Linda Deng
What's your hometown?
Toronto, Canada.
Do you play any sports?
I play table tennis and badminton.
What are your hobbies/interests?
A big hobby of mine is dancing. I've been a dancer since I was three years old. So it's always been a part of my life since I was really young. I've done classical, ballet, Chinese dance, contemporary, hiphop, jazz.
Any TV shows/movies you're into?
K-dramas, detective shows. Not watching any currently because I prefer to watch in one sitting or so after all episodes are released.
Professional experience?
As a CS and Stats double major, most of my work is centered around software engineering. So I had three internships. One is for developing an automated contract renewal system for a procurement office in my freshman and sophomore year, I was working on a dashboard for data processing for a FinTech company. And then I was a software engineering intern for an art services company. So I developed a full stack e-commerce website for them. For the upcoming summer, I am also going to be a software engineering intern, but I guess I wouldn't say the company name right now because I haven't signed them, I haven't decided which one I'm going to.
How did your choices shape your career path?
I think definitely joining SAAS helped me with not only my technical skills, but a lot of leadership skills as well. The skills I gained in SAAS definitely helped me in recruiting or in doing software engineering work. It helped me a lot because I think joining a club extracurricular activity is kind of different from working on a school project because projects we work on in SAAS are more real life based and we are using more of the modern web development technologies because I'm in the Web Development committee. And I think those really helped me to learn about different web skills, which are not really taught in different classes at Berkeley because there is no specific course that really teaches you web development. Through working on those projects and leading those projects in SAAS, I was really able to gain deeper knowledge into it, which was definitely a highlight to me when I'm trying to recruit or when I'm working on my internship projects, because there are so many projects out there in the industry that are using web development technologies.
Do you have any other campus involvements?
I've been a TA for 61B since my sophomore year. I'm really into teaching and sharing knowledge and enjoy 61B content.
How did you find out about SAAS? Why did you join SAAS?
Actually I wanted to mention a close friend of mine, Prince who is in the DC committee. I've been a very good friend of his since freshman year or sophomore year. He joined SAAS one semester earlier than me. One day on Sproul, he was tabling and I just walked by. And then I was like, oh wait, Prince, why are you here? And then he started to introduce SAAS to me. I saw the committee Web Development at that time. I didn't really know much about Web Development, other than some self-interests that led me to learn a little bit about it, but definitely not really skilled in what's on it. And then I found that SAAS is a very welcoming community and, from his experience he talked about SAAS sometimes when we were chatting, I found SAAS is a very welcoming community. Everyone's really supportive and you can learn a lot out of SAAS. So I decided to why not, submit the application to SAAS. And that was the day the applications were due. So I literally wrote it when I got home and then submitted it and then luckily I got in. And I think since then, after being a member for one semester, I think the community is really great and the work we're doing is really interesting. So I decided to apply to be a director. So that's how I got started with my career as a director in SAAS, and getting to know the executives and other directors are also really fun, and being able to use my current web development skills to teach future members, and then do more interesting projects. We have a lot of great, interesting projects coming up. Every semester is also very impactful or meaningful to me. And that's why I chose to return this semester too, because I don't really want to be out of this SAAS community. and that's why a lot of people join and then they stay with this club for a long time, which is really nice.
What's your favorite SAAS committee that you've been in and why?
Ever since I joined SAAS, I've just been in the Web Development committee. It's my favorite committee for sure, because it's the committee I stuck with since the beginning. I guess everyone has a different take, but because web development is a strong interest of mine and he past directors or past co-directors me or past colleagues or members, they're all really nice people and I definitely learned a lot from them. And even after they graduate or become seniors, they still come back to check in with us, whenever they're free.
What is your proudest accomplishment in SAAS?
I guess my proudest accomplishment would be the attendance point tracking system web app. This was actually developed by me and my other two teammates the first semester I joined SAAS, and it's a very big improvement from the previous point system, which was just displayed as a spreadsheet. But now it's more of an actual system where you can input your student ID number and then get the events that you attended and your points. So I'm really proud of that. It's being currently used.
How has SAAS helped you with your professional/career development?
