Q: What inspired you to become an engineer? Were you always interested in technology? If so, why? If not, when did you become interested and why?

A: My mom inspired me to be a computer scientist, and created an environment where that was possible for me. She is a high school science teacher, and an early technology adopter. She bought a desktop through an incentive program at her school in the 80s, and it became our home computer. She was one of two teachers at her school who had a computer in her classroom and the first to use computers to manage her grade book. As a science teacher, when my mom tried to figure out how to use a piece of software, it was a lesson in the scientific method. It wasn’t anything special inside me; I am just a product of access and a good role model demonstrating how to learn about technology.