Meet Andrew Mutz (CCS Computer Science '01)

August 30, 2018

Editor’s note: We are featuring stories from members of the CCS community. Some stories will be personal and others will be written in the third person. Check them out here and make sure to submit your own story here. 

Fantastic Preparation for Both Academic and Industrial Work

Andrew Mutz at the CCS Alumni Career Panel, April 27, 2018. Photo: Will Proctor
Andrew Mutz at the CCS Alumni Career Panel, April 27, 2018. Photo: Will Proctor

I joined the College of Creative Studies as a Math major in 1997.  When I arrived I was blown away at the small class sizes: my first math course was taught by the brilliant Charles Ryavec (Erdös number 1) and had only six students.  The instruction was a firehose of knowledge, and in a good way.

While I studied math, I stumbled upon the Computer Science program quite literally.  I showed up to the wrong class at the wrong time and didn't realize until an hour through the first lecture that I was in the wrong place.  By then I was hooked and would eventually transition to focusing full time on Computer Science.

The flexibility at the College of Creative Studies was critical to my success at UCSB.  I was able to get the core coursework out of the way quickly and then proceed to the fun stuff: graduate coursework and research.  It was through these things that I met people critical to my future career in technology.

After I completed my degree in the College, and after a brief stint building software in industry, I went back to UCSB to get my Ph.D. in Computer Science.  My experiences at CCS were excellent preparation for the unstructured intellectual challenges of a Ph.D. program.

Today I work as a Chief Technology Officer at Santa Barbara-based AppFolio. I'm delighted that I get to work with many Creative Studies graduates in the workplace. I can say with certainty that in the same way, the program prepares students for academic work, the program prepares students exceptionally well for industry.  College of Creative Studies alumni tend to be successful working with minimal oversight on projects that require a lot of creativity and analysis, and it's a pleasure to work with them every day.