Morgan Zantua Interviews Seth Baily
Morgan: How do you see Information Technology changing and what are you doing to stay ahead of those changes?
Seth: Honestly, with the advances in AI, machine learning, robotics, and other technologies that have increased the pace of change tenfold, by 2025, I estimate that 50 billion devices will be connected to the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), while 70 percent of manufacturers will be using digital twins regularly.
I use a variety of resources that are available to help me identify industry insights and tech trends. I take advantage of conferences and trade shows to get a sense of the offerings and advances from other players in the industry. I always gather valuable intel from walking around the trade show floor and talking to attending speakers.
This is also a terrific opportunity to identify what tech is performing well and what is not working in your industry. I try to be smart about the events I choose to attend. I always start with research. I review the conferences agenda before signing up to see if the topics align with my current learning objectives. I always check out the list of speakers to see if they are experts in the field who can share with me the latest trends and resources in the information technology industry.
In addition, my schedule is always hectic, but it is important to me that I set aside time to catch up on industry insights and/or research from industry leaders on the latest tech advances. Every industry has many newsletters available from diverse sources. I sift through what is available to find the one that best suits me.
—
Morgan: What are areas you’re researching and learning right now?
Seth: Honestly, I have been researching and learning as much as I can on cloud computing. Cloud is a model of computing where servers, networks, storage, development tools, and even applications (apps) are enabled through the internet. Instead of organizations having to make major investments to buy equipment, train staff, and provide ongoing maintenance, some or all of these needs are handled by a cloud service provider. With that being said, there are five key characteristics of a cloud computing environment:
– Internet Access –
With a public cloud environment, users “plug into” the data and applications via an internet connection giving anytime, anywhere access.
– Measured Service –
Cloud is often pay-as-you-go, where you only pay for what you use. An example of this would be how a utility company meters how much water, electricity, or gas is used and charges based on consumption. The cloud model is similar.
– On-Demand Self-Service –
Services can be requested and provisioned quickly, without the need for manual setup and configuration.
– Shared Resource Pooling –
Cloud often uses the multi-tenancy model. This means a single application is shared among several users. So, rather than creating a copy of the application for each user, several users, or tenants can configure the application to their specific needs.
– Rapid Elasticity –
Cloud platforms are elastic. An organization can scale its resource usage levels up or down quickly and easily as needs change.
—
Morgan: Where can our students connect with you online?
Seth: In short, LinkedIn is the best place for our students to connect with me.
—
Thank you for taking the time to be interviewed, for your service, and being a CityU Associate Faculty.
Our faculty, like Seth, is the reason City University of Seattle is an exceptional place to learn. Seth brings a rich combination of corporate, government, and military experience to the classroom.
—————————————-
Seth, thank you for agreeing to be interviewed for the STC Thursday Byte.
Morgan: Let’s start off by telling us about your career path that brought you to where you are today.
Seth: Well, I joined the United States Marine Corps in April of 2000. When it came time to re-enlist, I choose to get out of the United States Marine Corps and enlist in the California Army National Guard. I have always loved anything to do with computers. Information Technology has always intrigued me. So, when I joined the California Army National Guard, I enlisted with the condition that the Army would send me to school to work on their communications platforms.
Backing up for a quick second, being in the National Guard is a unique way to serve in the military. The National Guard is a unique element of the U.S. military in that National Guardsmen serve both the community and country. The Guard responds to domestic emergencies, overseas combat missions, counterdrug efforts, reconstruction missions, and so much more. Being in the National Guard also allowed me to focus on going to college and four years later, starting on a career within the Information Technology industry. In March of 2009, I was offered a job by General Dynamics C4 Systems as a network engineer at Fort Lewis, WA. I accepted the job offer and eventually worked my way up to becoming a senior network engineer for the western region of the US.
—
Morgan: What advice would you give someone wanting to pursue a career like yours?
Seth: “Expertise is the direct result of experience.” All your experiences are and can be useful. Throughout my career, I have learned a great deal from labs, working in production environments, consulting, reading, and watching videos. With that being said, I have learned more from my failures than my accomplishments. Those who shortcut expertise doom themselves to a career of chicanery. Yes, I am talking about cheating.
Stop a moment and consider the end result of passing a test without the expertise associated. What is the next step, exactly? Will your next job have a dump of their network for you? The sad fate of these people is they tend to bounce from job to job quickly, as their lack of expertise is uncovered. Do not doom yourself to a career of jumping around as you get discovered as a fraud. It is far easier to just learn expertise than to fake it.
