By Chris Beswetherick
After not having used a computer until 1995, Dr. Filip Jagodzinski, an assistant professor in the Computer Science department, has proudly provided students with an abundance of facets for learning. Having conceived numerous research proposals, and having such an academic background, this professor has involved many students in collaborations for high-level learning experiences.
At the very least a triglot, Dr. Jagodzinski was born in Poland and grew up in a Polish-speaking household. After living in Poland for a few years, his family transitioned to Germany where he learned to speak German. Finally, he immigrated to the United States in the second grade.
Jagodzinski spent his adolescence here in the U.S. and he became an avid runner. He participated in track and competed up to the university level. Jagodzinski attended Columbia College in New York City for his undergraduate degree in biomedical engineering imaging. His degree mixes biochemistry and computer science and these studies have been his focus since graduating. Originally, Jagodzinski pursued medical school.
“I took every physics course, every biology course, every chemistry course,” he said. “I went through a course of fortuitous things.”
After studying all of these subjects, finally he was required to fulfill the computer science component. Studying computer science marked a change in his course path, and it led him to combine all of these fields. Through computer science, Jagodzinski merged the disciplines with which he was already familiar. He believes computer science is a very cross-disciplinary topic. His collegiate studies have continued into his work as a professor.
“My focus and research is trying to understand the mutation of proteins,” he said. “[I was] trying to come up with computational methods of measuring the effect of a protein mutation.”
In one of his most recent publications, “Assessing How Multiple Mutations Affect Protein Stability Using Rigid Cluster Size Distributions,” the majority of the contributors were students; he takes pride in this fact.
Professors at the university are hired for multiple purposes aside from teaching. They are expected to become part of the university community, improve scholarship, perform administrative tasks and conduct research. Fulfilling his role, Jagodzinski is communicating across departments in order to conduct research. He has started work with two chemistry professors to carry out his work.
“You need to want to do it, because it’s hard work,” Jagodzinski said. “There is a high failure rate.”
Jagodzinski makes this software for anyone. His teaching style is like his sharing of programs: open. It’s obvious that Jagodzinski cares for his classes and students.
Jagodzinski also conducted tech-resume workshops for computer science students to receive advice.
This is a teacher who thinks about his students. He pointed to a well-used whiteboard in his office and began talking about a student’s contributions and ideas about their shared research with respect. He has seemingly programmed positivity and empathy into his personality. He knows the difference between humans and computers and he made a remark that anyone can make mistakes.
Currently Dr. Filip Jagodzinski teachers two sections of Computer Science (CSCI) 141 and multiple sections of a research experience course. Next quarter he will teach CSCI 322, Principles of Concurrent Programming, as well as more sections of researching.