Iris Howley

My Greatest Accomplishment:  Obtaining my PhD was a marathon of learning new skills, adapting to new situations and overcoming obstacles, all while doing a considerable amount of growing up as I moved from my 20s to my 30s. Getting through those years successfully continues to be my greatest accomplishment.

How Drexel Helped Me:  Drexel’s five-year co-op program, combined with the STAR (Students Tackling Advanced Research) Fellowship, jumpstarted my career in computer science research from my very first year in West Philadelphia. Having 1.75 years of full-time research as well as research internships in other states and countries provided a solid foundation for envisioning who I was as a computer scientist and how I wanted to invest my time.

My Greatest Source of Motivation: Learning new things and fostering that love of learning in others is what set me on my current path and continues to guide me to this day.

Where I Hope to Be in Five Years:  This can be a funny question to ask an academic, as ideally, I’d be exactly where I am right now, but with tenure and perhaps a larger vegetable garden! Where I currently am is fulfilling on a daily basis: discovering new things about human behavior and artificial intelligence, opening bright young minds to the world of computer science while also counseling them through the first independent years of their adult lives.

If My Life Were a Music Video, the Song Would Be: “Always Look on the Bright Side of Life,” from “Monty Python.”