Email from Luis Esteban

In memory of Leisa and our honours year

I think we were incredibly lucky to have done Computer Science at Sydney Uni at that time. It was a reasonably narrow period where we had a very complete education that spanned “ancient” computer science times and modern computer science times. It was a very rich education in terms of the scope of the curriculum and the passion and quality of our teachers. I went back to Basser and taught there from 1990 to 1992. Later, I ended up doing postgrad in Education, to learn how to teach properly ;-) My Basser education was significantly beneficial in my approach to teaching, and continued teaching in the Education Faculty from 2000 to 2005.

I think we were incredibly lucky to have had the Honours experience we had in the two basement rooms, with all the theory and practice that our teachers could throw at us. I remember discussing that we had covered as much as the whole of CS3 in only a few weeks of Hons. Being hidden away down in the basement gave us a rare (unique?) experience that I observed later Hons cohorts never really experienced Hons the way we did. I remember going home about every third day. We also had such access to the building that was denied to subsequent cohorts. Who climbed the vertical “tunnel” from the basement to the roof? Somewhere I have a video that Mark James and I recorded of every corridor and pathway throughout Madsen, including the vertical “tunnel”.

I think we were incredibly lucky to have met and experienced each other. Like our Computer Science education, we were quite diverse and complementary. I think we all helped each other learn something. I remember having a debate with Beth (Has anyone kept in contact with Beth?). I couldn’t understand the reasoning for her argument but many years later, I finally understood her perspective from an actual business case. That conversation stayed with me, along with many others. We also learned extra-curricular things from each other. TomH introduced me to Jean-Luc Ponty and Pat Metheny, and others; very grateful for those introductions. We also had a lot of fun and life with each other. Do you remember the days of playing Arena? John McQueen had a lot of Fun! I remember having a very fast modem, 1200 baud, and could send our Hons Colloquium over the phone from home, instead of commuting; it took 1 hour to send the 10K file; amazing!

I think we were incredibly lucky to have known Leisa. I remember her as presenting as quiet and gentle but actually being strong and solid. I have fond memories of when she laughed at things, whatever they were. I remember her being intelligent and dedicated. I am sure everyone that encountered her in life would have been lucky to have known her. I expect that her passion for life and experience would have taken her to many places and blessed many people. Having started in Engineering, I am aware that around 1% of the cohort were women, but I didn’t fully understand the implications of this until I taught in a school and saw capable girls not attracted to STEM subjects. I expect that Leisa would have been an excellent role model for girls and a stalwart advocate for girls in STEM subjects.

I cherish all those memories.

Louie.