Stanford's youngest instructor talks InfoSec, AI, and catching cheaters - Rachel Fernandez interview [Podcast #217]
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Rachel Fernandez, a computer science student at Stanford, is the university's youngest instructor and recently helped organize the TreeHacks hackathon. She discusses computer science education, the relevance of C++, and how developers can use AI tools without losing core skills. Fernandez, the first from her high school in years to attend Stanford, grew up in Westminster, California, a community with significant Mexican and Vietnamese populations.
- ▪Rachel Fernandez is the youngest instructor at Stanford University.
- ▪She helped organize TreeHacks, a hackathon that selected 1,000 participants from 15,000 applicants.
- ▪Fernandez is the first student in years from her high school in Westminster, California, to attend Stanford.
- ▪She teaches C++ and emphasizes responsible use of AI tools to avoid developer 'deskilling'.
- ▪freeCodeCamp released educational resources on AI governance, data quality, and automation, referenced during the podcast.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
May 1, 2026 / #podcast Stanford's youngest instructor talks InfoSec, AI, and catching cheaters - Rachel Fernandez interview [Podcast #217] Beau Carnes Today Quincy Larson interviews Rachel An Fernandez. She's a computer science student at Stanford and the youngest instructor at the entire university. She recently helped organize TreeHacks, Stanford's annual hackathon, which narrowed 15,000 applicants down to just 1,000 participants. They built projects over a single weekend and competed for a million dollars in prizes. Rachel grew up in Westminster, a small California town with a largely Mexican and Vietnamese population. 70% of students at her high school had family incomes so low that qualified for free school lunches.
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Excerpt limited to ~120 words for fair-use compliance. The full article is at freeCodeCamp Programming Tutorials: Python, JavaScript, Git & More .
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