Alumnus Steven Mastandrea discusses how Harper connected him with internet pioneers on Harper Talks

Steven Mastandrea’s time as a Harper College student in the early ’90s solidified his interest in computer engineering. Soon after, he participated in a project that helped usher in the modern internet. On the Harper Talks podcast – in which Harper College alumni share their education, career and life journeys – the software engineer talks about his long-running fascination with computers and how his Harper experience led him to transfer to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where students Marc Andreessen and Eric Bina were pioneering one of the first web browsers.

“I was one of the … beta testers that was in there when it was coming out of NCSA [National Center for Supercomputing Applications],” said Mastandrea, who is now the vice president of engineering at Vibes. “It was something that was relatively new, and I built a lot of my success and career on that is just being in the web early and having some of that experience.”

Listen to the full episode of Harper Talks and hear the Harper College Distinguished Alumnus discuss how Harper helped him find his career path, the future of identity technology and why he keeps returning to campus to speak with engineering students.

Harper Talks, a co-production between Harper College Radio and Harper Alumni Relations, features Associate Professor of Mass Communication Brian Shelton in conversation with Harper alumni about the role that Harper played in their lives. You can listen to past episodes of Harper Talks on Harper’s website, WHCM, and on all podcast streaming services, including Spotify and Apple.