1/26/2010 Kymberly Burkhead-Dalton
Written by Kymberly Burkhead-Dalton
As the saying goes, “half of life is just showing up.” Computer science alumnus Ryan Musgrave (BS, 98) can attest to the truth of the saying. Ryan just struck it big on Harrah's/Bally's Casino's “The Price Is Right” by being at the right place at the right time, and a little bit of luck. Well, actually a lot of luck.
Ryan is the President of Musgrave Professional Services, Inc. He answered a few questions about himself and his time as a CS student at Illinois as part of a new regular feature.
What did you do in the year immediately after graduating?
Nothing too exciting. After taking about 2 months off to "unwind," I started work at Arthur Andersen in Chicago doing IT consulting. I was staffed on an in-office project for most of that first year, so it was great for me because I was new to Chicago, so I got to spend a lot of time exploring the city.
How do you envision computers in 2020?
Wow.....hard to say. From a business user standpoint, I believe PCs will be slowly be replaced by "dumb terminals" that access most applications over the corporate network. Companies spend so much on IT support that it seems natural to me to consolidate a lot of that administration, virus protection, backups, etc. to servers.
From a personal computing standpoint, though, I don't foresee any huge changes. Lots of people are already transitioning to smartphones for basic tasks, so I think that will continue. I'd really like to think that software developers will begin to focus more on simplicity, but that hasn't happened much yet and I doubt it will take hold in the next 10 years.
Star Wars, or Star Trek?
Star Trek! At least the older versions......The Next Generation, in particular. It's still my favorite.
What's the craziest thing you did before a big computer science exam or quiz?
Not study. :-) I had a 1-hour C.S. class that had the workload of a 3-hour class, so I decided to maximize the use of my time by doing the least amount of work for that class to get by. Instead I focused on my other 3-hour and 4-hour classes. I knew the 1-hour class wouldn't impact my GPA that much, so that was my calculated gamble. It worked ok, I guess.....I got a D in that class, but all As and Bs in my others. No regrets.
With your recent win, do you believe in luck?
Sure - after that, how could I not? Actually, as I told some friends, sometimes you make your own luck just by showing up.....that's essentially all I did.