Wednesday, December 20, 2017

Leadership lived: International student helps improve UIS’ web presence

Graduate computer science major Bhavyanshu Parasher says he chose the University of Illinois Springfield because of its outstanding cyber security courses.

At UIS, Parasher works as a student web associate for the UIS Office of Web Services, is vice president of the UIS Computer Science Club and recently helped to redesign the UIS Computer Science Department website.

“UIS has provided me with a lot of opportunities to grow as a full-stack engineer,” he said. “It has certainly prepared me for the professional field and the projects I’ve worked on at UIS will certainly help me stand out in the job market.”

One of the projects he recently worked on for UIS Web Services was developing the skill that allows Amazon’s Alexa, an intelligent personal assistant, to answer questions about UIS. Alexa can now answer admissions questions or tell you today’s lunch menu.

As part of the Computer Science Club, Parasher recently finished in the top one percent of competitors in the United States in the National Cyber League (NCL) competitions. He finished 37th against more than 2,400 competitors. The UIS team finished 18th out of 182 teams nationally.

“There was log analysis, there was network security analysis. Basically, we just had to go in and solve a number of challenges that were given to us,” said Parasher.

Parasher, a native of Gurgaon, Haryana, India, says he feels that he made the right decision in attending the University of Illinois Springfield.

“I would recommend to students that they go and look at the cyber security-related courses that are offered at UIS,” he said.

Following graduation from UIS, Parasher plans to begin his career as a full-stack engineer, someone who works on both the front-end and back-end of developing applications.

“My experience at UIS has been amazing and it has offered me a lot of opportunities to grow in my field,” he said.

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