Hotel front desk seems like an odd place to develop interest in computer science. However, that was the case for me. I was never passionate about the hospitality industry, but it paid my bills while I pursued my dream in professional dancing. The property management system was called LightSpeed, written in Java. Ironically, LightSpeed was much slower than its predecessor, Galaxy. Galaxy was my favorite part of the job- it worked so fast, probably thanks to its command line interface. And the command line interface made me feel…like I was doing something really smart (I wasn’t).
I also enjoyed the problem solving aspect of the job. Chief among them was finding a different room for a guest who disliked their room. I’d later realize that this was a variation on the scheduling problem- our problem being 791 rooms consisting of 3 buildings, 23 room types, and some siginificat differences even within a room type. We would often have rooms with 1 King bed ocean view oversold, and have only ocean views with 2 double beds left. Honeymooners would check in and be distraught, but more often, furious. I’ve written a pseudocode for how I’d handle this situation:
Switch (How Mad Are They){
case 1: They can live with it
apologize;
give drink coupons;
break;
case 2: They are furious
apologize;
look for rooms;
If (I can switch rooms with another reservation){
switch these rooms;
} else {
if (there is a higher category room with 2 beds){
sweet talk to them and see if they'll take a free upgrade but with 2 beds;
if (Guest == happy){
return;
}else{
look for an ocean view king bed opening up nextday;
if (Guest != happy || no king bed for entire stay){
look into transferring them to a sister hotel; //last option
}
break; }
This is separate from the scheduling problem of finding a desired room. In 2015, I enrolled in KCC and took ICS 111 and 141, Introduction to Java Programming and Introduction to Discrete Mathematics in Computer Science. I enjoyed both courses. However, I didn’t continue with school until…
Covid put a pause on both work and dancing. It gave me enough time to think, and to take the plunge of returning to school full time. I took an inventory of my skills and interests, and decided to explore the possibility of studying medicine. In 2020, I started volunteering at Hawaii Home Project Clinic, a free clinic for Oahu’s homeless population run by the University of Hawaii Medical School. Since then I’ve worked as a Certified Nurse Aide as well. I appreciate medicine having both human and problem solving aspects. I’m scheduled to graduate UH Manoa with a B.A. in Information and Computer Science, with focus on Biology in spring 2025. I plan on going to medical school afterwards.
I’m interested in learning how machine learning can lead to better treatments, especially in the field of neurology. I’ve started to study Python on my own last year. Bulk of my pre-medicine courses dealt with organic and biological chemistry. I’ve completed courses on Java, Discrete Math, Algorithms, C and C++. I’m excited to take ICS 314: Software Engineering since it opens doors to take courses in Data science. I’m excited to learn Javascript, and creating a practical application that solves a problem- preferably medical.
I’ve begun inquiring with both medical non-profits where I volunteer to determine if there are any issues that could potentially be addressed using Javascript. It seems that for all the “low hanging fruits”, there is a software for them. In some cases, less software would be ideal; the volunteers often juggle different applications. Adding another adds clutter to the screen and more jumping between applications. Luckily, I still have 3 months to submit my final project for ICS 314.