Florida State is “the best university in Florida,” says Mark Carpenter, and the reason he came here to study Computer Science.

Mark Carpenter

Upsilon Pi Epsilon International Honor Society Inductee

Florida State is “the best university in Florida,” says Mark Carpenter, and the reason he came here to study Computer Science. Judging from his accomplishments, he’s taken full advantage of what the University has to offer.

Mark was invited into the Honors in the Major Program, which requires two terms of research with a three-faculty member committee and defense of a thesis on that research. He has assisted Dr. Lisa Spainhour, Associate Professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, with TraCS, a traffic and criminal software program funded by the Florida Department of Transportation and released statewide.

He’s also served as research assistant for one of his favorite professors, Dr. Andy Wang in the Department of Computer Science. Mark admires the professor’s extensive knowledge and is grateful for his insights into systems programming.

Mark has maintained a 3.7 grade point average, made the Dean’s List, and has been inducted into the Upsilon Pi Epsilon International Honor Society for the Computing Sciences, which chooses its members not only for their scholastic achievement in a computing science program, but also for distinguishing themselves as professionals. He’s also a member of the Association of Computing Machinery, an organization dedicated to advancing the skills of information technology professionals and students worldwide.

Yet, one memory of his time at FSU stands alone for Mark—the middle-of-the-semester email from one of his professors, Dr. Ted Baker, asking him to serve as Teaching Assistant for the senior-level Programming Languages course. He says, “I was honored to be offered this position.”

Indeed, Florida State is honored because of Mark’s dedication to learning.