Name: Tim Carlin '06
Hometown: Sanford, Maine

Tim Carlin became hooked on computers the day his family got their first Macintosh Performer. At the time, he was in the 4th grade.

“I really enjoyed playing around with computers (mostly breaking then fixing them at the time),” says Carlin, “and gradually, I became more and more interested.”

Then, while in high school, the Sanford, Maine native looked at several computer science degree programs at universities up and down the east coast, but it was UNH’s program that ultimately became his top choice.

“I just wasn’t impressed with the overall aura of the other colleges themselves,” says Carlin. “Of all the colleges I saw, I was most impressed with UNH.”

One of the things Carlin liked was UNH’s “diverse atmosphere.”

“It wasn’t just a technical school,” he said.

And when Carlin came to UNH as a freshman in 2002, the university and the CS program more than met his expectations.

“CS is one of the most helpful departments,” he said. “You can always come up here and feel it’s okay to go and ask your professor a quick question.”

Carlin said he also likes “the overall flow of the major” and that the classes are small.

What’s more, he said, “you get to know people well…not just people in your class but in the lower and upper classes as well.”

Carlin, in addition to being a full-time student, worked at the UNH InterOperability Laboratory, a world-class testing laboratory that works side by side with leading technology companies to improve their products before they get to market.

His current tasks at the IOL included, but were not limited to, testing routing devices and host computers’ implementation of the Internet Protocol version 6 specification, and associated routing protocols such as OSPFv3, and RIPng.

“I assisted in the development of new test suites and procedures and I assist in the implementation of automated testing software,” said Carlin.

“I learned a ton when I started at the IOL in January of 2004,” he said. “I learned several different protocols that make the internet work, such as IPv6, OSPFv3, RIPng. Also, I've gained quite a bit of experience in dealing with Sun Solaris machines, NetBSD, Linux, and the configuration of many different types of routers, and of course, how companies operate.” (For more information on the IOL and IPv6 consortium, take a look at www.iol.unh.edu and www.iol.unh.edu/consortiums/ipv6/index.html).

Carlin now has a job in industry, working as a software engineer for EDO-IST (formerly Impact Science & Technology) http://www.edocorp.com/EDOIST.htm in Nashua, NH.  Carlin says his job experience at the IOL prepared him for this position.

“One thing I worried about (when I was considering UNH), was that it’s not (specifically) a technical school,” he said. “I wondered if I’d be able to compete with graduates from more technically-specific universities. But the fact is, it’s what you put into it. You can definitely compete.”

- Rachel Purnell, CS Department Staff