SAN ANTONIO – The COVID-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on businesses, organizations and schools across the world.
Graduating senior at the University of Texas at San Antonio Matt Moore used his second stint at UTSA to change his career, change his life and help his community.
“It’s kind of like the joke that I went from studying man to studying machine,” Moore said.
Matt Moore is 27-years-old and he knows the campus very well, having first graduated from UTSA seven years ago with a degree in anthropology.
“I got a bachelor’s here, at UTSA in 2013. And after being in the workforce for some time, I decided that I wanted to kind of explore some other things that I never really got to explore. So I came back and did computer science,” Moore said.
No matter his degree, it was impossible to foresee how his senior year would turn out.
“Covid definitely struck us right in the middle of my last semester here. And it was a bit of a shock, because I was really looking forward to graduating, walking stage and being a part of all that,” Moore said.
Moore now hopes to take what he learned from UTSA and help the local community.
“I’ll be working as a software engineer for H-E-B, working on their curbside and delivery,” Moore said.
In the midst of the pandemic, grocery curbside and delivery services is more important now than ever before.
“if we didn’t have systems like curbside available to people, a lot of people would have a lot of struggles just getting their basic necessities, groceries and things like that,” Moore said.
Matt interned with H-E-B and going forward, he will play a big role in the apps efficiency and functionality.
“If the app were to go down for even a very short amount of time, maybe five minutes, possibly twenty thousand people could be affected by that. And so what we’re trying to do is build it so that it’s safer to use so that it won’t crash. And if it does, it’s much easier to spin it back up so that people can continue to use the app,” Moore said.
The computer science route is a new path for Matt and a main reason for choosing H-E-B is so he can help people and make an impact.
“When you’re with a company with that sort of clout, if you’re not doing things to help people, then what are you really doing? It’s it’s so imperative that we’re kind of in this together,” Moore said.