Barbara Kovačić

Mission Statement

“Oh, I couldn’t do that!” is a reaction I often get when I talk about my passion for computational linguistics. There is this specific image, created by the media, of the stereotypical programmer. He started programming at an early age, is a master of all computational fields and mostly a mathematical genius. Having a background in economics and foreign languages, I had the very same idea. Programming was this mystical talent you either have or have not. So you can imagine how afraid I was when I wrote my very first “Hello World” code. Eight years later I am proud to call myself a “Pythonista” and a passionate teacher for programming. My biggest motivation for teaching is to see my students overcoming their fears and being able to integrate programming into their daily work. In times of big data and automation, this skill is more important than ever. Therefore, I am really happy to join the OSC and share my insights and experiences with researchers from different fields. And let me assure you, if I could do it, you can do it too!