Computer Science Student Deemed 'Wizard' For Tech Acumen

Computer Science Student Deemed 'Wizard' For Tech Acumen

By Rae Lynch

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Seeing Sierra Brandt's technological magic in action led Erica Cullwell to dub Brandt "The Departmental Wizard" of the Career Center.

Not only was Brandt able to resolve a longstanding problem for the Career Center, her solution will support Cal State San Marcos students for years to come.

Brandt is a transfer student from MiraCosta Community College, majoring in computer science and graduating from CSUSM this spring. Brandt enjoyed her time at MiraCosta but felt she wasn't very involved. So when she transferred to CSUSM, she knew she wanted to change that.

She served on the Orientation Team during her first semester at CSUSM, creating many new friends while welcoming new students to the campus community.

With hopes of continuing her involvement on campus, Brandt applied for a technology student assistant position with the Career Center. This position had been vacant for a long time but was brought back in hopes of fixing a data issue that had been building up.

Through the Career Center every CSUSM student is automatically enrolled with an account in Handshake, a network for posting and applying to jobs. However, when students graduate or leave, their accounts remain active on Handshake, showing the university had around 80,000 accounts last fall. With hopes of clearing out excess data from students no longer enrolled, the Career Center posted a job application looking for a student to assist with this problem, and Brandt checked every box.

Brandt had two previous internships that made her a desirable candidate for the position. She worked for Renesas Electronics, a semiconductor manufacturer, as an applications engineer coding for various radio frequency parts and with Northrop Grumman, the global aerospace and defense technology company, as a systems engineer coding for the RQ-4 Global Hawk, a remotely piloted surveillance aircraft.

So when asked if she could aid the Career Center with its data problem, the answer was a clear yes. In fact, Brandt actually suggested her own procedure for doing so.

Cullwell, the Career Center's technology coordinator, had originally proposed a method for cleaning out the excess data on Handshake by manually going through each account to review whether the person was still enrolled as a student. However, Brandt explained that would take significant time and suggested her own method to fix the problem.

"On her first day, we discussed the broader goals of what we hoped to accomplish," Cullwell said. "By the end of her second shift, she confidently proposed developing a script to automate the exact process we had envisioned. Over the course of the semester, she coordinated testing efforts, collaborated with IITS and Handshake liaisons, and refined the solution. Once deployed, her automation cleaned our data in a single afternoon."

Cullwell was so impressed by Brandt's ingenuity that she gave Brandt "The Departmental Wizard" nickname.

"She doesn't have the same experience in programming that I do, so to her it seemed like magic, but for me, that's just how my brain works," Brandt said.

Not only did Brandt get to use her computing skills to help the Career Center, she also fulfilled her goal of becoming more involved on campus. During her time working for the Career Center, Brandt met so many friends, gained valuable skills for interviewing, and was encouraged and supported in applying for jobs.

Using resources from the Career Center, Brandt applied to 85 jobs over the past year in anticipation of graduation. The work paid off. Brandt will begin working full time after graduation for Trabus Technologies, a small business in San Diego that specializes in technology solutions for government and private sectors. Brandt will be working as a full stack software engineer for the company's weather and boat transportation services.

Brandt's time working for the Career Center not only propelled her into her first post-grad job, it made her time at CSUSM feel special.

"Sierra has made a lasting impact on the Career Center," Cullwell said. "The systems she built will continue to benefit our team long after her time with us concludes."

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