Jayant Varma

MY STORY:

From a clueless beginning to a passionate student: finding myself in Computer Science

I started my BSc Hons in computer science in January 2021. As naive and clueless as I was about the subject, I knew I was in this for my love for Mathematics and building stuff. For 3 online terms, I struggled with little motivation in my Computer Science courses. Although confident with my understanding, I couldn't help but wonder if computer science is my field.

Just when I was about to change my major to Mathematics/ Electrical Engineering, I learned computer organization and C programming in an in-person setting. This kindled a thorough understanding of the machine you're reading this on. This was my turning point. To test my skills on programming (and whether I enjoyed it), I made an artificially intelligent tic-tac-toe game in C as my first project. I was glued to my laptop, and this project was my baby. The moment my code ran, my passion ignited. Inspired by that, I make projects that use whatever I learn from the latest courses I complete, somewhat like a capstone project to scale my capability of the course and giving mere theory practicality. For example, after learning parallel programming in my operating systems class, I made a multi-threaded space invaders game in C, and after software design, I made an artificially intelligent teaching assistant.

Mathematics has been a key driving force for my passion in Computer Science. The idea that we don't need a single test case if we can mathematically prove correctness/ efficiency of an algorithm is simply beautiful. Moved by this, I intend to have a deep understanding of theoretical computer science in my degree, while also making projects using popular languages/software as my own projects. Therefore, making the most out of my degree.

Actions speak louder than words; Big success with in-person courses:

I knew I had it in me to make a big change. This year, YorkU went completely in-person, and my GPA boomed with my year average being *over 90% overall* doing 9 courses - 27 credits of which 15 being Computer Science credits. This shot my GPA up to very respectable standards (3.3 out of 4) and eligible for the prestigious Lassonde scholarship.

Conclusion:
From a clueless start, I have now come to the realization that computer science is thought engineering where *we make* our ideas real. Passion can be sparked in various ways, and mine came from theory of computation, computer organization and low-level programming. Since then, OOP and programming in general has found a special place in my heart.

Updates:

June 5th 2023:
A funny thing happened today, as I opened my website during my psychology class, the autoplay for the background music started playing. HAHA!!
So that my viewers don't have any similar experience, I've made a button for them to control the music.
Although I've been trying to make the button work for Pcs, it doesn't work, while it works for phones. I'll keep trying to make it work for pcs, but for now, the autoplay has been stopped.

June 12th: I had my psych exam today and had prior commitments here and there. But now the above mentioned feature has been added and works on all interfaces.

More on me..

**Professionals kindly note: This website is sort of informal since it shows my music taste, my plans for tennis varsity, poems of my liking etc. It's nowhere near vulgar or bad in any sense, but its just that these topics are not usually considered 'professional'. This website is meant to show my frontend skills but it's main purpose is for me to express myself to the world.

I love poetry, 80s rock music in general, and have recently have started liking psychology.

Here's some of my favorite poems:

• Ode to a Nightingale by John Keats
• A thing of Beauty, an excerpt from Endymion: A Poetic Romance by John Keats
• Keeping Quiet by Pablo Neruda
• Bards of Passion and of Mirth by John Keats
• My Heart Leaps Up by William Wordsworth
• The Photograph by Shirley Toulson
• O Me! O Life! by Walt Whitman
• link to the iconic scene from Dead Poets Society relating to the above mentioned poem

Here's a link to my playlist showcasing songs of my liking from youtube music, you don't need an account to listen, just enjoy! Rock 'n' Roll!

I play tennis very regularly, love to run, and play table tennis, soccer, badminton, and volleyball. In fact, I used to play competitive tennis at club level and sparr with India's top 100 players. I'll be trying out for York University's varsity team, albeit I'm not sure if I can manage it in my high workload lifestyle. Maybe I will do it just because- YOLO!
I also play the guitar, but have not really played for over 2 years now. I want to learn to play the piano someday, and live in a house that has a library like Mr. Higgins', with a grand piano as well ;) More than any cars, I want Professor Higgin's grand house and library, look at those books, and proudly say, "I'm so incredibly knowledgable, I've made it, I'm now a true Varma" (I come from a family of freakishly smart people). I realize I have to be humble to soak in all the knowledge I can get, afterall, "A wise man can learn more from a foolish question than a fool can learn from a wise answer"(Bruce Lee). I'm confident, to be wise, you need to be humble first, everything else comes after humility and curiosity. For those confused, I'm refering to Mr. Higgins, the character from the play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw.