When Anelle Utegen thinks about where her love of computers began, she finds it difficult to pinpoint what sparked her interest and pushed her to choose an academic career in computer science.
Her older brother introduced her to the world of computers. Teachers in high school taught her programming language and basic app building. But it was a class at USF that introduced her to AI and opened her mind to pursuing a career in machine learning research.
鈥淭here wasn鈥檛 any one point where I got interested in computer science,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was more like a journey.鈥�
That journey led her from her home country in Kazakhstan to the University of South Florida鈥檚 Bellini College of Artificial Intelligence, Cybersecurity and Computing. At the end of this semester, Utegen will graduate with her bachelor鈥檚 degree in computer science.
How an international student found a path to computer science
Florida wasn鈥檛 initially on her academic radar, but Utegen knew she wanted to study abroad at the college level.
She attended the National School of Physics and Mathematics in Kazakhstan for high school. While there, she learned her first programming language and developed her first phone app for restaurant reservations.
鈥淏asically, we learned about Java, object-oriented programming and the basic concepts,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hen we were able to also learn about mobile development and in the end, we had to present a project. That was the first time I had hands-on experience with computer science.鈥�
When it came to searching for colleges to attend, she had her sights set on the U.S. or Canada. Her brother, who attended college in Canada, had been a computer science student.
She studied lists of universities, weighed all her options and chose USF. She liked the size, the opportunities for international students, the academic reputation, the location and the affordability.
鈥淚 didn't really want it to be that cold at that time,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 wanted somewhere with the hot weather and USF fit everything I was looking for in a university.鈥�
Her first fall on campus was a blur of activity. Learning classes, campus, juggling life and meeting people dominated the fall 2022 semester, her first on campus.
鈥淚 wanted to try everything,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 think that period was when I was the most active. I was 17. I was like, 鈥榃ow, look at this. Look at that.鈥� It wasn鈥檛 my first time in the United States, but it was my first time that I knew I would be staying longer. I鈥檇 be here four years for my bachelor鈥檚 degree. I was really excited about everything, about going to every event.鈥�
How campus involvement led to machine learning research
Utegen was no wallflower when it came to finding her way through college life, both socially and academically.
She began joining clubs and finding her way in her computer science major. First it was Girls Who Code, then the Society of Competitive Programmers. She also was a member of the Google Developer Student Club, where she served as a community lead.
鈥淥ne of the goals in joining the clubs was to meet new people,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 definitely accomplished that.鈥�
Her campus involvement didn鈥檛 end there. She served as a teaching assistant for the analysis of algorithms course in the fall semester and is looking forward to serving in that role again in her final semester as a senior. This also is Utegen鈥檚 second year of service as an ambassador for the Bellini College. As an ambassador, she helps fellow students navigate college life.
But it was through her experience with the Society of Programmers where Utegen鈥檚 curiosity was sparked by a project for a computer engineering expo for public school students.
The presentation centered on the implementation of Quick, Draw!, a machine learning game on Google that was an AI experiment where the neural network tried to guess what you were drawing within a given time limit.
鈥淭hat was actually the first machine learning project I ever looked at and did,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e collaborated as a team on the project. The field of AI was just developing so much at that time, and it still is.鈥�
Utegen explored other aspects of computer science 鈥� database design, data analytics, natural language processing, computer vision, web development 鈥� but she kept coming back to wanting to work with AI and machine learning.
Machine learning is a branch of artificial intelligence that allows computers to learn from data.
Discovering a passion for research
鈥淚 began to realize I might not want to do an industry job,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 want to do research. I was just really curious about research. I love the academic side. I love the university. I don't feel like working in the industry would be the right choice for me at this moment. It might change in the future, but at this moment I want to do research.鈥�
Utegen鈥檚 first experience in AI research was with Associate Professor Oguzhan Topsakal. Undergraduate research allows students to apply classroom learning to real-world problems. Her first project focused on an AI grader course where she created an interface and figured out how to use AI large language models to generate solutions for the user, which could then be applied toward grading the answers from students.
A second research project, which was a previous work of Topsakal, focused on a brain tumor classification project that used publicly available data to study MRI imaging.
鈥淎I is getting implemented everywhere,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 really enjoyed the process, getting familiar with the topic, doing the research on the previous works that have been done and coming up with proposal ideas. Then you start to figure out how you鈥檙e going to do the project.鈥�
Looking ahead: what can come after a degree in computer science?
This semester, she鈥檚 hoping to work on a larger project that crosses disciplines 鈥� a focus of the Bellini College.
鈥淚 haven't started yet, but I was hoping to work in on a similar project where there are computer scientists and people from both the College of Public Health and the Morsani College of Medicine,鈥� she said.
Utegen graduates this spring and is looking forward to starting her master鈥檚 degree. She plans to continue her graduate education and, in the future, pursue a doctorate while exploring research opportunities.
鈥淚t's really interesting to see, being in the time where you can actually see how AI is being developed,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e getting new AI courses. We get natural language processing courses, computer vision courses. I don't think this existed 10 years ago, but they will definitely exist 10 years from now.鈥