Chris Piro currently works for Facebook as a software engineer. (Courtesy Chris Piro)
Student Profile: Chris Piro
By LiAnna Davis
In Dr. Clay Shields, Chris Piro found more than just a professor doing interesting computer science research. He found a friend.
“He's a really smart guy who excels at his job. Clay is a good guy—nothing can sum up who he is more than that sentence,” Piro says. “He's both good at his work and pleasant to be around, which is not altogether common. He's above all genuine, patient, and helpful—the kind of person that makes you wish there were justice in the world because he's one of the few people that actually deserves good things. I enjoyed getting to know him personally and professionally.”
Piro, a 2006 graduate who double majored in Computer Science and Mathematics, is currently working as a software engineer for social networking powerhouse Facebook in Palo Alto, California. He works on an open-source project called Thrift that enables the services behind the scenes at Facebook and several other companies to speak to each other across computers and across programming languages. Piro’s specific role was to add support for a new language to Thrift. He received his master’s degree in Computer Science from Yale in 2007 and is on leave from Yale’s Ph.D. program in Computer Science to gain industry experience. The focus of his graduate studies is programming languages.
“I gained a lot of insight into the programming process from working with several languages on my projects at Georgetown,” Piro says.
He got his start working with Dr. Shields when he expressed interest in doing computer science research after taking a few classes with the professor. Dr. Shields recruited Piro to help with network security research he was working on, and Piro says Dr. Shields’ enthusiasm for the project was contagious. He received a GUROP summer fellowship in 2005 that funded his work with Dr. Shields. Dr. Shields also served as a mentor for Piro in choosing to pursue a career in academia. And Piro says the level of work he was doing with Dr. Shields as an undergraduate was at the graduate level, preparing him well for his Ph.D. program.
“I love research and I admire the kind of life he lives,” says Piro, who is from Rochester, New York. “We used to talk a lot about academia and sift through the good and the bad. If I hadn't taken up those projects with him, I likely wouldn't have considered a career in computer science research.”
Feature Story
Dr. Clay Shields Probes Computer Forensics and Network Security
Dr. Clay Shields' office reflects his approach to teaching computer science at Georgetown. There are, of course, the computers, on which Dr. Shields researches network security and privacy. Then there's the large leather sofa, which encourages students to come hang out and discuss their latest ideas. And don't forget the Dance Dance Revolution pad, often there because well...because it's fun.
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What do you enjoy about teaching?
It is often said that the best way to learn something is to teach it, and I experience that every time I teach. Since I like learning, I like teaching, even if what I am learning is how to teach better. I also think computers and what we can use them for are fascinating and incredible, so I really enjoy it when I see students make the same realization.