While most of us are content simply using household electronics, Jazz Turner-Baggs needs to know what makes them tick and how he can build them himself. It鈥檚 this relentless curiosity that has both landed him in trouble and made him stand out in Dal鈥檚 computer science program.
鈥淚 used to take everything apart,鈥� he says. 鈥淢y parents would come home and find their VCR in parts on the floor. Then I started wondering about the computer. There was this box that somehow let me connect to everybody. I wanted to know how it worked.鈥�
When he was 17, Mr. Turner-Baggs completed the Cisco Certified Network Associate course at his high school in The Netherlands (his father was stationed across the border with the Canadian Forces in Germany). By the time he came to Dal, he was already creating networks for his own small group of clients.
鈥淚t comes back to the building of things and figuring out how they work,鈥� he says. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why I came here. It鈥檚 the ability to think of something new and create it鈥攚hether it鈥檚 a chatbot, redesigning routing protocols, or making a new Twitter client. When I come here I can build anything I want, in terms of software. It鈥檚 just a digital world of engineering.鈥�
His time at Dal hasn鈥檛 always been easy, though. He struggled during his first two years and his motivation faltered. He had the smarts but couldn鈥檛 make the connection between the classroom and the working world. Everything changed when he took a required semester off and worked full-time.
鈥淚 started to see how things in the real world applied to things I had been learning in school,鈥� he says. 鈥淚 was able to relate the stuff that I was learning previously to what I was doing. There鈥檚 a balance I鈥檝e found between school and work and that鈥檚 what keeps things interesting for me.鈥�
Since then, Mr. Turner-Baggs has worked full-time while attending classes and acted as vice-chair for the Dal student chapter of ACM (Association of Computed Machinery). He has already started his master鈥檚 in computer science, focusing on self-managing systems, and plans to open his own business when he finishes.
鈥淚 bottomed out because I didn鈥檛 know what I was doing,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut now I love this place and I love combining work and school. It鈥檚 all about building a toolset to be able to accomplish the things I want in life. It took me a while to see that, but I鈥檓 glad I finally did.鈥�
Figuring out how things work
Part of a series profiling graduating students
Graeme Gunn - May 25, 2011
Jazz Turner-Baggs graduates with a degree in computer science.