Breaking the Hollywood Mold

Dispelling the myths of computer scientists

Amy Renner Hendricks, Allison Hess, Karin Hurst and John Kowalewski | MARKETING & COMMUNICATIONS

Photos by Zac Williams BS ’01, MPC ’13

Breaking the Hollywood Mold

A few years ago, Google’s Computer Science in Media Team commissioned a study examining depictions of computer scientists in TV and films. The research focused on 10 TV series and TV movies that had tapped into Google as an advisor on computer science-related storylines. It also examined characters portraying computer scientists across the top 20 movies of 2015, 20 TV series popular with 18- to 49-yearolds from 2015 to 2016 and 20 popular TV series among 2- to 12-year-olds from the same time.

You might be able to guess what the researchers found.

According to the study, conducted by the Media, diversity & Social Change Initiative at the University of Southern California Annenberg, characters portraying computer scientists tended to be white and male across all media studied, although the series that sought Google’s input were slightly more diverse. In addition, the characters studied tended to wear “hacker-type” clothing and rarely mentioned how computer science could help others.

Brian Rague, chair of Weber State University’s School of Computing, says that’s an unfortunate, and untrue, representation.

“Computer science influences an increasing number of our daily activities, and the design of effective computing devices and interfaces requires input and perspectives from a diverse group of computer science developers,” he said. “We are at a unique point in time in which how well our society functions in some part depends on the creative and visionary spirit of computer scientists drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds and collaborating for the common good.”

As efforts are being made in Hollywood to break the computer scientist stereotype, we set out to learn more about computer scientists. We interviewed five alumni from WSU’s School of Computing and found that each one has an incredibly different background, personality and job, and that each one plays a crucial role in his or her industry and community. 

Meet...

Breaking the Hollywood Mold

Karen Woodbury BS ’94

President and CEO, Woodbury Technologies

Although Karen Woodbury was enjoying a successful career as a database administrator and program manager — she had worked for several large companies, including Computer Data Systems Inc., Affiliated Computer Services and Lockheed Martin — she was “obsessed” with owning her own business.

“For three years in a row, I started a company. While the timing wasn’t right for the first two, the timing converged with a great opportunity for the third,” said Karen, who minored in business at WSU. “I was working for a large company at Hill Air Force Base, and a client I had worked with for many years said, ‘I need to go small business on my next contract, and I’m not sure what to do.’ I made sure I was ready when the opportunity came.”

Karen opened Woodbury Technologies in 2003. “I had run out of names at that point, so I went with my own,” she said, laughing. The company specializes in information technology, including cyber security, systems administration software engineering and medical IT services, all for the Department of Defense.

Karen admits she’s never been naturally interested in computers. “That’s probably a little surprising, but I honestly use computers and the internet just like everyone else,” she said. “When I was getting my degree, the personal computer was a relatively new concept, and the computer science field was just bursting. I saw opportunity. I had the faith and the confidence that I could do computer science.”

She was right.

Today, Karen owns 100 percent of the stock in Woodbury Technologies, making it a registered woman-owned business through the Small Business Administration. She says computer science opportunities are there for women, just like they were for her, if not more so now. “I think it’s important to make girls aware of computer science early because they’ll eventually gravitate to what interests them. We have to give them that chance to get interested in computer science.”

Breaking the Hollywood Mold

Andrey Akhmedov AS ’12, BS ’16

Computer Scientist, Hill Air Force Base

Andrey Akhmedov’s parents immigrated to Ogden from Russia in 1993 because they dreamed of a better life. The transition was difficult, but they made sure their three sons took advantage of every educational opportunity. 

Andrey, the oldest, grew up in Utah and eventually enrolled at the Northern Utah Academy of Math, Engineering & Science (NUAMES), a charter school located at WSU Davis in Layton. By the time he completed high school, he had earned an associate’s degree from Weber State and a Presidential Scholarship to finish his education. He found his professional passion while taking a computer science course through concurrent enrollment (a program that allows high school students to explore college classes and earn college credit).

“I love the problem-solving aspect of computer science,” Andrey said. “You can solve basically any problem with computer science. Sometimes I’ve had to do something manually that can be done on a computer and am reminded how computers make things super simple.”

Today, Andrey works at Hill Air Force Base making flying F-16s simpler for pilots in Belgium and Portugal. His group creates training simulators, which they will supply to European Participating Air Forces and the Training System Support Center in 2019. When asked if he thinks he could fly the F-16, he laughed and said, “Well, in simulation, I’ve successfully flown and landed the aircraft two out of three times. So, no.”

“Computer science is cool no matter what you design.” — Andrey Akhmedov, computer scientist at Hill Air Force Base

The practical experience Andrey gained at Weber State gave him the confidence to take a leadership role early in his career. He and an electrical engineer are the only two team members on the project developing the interface software.

“It’s been cool to design software from scratch and see it actually working,” Andrey said. “Computer science is cool no matter what you design. You can do so many things with it; there are so many computer languages you can learn and so many ways you can approach things.”

For Andrey, computer science is especially “cool,” because it helped fulfill his parents’ American dream.

