Meet Dr. Jared Roesch ‘15 (CCS Computer Science): Distinguished Engineer on AI Systems Navigated a Personal Journey Through Music, Art, and Computer Programming
Did luck have anything to do with this alumnus stumbling into CCS?!
The College of Creative Studies (CCS) recently connected with Dr. Jared Roesch ‘15 (CCS Computer Science) who recounted his rather unique personal journey to the College. While at UCSB, he was a member of the Programming Languages (PL) Lab and the ArchLab, and fondly recalls the Materials of Art class he took from CCS Art Faculty Emeritus Dan Connally that for Jared “ really reinforced the spirit of CCS–that creative people are more alike than different whether painters or programmers” and remains with him to this day. Jared went on to complete M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Computer Science & Engineering at the University of Washington and is the author of several publications, some as a UCSB undergraduate. Jared was the co-founder of OctoAI (formerly OctoML), a Seattle-based startup specializing in generative AI tools acquired by NVIDIA in 2024 where he is now a distinguished engineer on AI systems. He is always excited to talk to undergraduate students about research and the research process as well as teaching the next generation of computer scientists and others interested in programming. Jared enjoys “...cooking, listening, writing and playing music, reading, type theory, hacking, coffee, and sleep (when I can).” Jared and CCS Dean Timothy Sherwood are co-hosts of a UCSB Innovators Circle gathering with UCSB alumni in Seattle on March 3, 2025.
“While comparing all my college options, I started looking into the kinds of programs offered at UCSB and stumbled upon CCS Music. I thought it looked like an interesting place. For those of you paying attention, you might ask…’Wait!? Didn’t you end up studying Computer Science?’ Yes I did.”
—Jared Roesch ‘15 (CCS Computer Science)
College of Creative Studies (CCS): How did you find out about the College? What was your major and graduation year?
Jared Roesch (JR): My senior year in high school was 2009-2010 and at that time the UCs had started becoming way more competitive. I had originally thought I would get into UCSD and UCLA, but I was rejected at both. I had originally wanted to study music, and pair it with a double major or major/minor in a science. I grew up in Ventura County and was not super excited about UCSB when I was first admitted as it seemed too close to home…and it did not match the dream I had in my head. While comparing all my college options, I started looking into the kinds of programs offered at UCSB and stumbled upon CCS Music. I thought it looked like an interesting place. For those of you paying attention, you might ask…’Wait!? Didn’t you end up studying Computer Science?’ Yes I did.
After choosing to attend UCSB, I found my way to CCS and the rest is history. I studied Computing (at the time Computer Science) and officially graduated in 2015.
CCS: Why did you choose to come to this College?
JR: The more interesting part of my story is how I chose to come to UCSB, and then ended up at CCS almost by accident. I was having a bit of a crisis of faith in what I wanted to do after getting rejected from the music programs at various places. Along the way, I had learned that UCSB would be a good place to show up undeclared. In visiting schools, I realized some of my youthful preconceptions were totally wrong. After visiting UCSB, I went to visit UCI and the contrast was so strong for me that on the ride home I decided it would be UCSB. I even cancelled a visit to UC Davis. After being accepted at UCSB, I spent the summer getting back into programming (coding) and realized I was still really interested in computers. I had tried to learn to program in my teens, but had been discouraged by not feeling smart enough or “good” enough at math, and I had written myself off as a STEM person.
In high school, I wasn’t the best math student which I now know was a combination of my undiagnosed ADHD, and being bored/under stimulated in the classroom. I naively figured I could just take computer science classes and figure it out, but at the time computer science was starting to become extremely popular and I couldn’t get into CS 8 that first quarter. Instead, I focused on taking my prerequisites and would try again in the Winter to enroll in CS 8. During that Fall quarter, Adelbert Chang [‘14 CCS Computer Science] and I had a friend who was a CCS alumnus and he told us we should check out CCS Computer Science (not yet renamed to Computing), and in the Winter quarter we showed up for “Murat’s class.” For anyone who was around CCS during that time, Murat Karaorman’s [CCS Computing Faculty] class was a weekly fixture for the better part of 5 years of my life. That quarter it was technically CCS CS 1b, but it was the perfect environment for me, and sometime during the first Winter quarter I knew I wanted to be part of CCS.
So you could say I lucked into CCS.
“...CCS is a place that encourages the students to find what they are passionate about, and over and over again encourages you to learn and grow in that direction…”
—Jared Roesch ‘15 (CCS Computer Science)
CCS: What was your favorite aspect or experience while at CCS? Does a memorable moment stand out from your time at CCS?
JR: I have never been good with superlatives, so I am going to cheat and bring out two contrasting moments in CCS that both reinforce my most important take-away: that CCS is place that encourages the students to find what they were passionate about, and over and over again encourages you to learn and grow in that direction, even if your talents had not (yet) reached your taste. The first is what I mentioned above–Murat’s class–a twice weekly class that rotated topics, but was a place where I was encouraged to be curious, believe in my ability to grow and learn new things, and made many lifelong friends. I remember in my second quarter one class Murat assigned to us to read parts of the Java Virtual Machine specification. For non-technical folks, this is a deep technical document that isn’t light reading, and usually only consumed by people who write programming languages or their runtimes.
I could barely program, and being the outsider who was not yet in the major I took the assignment really seriously. I ended up reading the majority of it. Funny enough, years later I am now responsible for producing something much like this at NVIDIA. I feel like that environment was a place where my curiosity was sparked, and my belief in my ability to learn and grow was continuously supported, and by the end I was helping with the instruction.