I think the biggest thing as I mentioned before was that the projects we do are more related to industry projects because they are used by people in the communities. Compared to school projects, we have less guidance, we don't have a spec or something from the professors or the course. We are the owners of our projects and we are responsible for designing and researching projects. We decide what tools to use, and then implement it and I guess ship them into production in the end too. So I think this really helped me with developing my professional skills and made me a more independent and mature software engineer in the future. Also the other thing is leadership skills, managing a large codebase and maintaining a website and deploying the website is also the responsibility of the directors. So as a director, I also gained both leadership skills and the skills to lead a technical team and be a technical.
What's your favorite SAAS memory?
After some director meetings or other meetings with SAAS members, we were meeting in Moffitt, but after meetings even staying together and hanging out and working on assignments together and eating together. I think that is very memorable to me because it just illustrates how welcoming or tight knit this community is. And everyone's really good friends with each other.
What do SAAS values mean to you?
To me, I guess there are two things. One is really fostering a sense of community where everyone is helping each other and for new members, the older members are trying to help them grow and they share all they can and all their knowledge and all their experience to help the newer people. There's one example. Brian is our Professional Development advisor, I try to ask a question about what class should I do and this and that, and then he does immediately respond and try to share all his experience as much as possible. The other thing I think is that SAAS really gives you the freedom to explore interests and improve upon yourself. We are a pretty technical club, but what we want to do is to really fit the interests of all the members and make sure all the members are doing what they really are interested in and that they are getting meaningful things out of activities in SAAS.
What is your personal vision for SAAS moving forward?
I think SAAS is always developing every semester to try to make it better. For example, even the point system is changing the rules and improving to make it better. I think in the future, SAAS is increasingly going to really see the needs of the Berkeley community and see everyone's interests so that all the committees are, or even the structure of SAAS, adapting to the Berkeley community to make it even better. And in the future, I think the sense of community, it's already doing really great, the sense of bonding among the members is already really great. And I think it's going to continue to be like that in the future or even better.
What's your favorite class?
I think my favorite class is 61B and that's why I decided to teach it. It's a class that I think is really open to new aspiring software engineers or people who are looking into computer science. It teaches a lot of the important concepts that are really commonly used in everyday life of a software engineer. Also the professors are amazing. I think Hug is very much a friendly professor that really cares a lot about students. But on the other hand, from behind the scene as a staff member, I feel that the course staff community for 61B is always also really welcoming and really tight knit. And that is why 61B is a very meaningful course to me in my college career. And my favorite.
Who's your favorite professor?
Josh Hug is my favorite professor because I feel, when I was taking the class on 61B, he was very very caring of the students. When one of the new projects was kind of difficult for many students, he tried to think about so many different ways that he can support us and relieve our stress and all his lectures are very clearly explained and in a very interesting way. So I gained a lot out of his class and as a staff member working with him it was also very very interesting and he's such a friendly professor to talk to and interact with.
What's your favorite Berkeley memory?
It's not a specific moment, but I guess it's all the things that I've experienced with my best friends at college. We have similar majors. We met in GBO, went to orientation and then since then we just kind of talked more and became really close friends through classes. We were partners for a lot of classes. During the times that you are really stressed or during the times that you were really happy, you always have someone beside you who can share this emotion with you and who can always support you. I guess if I were to really say one specific moment that is really memorable to me is on the day of my birthday, three of us were in this math class. Then after class, we decided to go to Moffitt together. But when we were on our way to Moffitt, suddenly one of them said she lost her charger in the lecture hall and needed to go grab it. And later on in Moffitt, my other friend was like, oh I need to go to the washroom or something. So I said ok and was sitting in Moffitt somewhere doing my work to wait for them. Then later they texted me, they were like, "Linda, can you come to FSM? I forgot my wallet or something." And I went to FSM and they had a birthday cake there for me, then I realized my friends were trying to throw a birthday surprise for me. It was very, very memorable to me and they're my closest friends at college. And even though it was a time when there were a lot of midterms and final projects, almost finals, they still remember my birthday and try to throw a birthday surprise to me every single year. That was the first year. And then later on every single birthday, I have them celebrate with me even when it's remote, virtual and Zoom, they try to do a Zoom birthday party for me, which is really great.
What's your favorite Library on campus?
Moffitt 5th floor. Most productive on that floor.
In your opinion, prettiest building on campus?
Berkeley Way West, really modern.
What's your favorite restaurant?
Imm Thai
What's your favorite boba shop?
Asha Tea House