Meet Aaron Kau!
Aaron Kau is a Sophomore at Rutgers New Brunswick from Edison, New Jersey. He’s majoring in Computer Science and part of the Honors College. He’s a member of the Rutgers Hackathon Club and the Taiwanese American Student Association (TASA). When he’s not coding, he can be found on the field playing intramural soccer. He’s worked as a developer managing front-end development for Sun Yorkos and is currently working for the Rutgers Lab for Computer Science Research by developing, debugging, and maintaining sign language annotation software used by linguistic researchers.
- Why did you decide to major in Computer Science?
In middle school, video games kept my life together. There was one online game in particular, which was quite small with a reasonable amount of players, that became a huge part of my life. I went up to the owner of the game and asked him if there was anything I could do to help him improve the game and I ended up learning about and becoming interested in coding. Considering how the team behind the game worked on and improve the game without getting paid, my experience working with the team also showed me how passion and love can really fuel people during the creation process of a game. Because of my experience working on that game, I chose to major in Computer Science which will allow me to build something in the future that I am passionate about.
2. Is there a reason why you chose to live on College Ave?
Well, there was a process of elimination. Cook/Douglass kind of eliminates itself because it’s quite far. I don’t like Busch’s breakfast dining hall take-out, it’s horrible and the breakfast sandwiches are nasty. The environment was also slightly unsettling, in that many people on that campus tend to not want to talk to you and it can be quite lonely. Livingston has decent food, but I would’ve ended up living in the Quads as a Sophomore there and I personally think it’s not the best place to live and not in the best location. This leaves College Ave, which I like because most events tend to happen there, and it’s the center of Rutgers. Many people tend to put down their dining hall, Brower, but it’s actually not that bad. There are also people around at practically all times of the day and the resident halls there are really cool because you can interact and talk to people in the lounges.
3. Do you have a favorite spot to eat at off-campus?
My favorite restaurant is My Way Korean. I love Korean food and it’s pretty close to College Ave. Besides KBG, it’s really the only Korean place on College Ave that is really good. It’s small and cozy, the service is great, and the waiter is really nice. If you go there, I would definitely recommend you try their Seafood Tofu Soup, I think that it’s really good and that everyone should try it if they can.
4. What have you learned at your previous and/or current jobs that you will always remember?
What I’ve learned at my current job is that bosses are human. This is the first time I’ve worked during the school semester and when I’ve had deadlines and projects that I had to work on for class, they would always be understanding, even if it abruptly affects the work schedule. So, don’t be scared of them, because odds are they’ll understand.
5. Do you have a secret talent?
I have perfect pitch. At a really young age, when I learned to play the piano, my piano teacher taught me to have a perfect pitch. It’s super useful because I really like music and I really like to jam out and sing.
6. If you were to be any song what would you be?
“Just A Fool” by Blake Shelton and Christina Aguilera. I think that this song is very powerful. I really like it because a lot of the feelings that come from the song are feelings that I’ve felt throughout my life.