Breaking the Hollywood Mold

Chandler Holbrook BS ’00

Partner Software Engineering Program Manager, Microsoft

If there’s one video game title that summarizes Chandler Holbrook’s unconventional journey from high school dropout to partner software engineering manager at Microsoft, it’s Super Lucky’s Tale. The analogy is obvious. Lucky, an optimistic cyberfox, encounters nerve-wracking obstacles on his quest to find inner strength and save his family. Chandler, a computer whiz kid and teenage dad from North Salt Lake, endures a gauntlet of personal challenges and professional setbacks en route to the job of his dreams.

At 16, Chandler was living with his parents and siblings in Massachusetts. While chatting with friends from Utah on a pre-internet, dial-up bulletin board system, he met 15-yearold Kimberly Banta. Determined to spend more time with her, Chandler left home and moved back to Utah. A year later, he quit high school to test video games full time. At 18, Chandler and Kimberly welcomed the first of their five children. Initially delighted with his $21,000 salary, Chandler loved being a project manager, but always had to ask someone else to bring his vision to life. “I was jealous that other people were able to do that more directly.”

The solution was simple — Chandler needed to become a software engineer. At 19, Chandler picked up a GED and enrolled at Weber State. In just three years, he graduated with a perfect 4.0.

After graduation, Chandler maneuvered through a mindnumbing maze of jobs within the volatile gaming industry. After failing his first interview with Microsoft (he admits he was under-prepared) he got hired the second time around.

Today, Chandler works in an office on the corporation’s 500-acre campus in Redmond, Washington. Reflecting on his career, Chandler recounts one of his proudest moments. It happened the night Microsoft launched Xbox One in November of 2013. He slipped away from a company party and walked back to the operation center. “I could see all those game consoles start to come online,” he recalls. “It went so well. I just sat there, alone, and thought, ‘Wow, we did it.’”

Breaking the Hollywood Mold

Mariela Tinajero BS ’10, MBA ’12

Full Stack Developer and Lead Front-End Developer, Northrop Grumman

Like many kids her age, Mariela Tinajero didn’t have an exact plan for her future when she was attending Weber High School. One thing was clear, however. She enjoyed math … English, not so much. “I didn’t like to write; my punctuation was terrible,” she said, laughing. So she took some Advanced Placement classes, some emergency medical training classes and some forensics classes.

Nothing clicked.

When she enrolled at Weber State, she took an introductory computer science course. “I didn’t have much experience with computers — I could use your basic programs, like Word, Excel and PowerPoint — but I thought, ‘It doesn’t hurt to try.’ I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it really surprised me that I loved it.”

Now in her third year at Northrup Grumman, Mariela creates the user interface for a website that helps Hill Air Force Base maintain its Air Program Information Management System (APIMS), an electronic emissions management system. As the lead front-end developer, she helps enhance how users see and interact with the site, and she facilitates workflow, as well.

Mariela leads a team of six, and interacts with many more people daily.

“The great thing about computer science is, if you want to work alone, you can find a job where you can do that,” she said. “If you want to work on a team, you can find a job where you can do that. There are different positions for different types of personalities.”

Today, Mariela is glad she had her chance encounter with computer science at WSU. “I really just fell into it by accident at a time when I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life, but I love it now. It’s great when your programming works. But when it doesn’t, then it really becomes problem solving. Some people will throw their keyboards — no, I’m just kidding!” Mariela said, laughing. “It really has been fun for me.”

Breaking the Hollywood Mold

Jared Willden BA ’00

Principal Engineer, RizePoint

Jared Willden loves books. So naturally, he dreamed about becoming an English teacher when he enrolled at Weber State in 1993. Around that same time, Jared purchased his first computer — and discovered another passion. “It would be 3 a.m. and I was like, I’ve got to go to bed, but I was still there hacking away at 5 a.m.,” he recalled.

After landing a technical support job at Iomega to help pay his way through college, Jared realized he loved “messing around with computers,” so he switched majors, from teaching to computer science.

Today, Jared is a principal engineer at RizePoint, a software company in Cottonwood Heights, Utah. His current role combines 20 years as an IT professional with his teacher education training from Weber State. Jared collaborates with developers located in Salt Lake City, St. George, and the Ukraine.

Dispelling Hollywood stereotypes of computer programmers being loners who work in their parents’ basements, Jared says successful IT professionals benefit from open workspaces and plenty of interaction with peers.

“Water cooler conversations breed really great ideas,” Jared said. “Getting to watch a group of people build something really cool and useful, that’s really fun.”

“When you see a line of code that does a whole lot of things in one little piece — that's beauty.” — Jared Willden, principal engineer at Rizepoint

His current team is working with blockchain, the technology behind the cryptocurrency Bitcoin, to solve technical problems. Blockchain is essentially a digitally shared spreadsheet or ledger that fosters transparency by creating a unique record at every point in a process.

“What blockchain really does, and its true power is, that it reduces market friction,” Jared said. “It allows you to do things that were previously hard, in easy ways.”

Jared recently introduced a book club at RizePoint. He and his developers read work-related books, then discuss them. “I’m a huge fan of helping other developers write better code and become better individual contributors,” he said.

A true bibliophile, Jared sees similarities between great prose in literature and great coding. “That elegance of simplicity carries through to computer science. When you see a line of code that does a whole lot of things in one little piece — that’s beauty.”