Growth Curve: One Khoury College Undergraduate’s Experience

Khoury College undergraduate Justin Littman (BSCS ’19) originally came to Northeastern as a business student – he knew he liked analyzing trends and making predictions. In his third year he realized data science was his true passion, with the most compelling topic and classes being on machine learning. Using those skills for his final class project, he built an NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament program to predict winners of each game.

Littman’s first co-op was in finance at State Street Global Markets on the equity floor. It was a lively environment and affirmed his interest in trends and predictions. During his second co-op, he lived in Washington, D.C. working for a government contractor in computer science: Data Machines. Every day was a new learning experience at the research-oriented company. His manager, a Khoury College graduate, put him in “the fire right away,” but Littman quickly contributed to building a cloud computing system for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Building on the skills he learned in Washington, Littman’s third and most recent co-op had a huge focus on execution. He worked at BlockTEST in Cambridge, MA. His code had a direct impact on applications used by customers around the world. He wore many hats, from strategy to coding to tech support. Littman notes, “I can definitely say that my confidence in my technical abilities grew a lot through this experience.”

Early in Littman’s time at Khoury College, recently-retired Associate Dean of Administration and Student Affairs Doreen Hodgkin influenced his success. While he and others were working in the computer lab, Littman remarks, “she would often come by with snacks and a smile, and she was always up for a quick chat. Talking to her for a few minutes about my interests and ambitions really helped keep things in perspective and re-energized me to keep pushing forward.”

In his first semester, Littman struggled with the fundamentals of computer science class. However, he met with a teaching assistant who was “very patient and willing to bear with me as I wrapped my head around the concept.” He adds that it was it was “a humbling experience,” but says he “ended up leaving encouraged.” Later, Littman’s own experience as a teaching assistant for Data Science 4100 stands out as a very positive moment at Khoury College. For him, explaining concepts to others helped him understand them as well.

Looking to the future, Littman is not yet sure where he’ll work, but for him “the fascinating thing about data science is that the skills are relevant” in a variety of directions. While his interests range from personal health applications to music and transportation, Littman is sure of this: he would like to work with prediction – and have an impact.