On 29/12/14 10:51, Atmn Patel wrote:

Hello all,

My name is Atmn Patel. I am a high school student in a small town near Windsor, ON, Canada. I am technically in grade 10, but I'm looking at a very early graduation. I was going to apply to the University of Toronto this year, but didn't because my parents wouldn't let me go. My dream school is MIT, double major in CS and Physics to pursue a doctorate in Quantum Computing. I started with Linux in grade 6, with Ubuntu (when they still used GNOME) but after they switched to Unity, I changed to Arch Linux. I stuck with Arch until about 10 months ago when I decided that I actually want to start contributing, I changed to Fedora. I spent the last 10 months getting used to it, understanding it, and toying with it, and now I think its time I start contributing.

As for my computer skills, I know C and Python to the level of an introductory undergraduate course. I am currently learning Java in my spare time. I am also working towards getting the Linux Foundation Certified System Administrator. As for project experience, I have none. I believe that I am an excellent match for the project because I am willing to learn and dedicate time to the project (I have no experience whatsoever).

Time Zone: EST
Interests: N/A

GPG KEYID and fingerprint:
pub   2048R/65B2C7F9 2014-12-28 [expires: 2015-12-28]
      Key fingerprint = 11E7 A451 66B8 E676 1B70  937E 31A0 9D5F 65B2 C7F9

uid                  Atmn Patel (Fedora Project) <atmnpatel.eiacps@gmail.com <mailto:atmnpatel.eiacps@gmail.com>>
sub   2048R/ACCE24D7 2014-12-28 [expires: 2015-12-28]

I strongly suggest that you allow yourself to mature before going to university, too many very bright children either burn out or have difficulty adjusting socially, then bomb out!  My youngest son really wanted to get to university a year early when he was in year 10, but he is glad he did not now - so we did look at a lot of the issues.

Very important to develop social & personal interactions skills.  Not just in relating to people socially, but being able to work effectively in teams with various types of people, not just technical people.  Ensure that you can have a LIFE outside of physics & computers!  You're probably too young to even think about getting married in the future, but you still need to learn how to cook & do housework, and look after yourself - important for flatting, let alone for being married...

Broaden your experience and learning rather than rush into university.  Better to skip year 1 at university than a year of school.  I taught myself Special Relativity when I was at high school, but didn't really know how to cook when I left home, and I am now in my second marriage.

However, I would like to encourage you to get more into Linux, and also into advanced physics (no need to wait until university, have you seen http://www.infocobuild.com/education/audio-video-courses/physics/quantum-entanglements-p1.html ?). Physics is fascinating, I read up on M-Theory, but most of the Math is way, way beyond me - besides software development is meant to be were I earn money!

If you really want to be a top flight physicist, you need to have a good grasp of calculus, tensor algebra, and other aspects of Mathematics.  You may want to look at http://sagemath.org as this is free software that runs on Linux that has similar features to Matlab & Mathematica.

I started with FORTRAN & COBOL, and I've taught C to experienced programmers, and my main language now is Java.  I consider myself lucky that we have Linux, all my computers run Fedora.  I think C & Java are good languages to know, but you may want to look into C++ and even FORTRAN (currently FORTRAN is the main language used in scientific super computing).


Cheers,
Gavin
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