Katelynn Hernandez

大家好！我的中文名字叫葵花，或你们能叫我kat！

Hello everyone! my name is kat, and i am an application security engineer. i got my undergrad in chinese studies and computer science at university of houston. i have been speaking chinese for about 11 years now and i feel that my knowledge in the language has helped me in understanding computer science in many ways. when i graduated in spring 22, i thought i would go into web dev or swe, but since i had such valuable experience with development i was selected for an application security role by the company i work for now. i have always been interested in cybersecurity, i just always felt that it was so complex it was out of reach. now, i understand that cybersecurity is a field where you must first understand something else before you can enter. 

i have a lot of respect for the many disciplines under the comp sci and IT umbrellas, and i can't wait to explore more of IT through this program. i have dabbled in a lot of different roles in comp sci and IT, trying to get my hands on as many different things as possible to deepen my understanding of cyberspace. i am excited about the technical aspects of this program, but i am also very interested in the social/political aspects as well. user safety and privacy are really hot topics right now and i think we need to have more legal mechanisms in place to ensure they are respected. in the future, i'll probably consider participating in finding legal solutions to technical problems but for now, i want to get my hands dirty with the intricacies of cybersecurity.

Strengths: problem solving, curiosity, rizz

Weaknesses: networking