My Swat Story: Associate Professor of Computer Science Ameet Soni

Swarthmore Provided a Perfect Balance

"When you're in a scientific field, there's a very different look to working at a big university as opposed to a smaller one. It's not just the small class sizes, but in terms of the makeup of your job. I was looking for a place that balanced both research and teaching. I met somebody that went to Swarthmore when I was in graduate school and I decided I wanted to apply to Swarthmore and other similar institutions. So that's what got me there and once I came here and I knew it was what I wanted to do, I fell in love with it right away."

The Human Genome Project Inspired Him

"I'd sit in computer science classes and I really liked the math, but I wasn't motivated for how it could be used. When I started taking these bioinformatics classes after learning about the Human Genome Project, I started seeing an application that I cared about and it motivated me to want to learn a lot more about not only the algorithms, but about how they could be used for medical and biological advancements. I want to be able to work on problems that can help save lives, that can help us better understand the underlying science."

He's a Burgeoning Cinephile

"I got interested in understanding the theory behind films. What are they trying to communicate and how do they convey that? There are so many layers to how a film works in terms of the cinematography, the lighting, the editing, the script, and then you have the actors themselves. There's so many different modalities for being able to convey a story. I've gotten into watching a lot of films and trying to read up and understand the history behind them."