Until the things that interest you really become yours, says Brown CS alum Edwina Rissland, you’re not very deep into them. Over an eclectic career spanning more than five decades, she’s dug well below the surface as a computer scientist, mathematician, legal scholar, musician, artist, photographer, and teacher. A true student of the world, her boundless love of learning has allowed her to master and connect fields often considered distinct or even unrelated.
Last year, Brown CS alum Ed Lazowska received a surprise for his birthday: a fund supporting multiple endowed professorships, named in his honor, to commemorate his extensive contributions as a professor of computer science at the University of Washington. Launched by friends at Microsoft and Google and supported by more than 100 others, the professorship fund is a testament to Ed’s long-standing work in promoting computer science research and education over his long career.
Tatyana Dyshlova’s last few years have been fast-moving. In 2020, she co-founded and took on the role of CEO at FuzzyBot, a video game development studio, with a small but experienced team of colleagues. Late last year, FuzzyBot announced that it had received $3.5 million in seed funding, a major step forward for the burgeoning company. And her team is now in the midst of developing its first game, which Tatyana says will merge elements of the popular “action rogue” and “life sim” genres to create a unique experience for players.
“As a software developer,” says Brown CS alum Gaurav Manek, “it is your duty to society to make sure that your code is reliable and doesn’t fall apart.” For the last four years, Gaurav — now a PhD student at Carnegie Mellon University — has been developing Visigoth, a piece of software that automatically creates schedules based on the availability of participants. Now, Brown CS and a number of departments at other universities are adopting the software to handle the logistics that surround PhD visit days.
