Seta Whitby “Good morning, how are my favorite students?” Seta Whitby, associate professor of computer science, bounces into the classroom every morning, greeting each class with this same question. Her short, streaked brown hair frames her face, her dark Armenian skin. Her deep-set, dark eyes expel a brightness, a passion and they – like that passion – are always on, always glowing. And then there’s the smile: That gleam that never fades. It’s that passion again. It keeps everything burning. Whitby simply loves to do what she’s doing, and it shows; she makes those around her feel it, constantly exuding her enthusiasm for computers and computer science. She obviously loves what she does professionally. So what does she do in her spare time, when she leaves ULV at night? “My baby goes with me – my computer,” she said, with a slightly retained accent, the product of being an Armenian raised in Lebanon. “I’m on my computer until 2 o’clock in the morning. The minute I majored in computer science, I forgot about all my hobbies.” Whitby is yet another example of a professor whose livelihood is her life. It all started shortly after immigrating to the United States, when she was enrolled in college. “I took one class in computer science,” she said, “and I switched my major the same semester and got hooked.” Now, an associate professor, she runs completely paperless classrooms, which translates into extended work at night, answering e-mails and evaluating work, in addition to completing office paperwork. As if any of that matters. Without professional work to do, Whitby would be on her “baby” anyway, learning new languages, reading any one of a myriad of online programming science articles or publications. “If you cut the DSL, I will stop breathing,” she said. “Since I came to America, I never felt bored. In this major, there’s always something that I’m trying to learn.” Always on, Whitby’s bubbly personally strays from the cliché computer scientist – introverted, reclusive. Her charismatic, excitable demeanor inverts the stereotype of the quiet cubicle-dwelling programmer. “I’m much more of a people person,” she said. But it wasn’t always that way. Whitby actually used to reside in the programming realm. Now, she’s shifting more into information science, what she calls the “human side of computer science.” If anything, Whitby does have one hobby outside of computers. She enjoys cooking and designing unique cakes for her friends’ special occasions. But – surprise – even that traces back to computers. Her main joy in creating and decorating cakes stems from the idea that she’s creating something unique to an individual or a group and the main objective – her reward – is to make that individual or group happy, which parallels designing Power Point presentations. “That’s why I’m so interested in designing and creating presentations,” she said. In fact, at the beginning of the interview on this particular morning, Whitby was actually testing a Power Point presentation she had toiled to create over the weekend for students receiving a scholarship. “Time doesn’t mean anything to me, as long as it’s for a good objective,” she said. “If the students see their picture, and it makes them happy, then it’s worth it.” THE PROFESSOR As a professor, Whitby seems too good to be true. She’s that perfect, benevolent, selfless teacher that everyone’s had at least once. “As long as there is a student that has the interest in learning, I will go the extra mile to help them find their dream,” she said. Whitby said her former students are working at IBM, JPL, Northrop, Boeing, and have helped design “Jurassic Park” and “Twister.” “They are everywhere,” she said. “I don’t know that I had anything to do with it. But I feel that I encouraged them, that there’s no dream that won’t come true if you put your mind to it.” As a professor, Whitby says her students tend to notice her excitability: “I get excited a lot in the classroom. All the time, I tell them, ‘You yell at me, I’ll yell at you.’ It’s my personality. They say I’m passionate about my field and I show it.” But more than anything else, Whitby says her students realize that she cares, and for no other reason than to see them succeed. “I don’t have anything to take advantage of,” she said. “They know my personal interest is to see them glow as a star.” RETURN TO FACULTY LISTmailto:whitbys@ulv.edu?subject=HELLOHome.htmlshapeimage_1_link_1
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