Ryan Ward

Why did you choose to pursue a BS in Computer Science and Engineering?

When I was younger I was interested in being an architect. I wanted to construct buildings that were elegant, concise, and structurally sound. When I was introduced to computer science, I found that designing good software matched my expectations of designing buildings, except that it allowed me to utilize my math and logic skills even more. I felt that being able to understand the theoretical basis for software as well as the actual implementation was important, so I started on the Engineering track and then made the choice for Computer Science and Engineering.

Why did you choose to join Bucknell?

I was initially interested in Bucknell because the College of Engineering at Bucknell is widely regarded as among the best in the nation. Visiting Bucknell really sold me on the university – the campus is beautiful and I could see myself being part of the community here for four years.

What do you most like about the University?

By far the best thing about Bucknell is that the professors are interested in teaching undergraduates. All the professors in the Department of Computer Science, and every department in general, are easily accessible and want to help you succeed in your education.

Interests

My favorite subject in Computer Science as of now is efficiency, and as a result, combinatorial optimization problems. Being able to develop efficient solutions relatively quickly to very computationally intensive problems requires that every possible algorithm optimization is used to investigate as many solutions as possible. Outside of computer science, I play on the club rugby team and am a regular on the racquetball courts.