Name: Devin Avery '07
Hometown: Antrim, NH

Durham, N.H. – Talk to Devin Avery, and you’ll quickly learn that he has a passion for Computer Science. He likens it to an art; or, more specifically, a blending of his two intrinsic abilities: art and math.

“My mom is creative – she was a dance teacher for 30 years; my dad is an accountant, so he’s very mathematically-oriented,” said Avery. “With CS, those two qualities have come together in me: designing software is the art and then you use math and logic to break down and solve problems.”

Avery's interest in Computer Science dates back to before he even became a CS Major. During his high school days, he would program for eight to ten hours straight and not even know where the time went. Now a senior at UNH, Avery could still lose a whole day to programming-for-fun if he had the time. But Devin rarely does these days.

His sophomore year, Devin worked on an undergraduate research project he developed with Radim Bartos, associate professor of Computer Science. Through UNH’s University Research Opportunity Program, Devin applied for and was awarded $1,000 to conduct his research.

“It was part of a larger project that the Network Research Group is working on for Cisco Systems,” said Avery.

The Cisco project entailed developing new algorithms for transferring data over an optical network, which CS grad students were developing.

“The Network Traffic Trace Generator was needed to help test these algorithms by producing a trace (a file that includes information about what size data packet to send at what time) from different models that are used to model real-life network traffic,” Avery explained. “The trace was then passed to a simulator where the algorithms were tested.”

For Devin, the experience of team collaboration during this project was paramount.

“This is the future of where I’m headed in terms of projects and teamwork. Often it’s not this way in a class,” he said. “I wanted to do this for the experience and getting my project out there. And, in the end, I know I’ll have something to add to my resume - something I worked on collaboratively.”

Avery transferred into the UNH CS program in spring 2005. Before coming to UNH he was at Roger Williams University in Rhode Island. He started out there as architecture major, but switched to computer science after interning in the IT Department at Monadnock Community Hospital in Peterborough.

“There, I got more experience working on computers; I was developing web software for displaying time punches,” he said. “I had a lot of fun; so, at that point, I decided to pursue CS.”

What Avery liked about CS was the problem solving and breaking simple tasks down into steps.

“I like being able to show that information to people in different ways and show how it’s useful,” he said. “I also like the fact that I can take this and go anywhere with it. If I like medicine, I can write programs for that. If I like architecture, I can write programs for that.”

While he knew he was on the right track with CS, Avery found Roger Williams’s CS program to be too small for him. He took some courses at Keene State College, but then decided he wanted something more.

“I wanted a place with more people, more experiences, more chances to try other things out,” he said.

UNH delivered.

“UNH is a great place and a great campus with a lot of programs. I always thought I’d enjoy going to a small school, but I found out it’s not a small school I wanted but small class sizes, small faculty-student ratio,” Avery said. “Luckily, there are only 25 students in my classes, so I can really work and talk with professors one-on-one about things. Still, it’s great to have a lot of options available – that’s the benefit of going to larger school.”

- Rachel Purnell, CS Department Staff