A University of Copenhagen (UCPH) computer science student who spent five months at NASA encourages his fellow students to dream big. <\/p>\n
Nis Wegmann, a rare breed of functional programmers, is one of the participants of the International Conference on Functional Programming (ICFP) that the Department of Computer Science DIKU is hosting this week. <\/p>\n
Functional programming is a math-oriented branch of computer science.<\/p>\n
Computer science is not as boring as people think, Nis says. <\/p>\n
\u00bbIf you take initiatives to ask for an internship in world\u2019s leading companies, you may be accepted to work in very exciting projects in computer science,\u00ab he says. \u00bbIt can definitely pay off\u00ab.<\/p>\n
Nis’ internship at NASA involved developing a ‘domain-specific language in a functional programming context’, according to the press release from DIKU. It helps to improve the safety of aircraft. <\/p>\n
In practice this means that software used in aircraft – after integration with functional programming – can be made more secure and robust. Aircraft’s software errors can be monitored in the air.<\/p>\n
Nis did his project at Galois, a US owned company which partners with NASA in various projects, according to the press release the department issued. <\/p>\n
Nis, and colleagues, presented their projects at the conference on functional programming today Tuesday. They had just finished presenting their project, when they met the University Post photographer. Fortunately he didn\u2019t have to present personally, as he was \u00bbreally nervous,\u00ab he says.<\/p>\n
michael.c.mammo@adm.ku.dk<\/p>\n