Tag: Introduction

Hello, my name is Preston Beltran. I am majoring in computer science here at SIUE. Besides that, I enjoy playing video games and collecting vinyl records. Record collecting has become a hobby of mine last summer since I got a turntable setup and bought my first record. Ever since, I have bought maybe a little too many, but there are too many great albums to just say no to. Otherwise, I love gaming with my friends on my PS5. My family also likes to travel and my favorite place we traveled to was Puerto Rico. It was a great experience and had great views and food.

My name is Ioannis Koupepides. I am 20 years old and I am from Cyprus, a small island in the Eastern Mediterranean. I chose to combine academics and soccer by moving to the United States, where I am currently a sophomore pursuing a degree in Exercise Science and competing as a goalkeeper for the SIUE men’s soccer team. Before transferring to SIUE, I studied and played soccer at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, Texas. My main goal in the future is to become a professional soccer player. Still, beyond that, I aspire to help other soccer players find opportunities in the U.S. through scholarships that allow them to combine education and athletics. In the future, I also plan to open my own gym, where I will work as both the CEO and a fitness instructor. Living alone abroad has helped me build strong character, independence, adaptability, and overall maturity, shaping me both as an athlete and as a person.

My name is Tyler Phillips, and I am a Marketing major with a minor in Data Analytics. Some of my hobbies are golfing, duck hunting, creating content on social media, investing, and finding ways to make money.

One of my biggest passions is creating content. From a young age, I have always enjoyed making videos, but over the last few years, I’ve decided to start posting my content to social media. This goes hand in hand with my Marketing major, which is why I decided to major in Marketing.

Here is a picture of my TikTok analytics from the last 60 days. I mostly post videos in the car/truck lifestyle niche/community. If that interests you, you can check it out @therealphillips35 on TikTok and Instagram.

I’m active on Facebook, Instagram, and Discord for social media. On Facebook I’m not really speaking to anyone, just have it up to check on family posts every once in a while and using Marketplace to buy/sell stuff. Instagram is just used to watch funny videos and Discord to communicate with school clubs.

I don’t share much or post anything on my social media, really just my profile picture and occasionally a concert or an event on Instagram. I’d be comfortable sharing with the class pretty much what I post online already since I already was under the impression it’s public even if I don’t know who looks through it.

The image I’m using is from my parents’ hometown and where I enjoy spending summers when I get the chance to.

Hi, I’m Josh. I’m working on my computer science major and psychology minor. I’m from the area, but lived in Michigan for a while before going back to school. I like drawing, video games, and music. I’ve been around the U.S. for gaming tournaments and concerts. I work at an eSports lounge in Missouri. I love animals and grew up on a farm, but right now I just have my 1 dog, Marnie, with my partner.

For social media, I use some Twitter, Tiktok, Bluesky, and Discord, but I mostly just follow stuff for the games I play or art. I talk to people through Snapchat a decent amount, although most of the actual pictures I send are just of my dog.

Hello! I’m Dr. Meg Smith. I’m a digital humanist and a historian of medieval and early modern Ireland. As a digital humanist, I’m interested in questions related to critical data studies — where our data comes from and where it goes. In my historical research, I study how medieval Irish people contested English rule through the legal system, the landscape, and their interactions with other people. (Those two research agendas are connected: In the bigger picture, I look at how people challenge the categories that are imposed on them, which makes encoding them in data sets very complicated!)

At SIUE, I direct the IRIS Center, which is our digital humanities research center. IRIS is a great resource for this class — we offer office hours and project consultations, workshops and events, and equipment you can use or check out. The IRIS Center is in Peck 2226, and you can email iriscenter@siue.edu for a tour or to access any of our resources.

In my spare time, I do a lot of making. Sometimes that’s digital making — building a website or a data visualization. Sometimes it’s physical making — making a quilt, a dress, or an embroidery. And sometimes, it’s both! I’m currently working on a data quilt that visualizes how people cross the Mississippi. I also do a lot of cycling, hiking, and walking my dog (Ada Lovelace, named for the woman who arguably invented the computer).