Alumni

Stephen Rudolph
B.S. , Computer Science and Engineering
Class of 2007

Job Title:
Research Assistant

Company:
Purdue University

The end of one’s undergraduate education often marks the beginning of one’s professional career.  When Stephen Rudolph graduated from ASU in 2007 with a bachelor’s of science degree in Computer Science and Engineering(CSE), he decided to initiate a computer science career. He entered graduate school as a Master’s degree student in Electrical and Computer Engineering (EE) at Purdue University located in West Lafayette, IN. Studying at Purdue gives Rudolph a chance to return to the mid-west where he was born and raised. His degree concentration is in Artificial Intelligence and Automatic Controls.

Looking back, he is happy with his decision to attend ASU as he stated, “I came to ASU for adventure. I had never been to the Southwest and it was fun to take a chance. It didn't hurt that ASU had generously made the cost equivalent to my in-state alternatives, nor did I mind going to Arizona after suffering through a snowstorm in May.” Rudolph knew early on in his ASU career that he wanted to be a computer scientist.  He elaborated, “I knew I wanted to combine the elements of computer science with the rigor of an engineering program. I could not find another career field that allowed for such a high level of creativity and potential that also integrated logic and problem solving. In other words, it seemed fun and interesting.” After excelling academically for eight semesters, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Barrett Honors College.

He offered this advice to current undergraduate students, “For any ASU CSE students planning to pursue their Master's either in EE or any school where Computer Engineering is in the EE department, it is absolutely pivotal to take a basic signals and systems course (EEE 203 at ASU) for quite a few of the possible graduate concentrations.” He added that, “Most programs will let you take the course once you arrive, but having it finished already would save you precious time.”

Rudolph accredited his education through CSE with his present day success in his graduate program. He elaborated, “As for my current work and research, two of my elective courses, Artificial Intelligence and Introduction to Computer Graphics, sparked my interest and gave me a background in two subjects I now make use of almost daily.” He said, “I think the group of advisers for CS/CSE were some of the most helpful, competent and useful people I could have asked for.” While completing his last year of graduate school, Rudolph works as a research assistant at Purdue. One of his current research projects focuses on synthetic disease outbreak creation and visualization and outbreak detection based on emergency room data. In the future, he hopes to enter the aerospace industry and work on avionics, automated intelligent systems and navigation systems. This line of work will enable him to pursue his interest in both the real systems and their simulation.

He is confident that both his undergraduate and graduate training have prepared him to be marketable on the job market. “In terms of employment, the upper division software engineering course helped immeasurably. Interviewers often ask about software development practices and project experience and that course provided me with plenty of good answers for both,” he reflected. Upon graduation in the spring of 2009, he plans to enter the private sector with an industry leader like Lockheed Martin, Raytheon, General Dynamics or Dynetics.