Natacha Crooks - Computer Science

'Hi, my name is Natacha Crooks and I came over from France to study Computer Science at John's from 2009 to 2012. Having enjoyed the course a lot, I've signed up for 3 more years and I'm now doing a PhD in Distributed Systems, also at John's. When I applied to study the subject, I had little experience with computers, but loved logic, problem and puzzle solving. Computer Science at Cambridge proved to be the right match for me. I was fascinated by algorithms, how to computationally solve problems, and the way in which to engineer a computer or group of computers to best solve a particular task.

Here at John's, there are a number of Computer Science Fellows and PhD students. As a result there's a great support network and many opportunities to interact with not just other students but also researchers. This provided me with a great insight into Computer Science research and was one of the driving forces for me choosing to do a PhD. On a more practical point, I found John's location to be ideal for computer scientists: the front of the College is very close to first year lectures, whilst the back makes it one of the closest colleges to the Computer Laboratory.

Outside of Computer Science, John's is a great and sociable College, with many cultural and sporting activities. I had the opportunity to play football for both the University and the College, and to listen to many great speakers that visited John's over the years. I've now been here almost 5 years, and still enjoying every bit of it.'

- Natacha Crooks, 2013