Cyril Focht
Tennessee Technological University Instructor/ Alumnus
Cyril Focht is an instructor and alum of computer science at Tennessee Tech. Born and raised in Cookeville, Cyril always had an interest in computers, how they work, and how they benefit our lives, but during his studies at TTU he started to become more aware of the harms they cause. As a young adult during the rise of social media, he watched how the changing communication technology also changed the way his peers were interacting with each other, and in his studies he began to see more and more harm caused by software developers who thought they could solve a problem with new technology but instead made the problem worse. Inspired to learn more about the impacts of technology, rather than merely its creation that he had been studying, Cyril went on to pursue a master’s degree in computational media at UC Santa Cruz, one of the nation’s top graduate schools for interdisciplinary approaches to computing, where he focused on the use and dangers of artificial intelligence. Shortly after finishing his graduate studies, Cyril returned to Cookeville and his alma mater, Tennessee Tech, to teach computer science and introduce students to new ways of thinking critically about the technology they put out into the world and how it will affect people once they do.
Cyril is an eagle scout from Troop 156 in Cookeville and lifelong scouter who has continued serving the scouting program through adulthood. He has worked on aquatics staff as a lifeguard and aquatics director for nearly ten summers at our local Boxwell Reservation’s summer camp program, a season at the nationally renowned Philmont Scout Ranch in Cimarron, New Mexico, and helped chaperone a troop of scouts at the 2015 World Scout Jamboree in Kirarahama, Japan. Cyril carries himself with the values he learned growing up in scouting, and now continues to pass on to the next generation of eagle scouts.
Activism
Cyril has a track-record of community activism that represents his values. Growing up as an active member of his community, he never shied away from conversations with his peers about the needs of that community, but lacked an outlet for making the kinds of changes necessary to meet those needs. His first major action as an activist was at the beginning of 2020 when he returned to Santa Cruz after graduating to join the picket line for the historic graduate student wildcat strike that led to strikes across every campus in the UC system.
After moving back to Cookeville during the covid-19 pandemic and reconnecting with friends here, he saw a growing interest in activism amongst community members, so he joined burgeoning activist organizations to help get boots on the ground. Cyril has spent many Saturday afternoons on the Cookeville town square with abortion access Cookeville to spread information about reproductive healthcare; he is a founding member of SAGE (safe affordable good energy), which formed as a protest group to stop a methane gas pipeline that’s planned to be build through Putnam and surrounding counties; and he has helped with canvassing for voter registration drives to increase the abysmally low voter turnout that we have in Tennessee.
