Bill Joy

Bill Joy talks about alternate ways to get energy. (I got this photo at fortune.com. (This photo was created by Scott Woolley.))

Have you always wanted to code programs, make computers, or make computer software? Bill Joy is a famous computer scientist who co-founded the company Sun Microsystems and developed computer software to make computers more efficient. I first became aware of Joy when I was searching for famous people who were electrical engineers. The reason I am so interested in him is because his job uses a lot of math and technology which are two things I love. Right now I am a high school student, but I too would like to pursue a similar career or even the same career that he does.

As a computer scientist Joy does a lot of coding. Joy and his company set up applications that other people can use to make technology easier to use. To become a computer scientist you need a bachelor's degree in computer science or computer engineering or any other field that is related to computers and science. As of January 2016, a computer scientist's salary ranged between $52,953-$127,598 according to Payscale. Some related careers on the Payscale website are software engineer, program manager, data architect, and applications development manager. Some recent developments are advanced computer systems. Computers can hold a lot more data and can run smoothly and efficiently. Another development is the ability to be able to talk to technology and the device can put down what you said.

According to the website Britannica article about Bill Joy, when Joy was in high school, he did very well in mathematics and graduated at age 15. Something interesting Joy did in college was he helped upgrade the computers that his school was using and he also sold copies of the improvement for money. Joy went to college at the University of Michigan according to Kleiner Perkins Claufield & Byers, the venture capital firm Joy currently partners with. Some of Joy's career successes are when he co-founded Sun Microsystems. His company helped design a microprocessor called SPARC, he helped create the Java language, according to The Register UK. Today Joy is retired from his engineering job, but he sometimes travels to different places, like New York, to give speeches about his opinions on artificial intelligence according to the website Wired.

Joy did some things that made the world a better place. According to the Britannica article about Bill Joy, in 2005 he helped fund technologies that had to do with climate, renewable fuels, low costing electricity and different ways to generate power that is good for the environment. This is making the world a better place because he is helping reduce the pollution in the air. The company that he worked for was Kleiner Perkins Claufield & Byers. But before Joy worked for this company he co-founded Sun Microsystems. There he worked on creating an operating system to make computers better. He was also involved with BSD Unix, NFS, UlatraSparC designs, Java, and he made vi. All of these technologies made him successful because it made computers more effective to use. According to Technopidia, vi is a screen editor for certain computers.

In order to start out in the career direction of my hero, I will try to find an intern job that has to do with computer science. In high school I will take Advanced Placement Computer Science and I will also take advanced math and science classes. My college goals are to get into a college that is right for me. Some colleges that I had in mind are Text A & M University, University of California Berkeley, and University of California Los Angeles. I want to major in what Bill Joy majored in, electrical engineering and computer science. My lifetime goals are to be like Joy. I knew that I wanted a job that has to do with mathematics and technology, but he helped me choose which specific job I should go for. I will try to get good grades throughout my school career to so I can be as successful as Joy.