—
Morgan: What have you read or listened to recently that inspired you?
Seth: I recently read “Everyday Chaos: Technology, Complexity, and How We’re Thriving in a New World of Possibility by David Weinberger” The reason this inspiring to me is because, IT professionals are always looking for inspiration to create possibilities versus just simply participating via current tools. While reading this book, I learned that being faced with uncertainty and accepting that we truly know little allows organizations to confront the vastness of computer-generated learning. This book can help leaders find opportunities in the chaos of information technology.
The first meeting will happen on April 28th 2023 at 11:00AM PST/1:00PM CT.
For more information, feel free to reach out to the President – Melissa Lee
STC is looking for student assistants who want to gain experience working with agile and collaborative teams, receive training in advanced technologies, and learn the current strategic technology trends.
If you are a self-starter, technically competent, and familiar with one of the following subjects – Operating Systems, Networking, Web, Programming, Database, and Cloud, you will have an excellent opportunity to learn advanced concepts and skills through this position.
Additionally, if you are seeking to help your community and gain experience in a high-demand specialty that will significantly enhance your resume while also earning income, this is the job for you.
For more information, click here.
Become a Cybersecurity High School Teacher– open to high school teachers in Colorado, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, and Washington state: Online with a four day in-person summer summit in Seattle.
The AWS Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) Scholarship program, in collaboration with Intel and Udacity, aims to help underserved and underrepresented high school and college students learn foundational ML concepts to prepare them for careers in AI and ML. For more information click here.
NICE Conference Volunteers
June 5th – 7th the NICE Conference organizers need students to assist with staffing the registration and customer service desk. Student volunteers from CityU are requested. While volunteers will work, they will also be given the opportunity to select key sessions of interest to attend. While I don’t have a formal process in place yet, if you are interested send your up-to-date resume to:
C4CYI@cityu.edu. SUBJECT: Student Volunteer for NICE.
Presently, we recommend local students consider applying as no dormitory rooms are presently available for this conference.
Check out the C4CYI YouTube Channel for STC recorded Invited Talks and events. Explore ACM Tech Talks and the ACM website to watch their free informative Tech Talks. ACM, the world’s largest educational and scientific computing society, delivers resources that advance computing as a science and a profession. You can find record CAE Tech talks here. For questions on CAE Tech Talk, please send them email.
Interested in the Tech field? Wish to broaden your network? Check out our clubs.
Cybersecurity Enthusiasts are welcome to join!
Check out the Breach of the Week program; A club member presents current cyber events to the club in 3-5 minutes. This is a great opportunity to learn, participate and network.
We encourage all current and future alumni to attend the meetings.
Meeting Times:
Fridays, 3:00PM (PDT) Over MS Teams
Contact:
President – Dan Montage
City University of Seattle has just created a new WiCyS student chapter.
The purpose of the club is to build a community within our CityU school that promotes women’s education, participation, and leadership in the field of cybersecurity.
Meeting Times:
Next meeting: April 28th at 11:00AM (PDT). Feel free to reach out for more information.
Typical meeting time: Fridays, 11:00AM (PDT) over MS Teams.
Contact:
President – Melissa Lee
STC Tech Club meets to provide tech-related learning opportunities, skill development, and networking. Students or faculty who would like to share their expertise or project, please reach out.
Meeting Times:
Thursdays, 4:30PM (PDT) Over MS Teams
Contact:
President – Tyray Fortune
This quarter, we will be covering various topics including Computer Vision, Data Engineering, and NLP! Take a look at our calendar and club page for more.
We are recruiting new officers for the Data Science Club. If you are interested in becoming one, please fill out the form here, or scan the QR code in the flyer.
Meeting Times:
Wednesdays, 4:00PM (PDT) Over MS Teams
Contact:
President – Mahathi Vucha
Looking for more project/work experience to put on your resume? Try contributing to an open-source project:
GitHub for beginner-friendly open-source projects
How to Contribute to Open-Source Projects – guide
STC TA documentation for setting up environments
Valuable certifications:
Computer Science
AZ-900: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals
Looking for extra help to guide you through your tech career? Check out Mentors in Tech
Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Information Systems
Data Science and Artificial Intelligence
AWS Certified Machine Learning – Specialty
Encountered an issue in this post? - Feel free to reach out here.