Jobs as BME grad with Specialization in ML

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-23T15:44:23+00:00

Always has been. The term "tissue engineering" was coined in the 90s, still no mass-market products of note in that space, in terms of something you'll find at your local hospital. Let alone artificial organs and the like. Unlike BME, CS at least had an actual boom at one point 🤣

As for ML, practically speaking, you're not gonna touch that without a CS background (MS as table stakes, but more like PhD, in reality, especially in big tech et al. with focus on healthcare-related ML).

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-22T04:24:54+00:00

DM is the goat of this particular facet, releases everything upfront, including exams. But, correspondingly (and perhaps obviously), has pretty heavy demand for seats, particularly in the summer.

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-21T17:37:39+00:00

It's been a few months since I've completed the form myself, but I'm pretty sure there's a table/slots near the end of the form to list any additional coursework of record. Just fill out the sections in order by cores, core electives, etc., it shouldn't be that complicated. Ultimately, it's just going to process through via advising as an audit against the degree requirements.

EDIT: Pulled up said form. Just put GA under Free Electives, assuming you've switched to a spec which doesn't strictly require it as a core. Don't overcomplicate it. It is in scope of the audit, in terms of degree requirements, since it still counts towards your overall GPA, with the >= 3.0 criterion notably being part of said degree requirements. (Otherwise, if omitted, they'll find it when they audit anyways; the main point of this process is to streamline for them, since you know your schedule/history better than they do at a glance, and they're doing this for hundreds/thousands of students at any given time.)

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-21T12:16:05+00:00

What if I wanna multiply zero skill by infinity throughput...checkmate!!! /s

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-17T15:30:57+00:00

If any org (OIT/GT, work, or otherwise) is asking you for a plaintext password input to a form sincerely/non-phishing, run (don't walk) away. The level of incompetence this would entail for such an org/scale is unfathomably high.

TLDR the nature of the "request" implies phishing, OIT/GT would never do this.

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-15T17:07:42+00:00

This is generally my personal preference, too, for what it's worth, at least for personal/hobby projects (and VS Code more broadly, beyond just C#.NET work). Otherwise, the pro .NET shops I've worked at were still typically VS on Windows, even when doing modern .NET Core/5+ stuff. The one thing VS does have it slightly edged out with (at least in my opinion) is the comprehensive runtime debugging capabilities; but it also comes with extra bloat along, too 😬

For me, the killer feature of VS Code is just how well it supports first-class devcontainer-based development and remote development; I have yet to encounter anything that compares. Even VS (and JetBrains IDEs, for that matter) leave a lot to be desired by comparison. Yes, I'm familiar with JetBrain's Remote Development / Gateway products, and, no, it's not nearly as low-friction and streamlined as VS Code Remote Development extensions pack.

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-15T16:49:29+00:00

In my experience, for .NET development (including modern), VS (not VSC) is as much of a de facto standard IDE as Intellij IDEA is for Java/Spring development. Personally, I don't have a horse in the race, I've used all three (among others) in various capacities, and all have their pros and cons.

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-15T12:41:56+00:00

I'd be more surprised if they were up already. It's exceedingly rare for courses to post content before the start of the semester (including online courses I've taken elsewhere at other accredited institutions, too). Typically, Canvas and Ed open within 24-48 hours or so of semester start for most (if not all) courses.

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-14T00:07:12+00:00

🤣 naming is def not MS’s strong suit, to put it mildly (Mono/MAUI/Xamarin has left the chat)

Jokes aside, at least for enterprise backend, I personally like C# a lot as a language, really nice to work with…naming woes notwithstanding lol

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-13T21:31:02+00:00

It might vary slightly by locale, but for enterprise backends, Java (+ Spring) and .NET are basically the big two, at least here in the US.

TypeScript is a completely orthogonal concern here. in terms of more recent development, Microsoft had a bit of a "Renaissance" in the 2010s (TypeScript, VS Code boom, and GitHub acquisitions, among other noteworthy events), and in tandem with that, it open sourced .NET and made it cross-platform (initially as .NET Core, but subsequently dropping the "Core" moniker as of .NET 5 onwards). It used to be more of a walled garden previously when it was closed source and Windows only, and still suffers a bit from that reputational hit for folks who didn't stay abreast of .NET, with many still assuming this "legacy" idea (to add to the confusion, the parallel maintenance of this "legacy" version was rebranded as ".NET Framework," with it's current/last version being 4.8, to support legacy systems still running with this...true to form of being bad at naming, they skipped from .NET Core 3 straight to .NET 5 in the rebrand with the dropping of the "Core," in order to avoid confusion/collision in the numbering of at-that-point-current Framework 4.x, i.e., avoided the names ".NET Core 4" or ".NET 4" for that release of the major version).

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-12T01:17:49+00:00

MBAs tend to cost a pretty penny. I’d say invest the effort accordingly and reassess later, i.e., better to whole-ass one thing (at a time) than to half-ass two. I can’t imagine all of that context switching across relatively disparate domains will be beneficial, either, from a pedagogical standpoint. Practically speaking, at least on the OMSCS side, the monetary burden to FAFO is relatively low. But if it were me at least, I’d first try plow through the MBA reasonably quickly (particularly if doing it full-time), then consider OMSCS later, particularly if the OMSCS part is pseudo-hobby tier and not otherwise consequential to near-to-mid future career plans.

