proved that I can not only build great software, but also show and inspire the next generation of engineers to do the same.
We’re in an unprecedented time right now, where a lot of massive companies are trying to cut costs and replace hourly working people with chatbots who can potentially write better code. But I don’t think this will be the case for long. Eventually, the market will come back around and realize that human beings are an integral part of every workflow. My point being, if you are feeling the way I was feeling years ago, don’t give up! The more you create, the more you can show the world what you are capable of. Artificial intelligence can’t put soul into a project. Only you can.