{"id":137318,"date":"2023-10-12T11:59:22","date_gmt":"2023-10-12T15:59:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=137318"},"modified":"2023-10-12T11:59:22","modified_gmt":"2023-10-12T15:59:22","slug":"digital-detective-ucf-computer-science-graduate-student-does-double-duty-to-help-fight-crime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ucf.edu\/news\/digital-detective-ucf-computer-science-graduate-student-does-double-duty-to-help-fight-crime\/","title":{"rendered":"Digital Detective: UCF Computer Science Graduate Student Does Double Duty to Help Fight Crime"},"content":{"rendered":"
Computer science graduate <\/a>student Ariel Turnley had very different plans for her future while she was a freshman at Spelman College. Since then, her planned career path has shifted from working in an operating room to working in a computer lab. Her ultimate motivation however has never changed: helping people.<\/p>\n Turnley originally dreamed of becoming a surgeon but wasn\u2019t a fan of biology. When she took a computer science class that was required for her major, it changed her whole career trajectory.<\/p>\n \u201cI did really well in that course and found it to be so interesting how you can write up code to do almost anything you could think of,\u201d she says. \u201cI was even helping other people understand programming and helping them with their assignments.\u201d<\/p>\n Turnley decided to make the leap to a subject that came so easily to her, changing her major to computer science.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you\u2019re in college each decision seems like a life-changing decision since it determines your career,\u201d she says. \u201cI realized that some of the best decisions that you make are going to be scary, and if it\u2019s not scary then it is not worthwhile. I made the shift and I truly enjoyed my experience.\u201d<\/p>\n UCF was one of two Florida schools Turnley considered to pursue a graduate degree. Ultimately, she chose to become a Knight after determining that UCF\u2019s programs were more unique and hands-on, and with many more resources to help her succeed with it being such a large school. With her sister in Orlando and friends in the area who had graduated from UCF, she had a strong support system in place as well.<\/p>\n She had her sights set on UCF\u2019s master\u2019s in digital forensics program<\/a>, one of the six master\u2019s degree programs offered by the UCF Department of Computer Science. With few forensics programs offered across the U.S., Turnley made a judicious decision to take on a second master\u2019s degree program simultaneously.<\/p>\n