“This class [Materials of Art] really reinforced the spirit of CCS–that creative people are more alike than different whether painters or programmers. It has stuck with me as a researcher or a startup founder for organizing humans to do their amazing life’s work; they have the same challenges regardless of medium.”
—Jared Roesch ‘15 (CCS Computer Science)
The second is the Materials of Art class with [CCS Art Faculty Emeritus] Dan Connally. Even though I am a pretty poor artist, I was able to see the spirit of CCS that I found in my own discipline in a very concretely different environment. That class sticks with me to this day. I think back to the conversations about art we had in that class, and the intensity and passion of the art students who were so immensely talented compared to me, but were still pushing hard to evolve their craft. This class really reinforced the spirit of CCS–that creative people are more alike than different whether painters or programmers. It has stuck with me as a researcher or a startup founder for organizing humans to do their amazing life’s work; they have the same challenges regardless of medium.
CCS: Has CCS impacted your life personally or professionally?
JR: CCS is one of, if not, the most impactful choice in my entire life.
I strongly believe there is another reality out there where I didn’t pursue computer science at all because of my own idiosyncratic ADHD learning style, the competitiveness/challenges of transferring into a major as a first year undeclared student, or the lack of excitement/growth in other majors. CCS was accidentally the perfect place for me, and I feel lucky to have chanced upon it. During that time, there were numerous faculty who believed in me even though on paper I was not a sure bet. Murat Karaorman believed in me from the early days in his class, and provided support and guidance all throughout my years at UCSB. He even came to the hospital to help me write my graduate school applications while I was recovering from appendicitis.
I took Calc 3B with [Professor of Mathematics] Jeffery Stopple in my first year, and did poorly on a midterm. He gave me a chance to replace it with my final, and later wrote me a letter of recommendation for my admittance into CCS. There were so many smart peers who acted as friends, role-models, and mentors. Three of my best friends to this day are all from CCS. I will forever be grateful for CCS for giving me the confidence and skills to chase after my dreams.
CCS: If you attended graduate school, where and what did you study as a graduate student? Did your CCS education help you as a graduate student?
JR: I attended graduate school at the University of Washington where I received a MS and Ph.D. in Computer Science & Engineering. After feeling disappointed with the undergraduate admissions process, I was happy that I was admitted to UC Berkeley in January 2016, extremely early for being admitted into a graduate school. I remember being so excited that day as I knew I was going to be able to go to graduate school. In the course of my Ph.D., I worked on the Rust programming language, the Lean theorem prover now being used by Fields medalists like Terry Tao (for the kid who was “bad at math” this is pretty funny), then TVM, a compiler and runtime system for deep learning, as well as a number of other things. I was so prepared for graduate school thanks to CCS as I was able to do research with Professors Ben Hardekopf and Tim Sherwood, the latter is now CCS Dean. I published 4 papers during my time at CCS and I felt like my appetite for research was only limited by my own time, and solid undergraduate research experience and letters of recommendation are the most important things for graduate school admissions.
CCS: What have you been doing professionally post-CCS? Does it relate to what you studied at CCS? If so, how?
JR: After CCS, I spent 5 years completing my Ph.D. program. Before the end of my doctoral program in 2019, I started a machine learning/AI startup called OctoAI (formerly OctoML) where I was co-founder and CTO for over 5 years. We raised over $130M, worked with numerous large companies, and grew it to over 100+ employees, including many Gauchos before being acquired by NVIDIA in late 2024.
In retrospect, everything that I have done has connected back to my past experiences. In fact, Joseph, one of Tim’s students, and I had done a hardware/software co-design project together back in 2014-2015, and the themes of that project have remained part of my work since then. Joseph and I are now working together at NVIDIA on similar things, and we both had a laugh about things coming full circle.
“My advice [to students] is simple: try to enjoy the present moment as much as possible. A lot of success and happiness in life comes down to finding things that excite you, great people to work with, and letting the rest happen…A final additional piece of advice is: don’t be afraid to change your mind.”
—Jared Roesch ‘15 (CCS Computer Science)
CCS: What advice would you give to current and future CCS students?
JR: My advice is simple: try to enjoy the present moment as much as possible. A lot of success and happiness in life comes down to finding things that excite you, great people to work with, and letting the rest happen. I had countless moments where I worried about how things would work out, and so much of it just clicked into place as a by-product of spending time on interesting problems with interesting people.
A final additional piece of advice is: don’t be afraid to change your mind. This advice has served me well from choosing a college, to changing my research, to pivoting my startup’s products; sometimes there is a different path presented to you that is not the one you imagined but one worth taking.
CCS: How do you see the direction of higher education in 3, 5, 10+ years unfolding? This is important to CCS as we plan for educating our future artists, experts, and leaders. Any thoughts/ideas?
JR: I think with the world changing very rapidly it is hard to know what’s going to happen next week, let alone the next decade. I do believe that continuing the tradition of educating students that know how to pursue knowledge and skills, and evolve over time will be even more essential. I have had a front row seat to the AI evolution the last few years, and one thing that seems clear is that rote knowledge and skills are likely to become less and less valuable over time, but being able to creatively adapt to an evolving world and using the tools and information available to you whether as an artist, director, writer, or scientist will be important.
Stories and news from CCS alumni allow us to keep us in touch with the College’s community, but equally important provide invaluable insights for current and future students. Thank you, Jared! All alumni are encouraged to drop by CCS for a visit or connect with us virtually.
UCSB alumni who are innovators and entrepreneurs are encouraged to learn about and join the UCSB Innovators Circle.