George Girgis has been into computers since childhood. He was able to do basic IT tasks for his operating system at the age of 11 years, such as installing WinRAR to extract files, scanning, keeping Windows XP up-to-date on a weekly basis, and much more!
George discovered a software called Cheat Engine, which is a tool used for modifying games such as Plants vs. Zombies. Using the tool enabled him to get unlimited sun points, instant card refills, unlimited coins and invincibility of the plants. George was very curious about how Cheat Engine was created, so he started researching on how the tool was developed and discovered that programming languages were used to create it. That was the beginning of his interest in programming and -for him- the yet to discover new world of coding. Unlike most of George's friends, who at that young age had not figured out yet what they wanted to study in the future, George had already made up his mind to study computer science and later work at one of the top high tech companies. He wanted to gain experience as early as possible, so he took a computer science course in grade 11 and enrolled in two co-op programs specializing in computer science in grades 11 and 12. Thanks to his co-op experiences, and strong reference letters, he was accepted at Nokia as a Future Tech Intern in the summer of 2018. After graduating from high school, he received a scholarship from Carleton University to enroll in the Honors Bachelor degree in Computer Science/Internet Security stream and joined the co-op/intern program, which he was very excited about. Through his university courses, he gained valuable technical skills in the fundamentals of programming, such as applying Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) principles, allocating and deallocating memory, and much more! What seemed to him as puzzles at the age of 11 years, made sense now. Learning about abstraction, facade, and encapsulation vs no encapsulation coding feature, made him figure out why he could modify values for some but not all games using Cheat Engine. George is fortunate to have worked 8 months (2 terms) at Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in Ottawa, ON, as an IT Programmer Analyst. This co-op student job was an eye-opener on what the real world of a computer science graduate looks like. It introduced him to an agile software development framework (attending daily scrums and biweekly sprints, team work, meeting deadlines and managing projects). He hopes to further expand his technical skills and broaden his knowledge, by getting a work position in in a recognzied tech company.
| Year One: | ||
|---|---|---|
| Course Number | Course Name | Letter Grade |
| ASLA 1010 O | First-year ASL l | B |
| COMP 1405 B | Intro to Computer Science l | A |
| COMP 1406 A | Intro to Computer Science ll | A+ |
| COMP 1805 B | Discrete Structures l | C-(Retook) |
| FREN 1001 A | French 1 (intensive) | A |
| MATH 1007 A | Elementary Calculus l | C (Retook) |
| MATH 1107 A | Linear Algebra l | D-(Retook) |
| MATH 1107 R | Linear Algebra l | A+ |
| MATH 2007 B | Elementary Calculus ll | A+ |
| MUSI 1002 A | Issues in Popular Music | A- |
| STAT 2507 E | Intro to Stat Modelling l | A- |
| SPAN 1010 R | First-Year Spanish l | A- |
| Year Two: | ||
| ARAB 1110 A | Intensive First Year Arabic | A |
| COMP 1805 B | Discrete Structures l | A+ |
| COMP 2401 B | Intro to Systems Programming | B- |
| COMP 2402 B | Abstract Data Types/Algorithms | A |
| COMP 2406 B | Fundamentals Web Applications | B+ |
| COMP 2804 A | Discrete Structures ll | A |
| COMP 3804 A | Abstract Data Types/Algorithms | B+ |
| FREN 1002 B | French 2 (intensive) | A+ |
| MATH 1007 F | Elementary Calculus l | A+ |
| Year Three: | ||
| CLCV 2500 A | Classical Mythology | A+ |
| COMP 2404 B | Intro to Software Engineering | A+ |
| COMP 3004 B | Object-Oriented Software Engin | A+ |
| COMP 3005 A | Database Management Systems | A- |
| HIST 3902 A | Forgotten Fronts of WWll | A- |
| MUSI 2008 A | Music of the World's Peoples | A |
| SOCI 2705 A | Popular Culture in Digital Age | A |