A Violinist, Dreaming of Math
How a Musician Becomes Part of Transforming Cybersecurity
Blog Post
April 6, 2016
This is the first in a series of pieces to spotlight the experiences of women who are beneficiaries of Scholarships For Women Studying Information Security, or SWSIS, a program sponsored by Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Applied Computer Security Associates.
I grew up in a house with plenty of art supplies and musical instruments, but not a single computer. Since my mom was a visual artist and worked at our house, I was literally surrounded by paints, huge canvases, and still-life objects as a child. We didn’t find a need for computers, since aesthetic sensitivity and human expression in art and music are not things that can be reproduced by machines. Being surrounded by a family of artists and musicians, I naturally chose a career in the arts — as a violinist. But, while I practiced for hours everyday, spending my entire childhood and teen years perfecting my technique, I dreamed of something very different: math.
The problem was that I didn’t know what career paths were available to me in that field. From my point of view, it seemed that there were far more options for me as a musician than as a mathematician, which seems strange to me now, looking back. I knew that I liked solving problems and that maybe math would be something I would do for fun sometime in the future. At that point, I had been preparing for a career as a musician for so long, it didn’t seem to make sense to me to consider other options. Why throw away all of my hard work?
So I continued to pursue math as a hobby. When I was in college studying music, I took linear algebra and discrete math for fun on the side, still never considering a math-related career.
My daily practice schedule was running about 12–14 hours a day. Every day, I’d follow the same routine: wake up, practice, eat, practice, sleep.
It wasn’t until five years after I graduated from college that I started to rethink my career. At this time I was playing a great deal of concerts and taking many auditions. Each audition took months of preparation and at the same time I often played several concerts per week. My daily practice schedule was running about 12–14 hours a day. Every day, I’d follow the same routine: wake up, practice, eat, practice, sleep. I wasn’t learning anything new. My only goal each day was to repeat the same measures again and again.
During one summer, I decided I had to do something to take my mind off of the repetitive practice schedule. I eventually decided to enroll in a math course, and asked a parent of one of my violin students, a math professor, for her opinion on what course to take. She recommended that I take Computer Science. Immediately I thought “definitely not,” even though I had absolutely no idea what Computer Science was. I automatically assumed that it was something hardware-based for adolescent boys who like playing video games. I was surprised to hear that it was related to math. At that point, my goal for the course was simple: learn something new to stimulate my bored brain. Since I knew nothing about Computer Science, I was guaranteed to learn something new. I enrolled in introductory Computer Science as well as Calculus and Probability and Statistics.
Though I thoroughly enjoyed all three courses that semester, I especially liked Computer Science in part because I found that writing programs was actually similar to playing music. I decided to take two intensive programming classes after the introductory ones, and I immediately excelled. I still didn’t understand much about the field nor did I have any idea what types of careers were available in Computer Science. In fact, I didn’t really think any careers in the field would be an option for me, since I was seeing students about 10 years younger than me in my courses, and I assumed that they were all ahead of me.
Slowly, that began to change. After sitting in on graduate-level Computer Science courses, I was struck by how much of the field was full of problems still unsolved. The idea that unsolved problems still existed and that there is a chance for new people in the field to make an impact was foreign to me. Remember, I was coming from a field of tradition where one’s job is mostly to remaster something created hundreds of years ago. Only after decades of study can one hope to make any strides at all.
Cybersecurity — especially as it related to counterterrorism — was something that I had long been personally interested in. When I was 6 years old, my aunt died in the terrorist attack on Pam Am Flight 103 when she was returning home to New York from a semester studying abroad.
That wasn’t true in Computer Science. After attending a Network Security class, I was surprised by how recent the defense mechanisms were that we were studying. I couldn’t believe how many critical aspects of security were (and are!) still in the research phase. Cybersecurity — especially as it related to counterterrorism — was something that I had long been personally interested in. When I was 6 years old, my aunt died in the terrorist attack on Pam Am Flight 103 when she was returning home to New York from a semester studying abroad. Almost 13 years later, we had a second family member die in the attack on the World Trade Center on 9/11. Both were on the same side of the family.
Today, terrorists can hurt us just as much through cyber attacks. Once I saw the practical applicability of cyber security to the Computer Science that I was studying and enjoying, I knew that this was the direction I wanted to pursue. After a few semesters of classes, I started an internship at a small security company, Applied Visions, where I worked as a Java programmer on a wireless security project. After a few months, the director of the company’s research division inspired me to go to graduate school and pursue a PhD in cyber security. The following Fall I enrolled at Columbia University and started working under Professor Sal Stolfo as a researcher in the Intrusion Detection Systems Lab.
I wanted to share my story about how I became interested in cyber security because I know that many people recognize the field as important, but are hesitant to make the plunge in. Though the details of my story are atypical, the lesson is universal: this field will welcome you if you’re curious, determined to learn new things, and eager to contribute to an industry that is transforming every minute.
Jill Jermyn is pursuing a PhD at Columbia University, where she works in the Intrusion Detection Systems Lab. Her primary interests lie in the areas of network security and future-generation networks. Before becoming interested in computing, she spent her life as a concert violinist.
This post is part of Humans of Cybersecurity, a dedicated section on Context that celebrates stories of the people and ideas that are are changing our digital lives. It is part of New America’s Women in Cybersecurity Project, which seeks to dramatically increase the representation of women in the cybersecurity/information security field by fostering strategic partnerships with industry leaders, producing cutting-edge workforce research, and championing women’s voices in media. This is a project of New America’s broader Cybersecurity Initiative, which aims to clarify and connect the often disjointed debates and policies that surround the security of our networks.