Meet the instructors
We are very excited to teach you this semester! If you have logistical questions or concerns, please contact the course staff.
Instructors give course lectures, manage course staff, and oversee course policies.
Dr. Stephens graduated with B.S. in Physics from BYU in 1996 and then went on to receive a M.S and Ph.D. in Astronomy from New Mexico State University in 1999 & 2003. He also holds a Masters of Library Science degree from the University of North Texas which he received in 2016. After receiving his Ph.D, Dr. Stephens went to work at NASA's Goddard Spaceflight Center doing software development for the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope mission, a project he still works on. He has served as a developer, the Testing and Release Manager, Software Manager, and as a Senior Scientific Software Developer over the years. He also served for a year as the Information Systems Development Manager at the Science Support Center of NASA's Stratospheric Observatory for Infra-red Astronomy (SOFIA). For three years (2014-2017) Dr. Stephens was the Physical and Mathematical Sciences Librarian at the Harold B. Lee Library here at BYU before NASA lured him back. He started as professor in the Computer Science Department in December of 2020.
Meet the TAs
Teaching Assistants (TAs), focus their teaching efforts on a particular component of the course, such as sections, exam prep, or walkthrough videos. Head TAs additionally manage a broader component of the course, such as logistics, content, software, office hours, etc.
Cooper Johnston
he/him
Section 5
Section 7
cooper_johnston
Cooper is a sophomore and a CS major. He is always happy to help with anything he can. He loves drawing, movies, working out, and writing online BIOs.
Jed Woods
he/him
Head TA
Section 5
Section 6
jedwoods
Hey everyone! I'm Jed! I am a sophomore majoring in ACME with an emphasis in Data Science and Machine Learning. I enjoy playing racquetball and running! I am so excited to work with you all this semester!
Lars Tracy
he/him
Head TA
Section 6
Section 7
larstracy
I'm a sophmore of Computer Science. I like Python and shells (bash or fish). Regex and LaTeX are awesome. vim = emacs > nano > ed. I've stopped distro-hopping and run Arch now. Besides programming, I study philosophy and formal logic. I like complicated board games and Souls-like video games.
Zach York
he/him
yorkzach
My name is Zach York I’m in my 3rd year at BYU. I love fly fishing and playing basketball. I’m always open to talk sports. I served my mission in Atlanta GA. Very excited to be a TA!
Zack Darling
Online
TimmyTheTaterTot
Hey guys, I'm Zack. I am a sophomore here at BYU, and I am majoring in Computer Engineering. In my free time I love playing sports (volleyball, spikeball, ultimate frisbee), coding (Python, C++, OpenGL), and playing video games. For this semester I will only be working online, but I love the Python programming language and I am excited to help all of you learn it this semester!
Contact Us
The best way to contact course staff is through the course Discord server
If you have not already, please join our Discord server using the following invitation link: https://cs111.byu.edu/discord.
Send a direct message (DM) to one or more of the course staff and we will respond as soon as possible.
TA Help Lab
The TA Help Lab is located in TMCB 1121. TAs are also available to help over Discord. To get help from the TAs, please sign up on the online help queue. Please see the schedule below for daily hours and TA availability.