Computer science major, information assurance emphasis
Kenton, Ohio              

Through his internships and other activities, Josh Ziegler has gained practical experience in his career field, but more importantly, he has had many opportunities to get to know people from other disciplines and locations while trying to understand their ways of life and how they think.            

During his junior year, Ziegler and several other UF students attended a Presidential Inauguration Seminar held by The Washington Center. The seminar included speakers, discussions and the presidential inauguration ceremony of Barack Obama. “When we got back from the trip, the students who went felt like we were missing that crucial element we had there – critical discussion,” said Ziegler.            

The students formed The Salon Group, which continued to meet weekly for roughly a year. It was an outlet to discuss current events, science, new developments and other topics.            

Ziegler’s experience with The Washington Center was so positive that he applied, and was accepted, to work as an intern at Rock the Vote, an organization whose mission is to “engage and build political power for young people in our country.” He did computer programming, computer security work and other miscellaneous duties. “It was a lot of fun,” he said. “I’m a political junkie. It was right up my alley.”            

Also during his four years at Findlay, Ziegler completed two internships with Marathon Oil Co., one in Houston and one in Findlay, and another with Lockheed Martin Corp. in Philadelphia.            

Between internships, Zielger also has worked for UF’s Information Technology Services (ITS). He started off manning the phones and helping faculty and staff members fix their computer problems, and has progressed to working on the network team, which includes network monitoring and other, more advanced, assignments.            

“I’ve had a lot of chances here that I probably wouldn’t have had at a bigger university, such as working for the IT department,” said Ziegler.            

Josh, second from right, was one of several students who participated in an Information Assurance Forum on campus. The event was held in partnership with Greater Findlay Inc.

His work on campus gave Ziegler the idea for his Honors Program research project. He requested permission to do research for the University by testing its network, and during the course of approximately one year, Ziegler did several types of testing, looked at the types of documentation that were in place and studied UF’s plans for disaster response. “It gave me experience doing that kind of manual labor, experiencing the problems with doing testing on live systems, and documenting it all,” he said.            

As an Honors student since his sophomore year, Ziegler enjoyed the variety and challenge the program offered. “The program allows professors a chance to do something outside the norm, and they get to do something different,” commented Ziegler. “The classes are smaller than normal. We get to do more talking, and it was exciting … It expanded my course load beyond the required computer science courses.”            

Ziegler noted that he especially enjoyed the class discussions in an Honors course taught by Matt Stolick, Ph.D., associate professor of philosophy.            

Other professors Ziegler says made a positive impression on him were Craig Gunnett, assistant professor of computer science, and Helen Schneider, Ph.D., director of the technology management program and an assistant professor. Schneider supervised Ziegler’s internships, and Gunnett served as Ziegler’s academic adviser.            

Josh, right, accepts a congratulatory handshake from Gary Johnson, Ph.D., dean of the College of Liberal Arts, during an induction ceremony for Sigma Xi honor society.

On campus, Ziegler also is a charter member of both the Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi honor societies.            

Following graduation, Ziegler plans to pursue a master’s degree in computer science. He would like to do research on artificial intelligence and information assurance.