CSE110

Antonio Peso Vilella

Photo_of_me

Math & CSE student


About Me

Hi there! I am Antonio, a 4th year Mathematics student from Barcelona, Spain. I am 27 years old and I enjoy traveling and playing sports and Martial Arts in my free time. My favourite sports and martial arts are:

I consider myself an open-minded and caring individual, always looking to improve myself through personal and professional challenges that life may present.

As my grandmother says:


Mal no facis, mal no prenguis!


Or in English:


Don’t hurt, don’t get hurt!


It’s sort of a motto or guideline I follow in life. Facing adversity with a kind and respectful mindset is my way of life (or at least I think it is).


Language

Another important part of my life is language. I’m from a region in Spain called Catalunya or Catalonia in English. Back home, I was raised speaking two different languages simultaneously: Catalan & Spanish.


Catalonia


This bilingual upbringing shaped my interest in other languages and sparked my curiosity for other cultures. Growing up in a region where people use two languages to communicate with family and friends made me interested in seeing how others experience these differences (or not in cases where there are no conflicts about it at all).

So traveling became one of my main hobbies. So far, I’ve been able to see many places (mostly in Europe) and I’m looking forward to discovering more about our fantastic world.


Me as a Programmer

I first got introduced to Programming while studying my first Bachelors in Industrial Engineering in Barcelona.

We had to work using Python and I quickly got the hang of it. With time, I realized that I enjoyed Programming and solving problems that were almost impossible without the help of computers.

After learning the basics, I decided to take some electives related to programming and could work on small projects such as:

  1. Building and programming a Simon Says portable game (2016)
  2. Developing a small videogame (2017)
  3. Creating a phone app (2018)

After graduating and working for some months as an intern, I felt that my knowledge was somewhat lacking. I had studied different branches of Physics and some basic Mathematics, but I wanted to know more.

So in 2019 I decided to start a new Bachelors in Mathematics and I couldn’t be more right about my decision. I enjoy almost every level of Mathematics and, most of all, I like Programming to solve Mathematical problems and think of optimal and elegant solutions to these problems.

During this Bachelors I learned how to program in C & C++, focusing on the mathematical thinking and not some much on the technical parts of a computer and the tools used to actually solve problems.

A nice and interesting problem is the study of Graphs. Their study is used in several areas of Computer Science such as the representation of networks of communication, travel routes and computer chip design.


Graphs


In my opinion, the beauty of Programming is that one normally starts with the classic Hello World!:

#include <iostream>

int main() {
    std::cout << "Hello World!";
    return 0;
}

and can rather easily go to solve problems like the Travelling Salesman Problem with just a set of basic structures like vectors.

Present Me

Moving forward, I decided to put some time and effort into understanding these black boxes that we call computers.

That brought me to travel to the US and study at the University of California in San Diego and finally shine some light on this mystery.

My journey is still long and filled with hardships, but I feel I am moving in the right direction to reach expertise in CSE.