Andrew Kennedy

Throughout my time at the University of South Florida I have taken many classes that have instilled a solid foundational understanding of information science. With this foundation in place, I will be prepared to enter the workforce and continue to build upon what I have learned. Throughout this segment I will outline some of the most informative classes I took throughout the pursuit of my Batchelor’s of science. These courses have stood above the rest for a multitude of reasons that I will be outlining in their respective sections. My Batchelor’s degree is in information science and is focused in security. This reflects on the classes that have impacted my time here the most.
One of the first classes that felt truly impactful throughout this journey was CIS 3367 Architecting Operating System Security. This class saw students remotely accessing two separate machines from our devices, similarly to how we use application gateway, to sun different operating systems on our laptop or computer. This allowed us to run window and Linux from the same machines. We altered these machines in many ways, setting up different security measures and rewriting the operating systems to make them more secure. This class set the stage for a more advanced class where we did similar work with remote machines. This class was CIS 4204 Ethical Hacking.
I took CIS 4204 Ethical Hacking the following year and this class did similar work with different virtual machines. However, instead of learning best practices for different OS’s, we were learning how some of the most common tools hackers use to exploit vulnerabilities in different systems. We set up our own Kali attack machine and linked it to two other virtual machines running different operating systems to see how they would react to different attacks. This class was one of the most hands-on classes and I felt like I was really learning and gaining experiences the entire semester.
I am currently rapping up LIS 3361 WWW Page Design/Management. This class is more hands-on work, learning to code HTML and gaining a deeper understanding of the art of programing itself. This is the third language I will have gained an understanding of throughout my time here at USF, the other two being Python and Java. These classes are all structured similarly with a lot of coning language and study of coding concepts and three of four big projects to gain some practical experience practicing the act of coding. I find I learn the most when I can work with whatever I’m trying to learn, and I always seem to deepen my understanding of coding concepts throughout these classes. Iframes, nested and four loops, returns, and FTP are all concepts I’ve had a fair bit of experience working with at this point and I really seem to enjoy this side of information science.
I am also currently working on LIS 4930 Crime Mapping with ArcGIS. This class has been one of the most enjoyable classes of my entire degree. It’s a lot of work requiring me to dedicate around 4-6 Hours a week However, it is extremely rewarding working entirely within the software for the whole of the class. This class feels like it is about learning to use the software and mapping out data and not about passing a test. The ArcGIS software has a plethora of capabilities and though I don’t feel I have a deep understanding of all the tools and features I do feel I have a basic understanding of the software and its many uses and applications.
In conclusion, my time at the University of South Florida has been spent working in all aspects of information science. With a focus in security, I have gained a great foundational understanding of the topics and technologies available to me wherever I pursue a career, and I plan on continuing to further my education in this field wither that be formally here at USF or on the job in one of the many pathways within the information science umbrella.