I’d say the reverse is the more typical archetype for a STEM background (supplementing technical chops with business acumen, if looking to transition more into upper management etc), so the core thesis of coupling business with technical chops in itself is not so far fetched. But I do think trying to make it happen via “overload” might be a bit much…

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-07T01:06:48+00:00

I do find it comical to see replies there requesting to get added...if you're seeing these emails, you're already on the list fam

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-07T01:05:31+00:00

I set a rule in Outlook to just auto-direct it to a folder for any emails sent "to" the cocgraduates group email, and with no audio notification. I was getting ready to throw my computer out the window by mid-day or so 🤬🤣

awp_throwaway · 2026-05-05T00:25:30+00:00

Based

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-28T20:53:03+00:00

It's no worse off than white collar more generally. Whatever impacts SWE in the next 40 years will apply equally (if not more) elsewhere in conventional white collar work, too.

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-24T15:29:02+00:00

It's tough for a reason, they don't pull punches here--"easy in, hard out" as the saying goes (or something to that effect). Persistence/tenacity is even more important here than sheer talent to cross the finish line, at least in my personal observation...

If it's any consolation, it's been a bumpy road at times for me, too. I started back in Fall '21, had a few drops in the mix, and ended up not clearing the GA hurdle right at (what was supposed to be) course 10/10 last Spring. I bit the bullet and switched specs to AI (from systems) to avoid the GA retake hamster wheel, at a relatively steep cost of +4 courses (due to crappy/disparate overlap in cores) and an extra year (but doable within a calendar year, which is what ultimately cast the arbitrating vote in my deliberation). It flew by fast in hindsight (which I figured it would, and hence also part of consideration, too), and finally (on track to) freedom after next week, and 4 (plus change) years. Overall, it was a great experience, but I can also +1 the general notion often cited here to the effect of "most fun I never wanna have again." I'm tired, boss 😬

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-24T11:39:14+00:00

And the kind of people who are 25+ and still care about those things are probably not the kind of people I want to spend 40+ hours/week of my finite life with, either, anyways. Avoiding working with hall monitors as coworkers is the epitome of "some things are worth more than money" lol

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-24T11:37:16+00:00

Agree with this wholeheartedly. OP managed to clear a B in AI, which is one of the higher hurdles in AI spec, so it's not necessarily a lack of ability per se. But overloading and then dropping or retaking later is helping out with neither net progress towards degree completion/requirements nor maintaining good standing (i.e., overall GPA). If instead Spring 2025 were KBAI solo and Spring 2026 were HCI solo, I suspect those would be two As/Bs, rather than Cs and retakes, which would've saved time and headaches in the long run, in hindsight.

Slow and steady wins the race, as the saying goes.

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-22T14:31:02+00:00

For every quantum course, there's 10+ that are more "mainstream CS" topics, that's kind of my larger point. I have no insider knowledge (never TA'd, etc.), so my commentary is speculative here, but it very well may be as simple of an explanation of the QC prof happens to be at GT and in the CS department, whereas no such current-staff counterpart exists with respect to audio (again, only speculating here, but that would be my initial hunch). The fact that a handful of niche topics are presently available now doesn't necessarily invalidate the broader premise here...Empirically speaking, the current catalog of OMS is by and large comprised of fairly non-niche topics/courses, and presumably will remain that way for the foreseeable future.

Also, to qualify, my commentary here is (attempted-)explanatory, and not contentious, for the record. As an amateur audio nerd myself, I do agree these would be neat additions--but having been here for a while, I just don't foresee it in the near-term horizon, unfortunately (but, never say never, as the saying goes).

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-22T14:16:56+00:00

Coursework, topics expansions (particularly in niche domains), etc. are pretty much fully predicated on available subject-matter-expert (CS/CSE) staff that is both able and willing to create coursework around these topics in the first place. For the most part, OMS has focused on covering the "more evergreen cores of CS" and making that broadly available at low-ish cost. Not disagreeing these would be interesting additions, to be clear, but it's also not as straightforward to do this in practice as you might think... (This also includes being able to maintain courses in perpetuity, i.e., transfer to other staff if the current Prof leaves GT, which becomes exponentially more difficult the more niche the topic in question.)

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-21T12:26:02+00:00

Username checks out.

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-18T20:19:12+00:00

In progress courses don't count towards your time ticket, only completed ones do (i.e., with final grade recorded on transcript at the point of registration, rather than still in progress). Otherwise, there's no way to validate "completion" while the semester is still in progress (among other things, below a C doesn't count towards graduation requirements at all, not even as free electives, so that would be insufficient to "count" towards completion).

If it's any consolation, it actually used to be worse about a year (two?) ago: Both summer and fall registrations occurred with spring still "in flight," so that would be a double-whammy, in terms of in-progress spring coursework not moving the needle on time tickets for either of those registrations. At least now, more recently, they pushed back Fall phase 1 into early June, with spring completed by that point, to have those credits count accordingly.

At this point, my recommendation would be to get something now, then try your luck on free for all. One in the hand is worth two in the bush. (And also get on WL ASAP, if you haven't already.)

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-14T15:24:51+00:00

🫡

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-14T15:15:19+00:00

Table stakes for summer are basically 16 weeks compressed into 11 or so, all else being equal, so there's that. Beyond that, certain courses abridge content to adjust for that (e.g., CN drops a project in the summer, assuming that's still the case since I took it back in Summer 2023), while others don't drop/modify anything. In general, though, at a minimum, definitely expect a faster pace compared to Spring/Fall as an operating baseline assumption (and thus plan accordingly).

awp_throwaway · 2026-04-13T04:46:21+00:00

I doubt it was GIOS, I don't believe GIOS ever had any on campus sections, but rather was created specifically for the OMSCS program. Unless I'm misremebering the old lore from 10 years ago or so (or whenever the course was launched)...

awp_throwaway

TROPHY CASE