Empowerly

Student profile

What three experiences or activities have helped you explore your desire to study and possibly pursue a career in STEM? (200 words max)

In sixth grade, my father gave me an Arduino circuitboard kit for Christmas. It didn’t seem like much, just some wires and a breadboard with a few lights. I remember typing my first lines of code for a simple program, struck by the feeling of accomplishment as the colors of the lightbulbs danced before my eyes. I wanted to feel that adrenaline rush again and again. I was hooked on computer science. I learned C++ with Arduino and went on to take classes in Java and Python, supplementing them with independent study through CodeAcademy.  

Then in sophomore year, I created a biofuels distillation chamber, coding an Arduino to display the pressure and temperature readings. I remained amazed by the citcuitboard’s versatility and ease of use. My interest in computer science had spread to the interdisciplinary -- I wanted to take my love for programming and apply it to another field. 

Currently, I am interested in pursuing a computer science with an implementation in healthcare. Most recently, I have developed a prototype of a low-cost neurofeedback device to predict epileptic seizures using artificial intelligence. And how am I controlling the device? With the humble Arduino, of course!

Please list three books, along with their authors, that have been particularly meaningful to you. For each book, please include a sentence explaining their influence upon you (200 characters max). Please note that your response is not limited to math, science or school-assigned texts.

• Thinking Fast and Slow

  • A compilation of Kahneman’s cognitive research, this novel was important in cultivating my interest in computer science being used for neurology, which I explored with my ISEF project. 

• Harry Potter

  • The reason I started to love reading so much. After Harry Potter, I read every fantasy book I could get my hands on -- Lord of the Rings, the Inheritance cycle, Game of Thrones -- everything. 

• Our Final Invention: Artificial Intelligence and the End of the Human Era by James Barrat

  • This novel strengthened my resolve to pursue AI to ensure man and machine can work together to solve humanity’s challenges, rather than create more. 

Members of the Caltech community live, learn, and work within an Honor System with one simple guideline; 'No member shall take unfair advantage of any other member of the Caltech community.' While seemingly simple, questions of ethics, honesty and integrity are sometimes puzzling. Share a difficult situation that has challenged you. What was your response, and how did you arrive at a solution? (200 word max)

In sophomore year, four of my friends and I engineered a depressurized distillation chamber to reduce the energy expenditure of biofuels creation. After winning prizes at the Imagine Tomorrow competition, we were excited to further showcase our research at another science fair. There was only one problem: there were five of us, but the other competition restricted groups to three members.

Somehow, we needed to decide which of us would compete. It was a tough choice -- all of us had each made unique contributions in the project. Tensions started mounting and discussions turned ugly as we tried to vote each other off.

I had seen similar dilemmas play out among upperclassmen, always ending with broken friendships and long-held grudges -- I didn’t want my team to end up the same way.

I proposed that we each record the numbers of hours we spent working on the project to determine who would get to compete. My team grudgingly completed this exercise and soon the top three names emerged.

By no means was it the best system - How do you quantitatively define contribution? - but it seemed the fairest option. It wasn’t perfect, but it worked -- we remain friends to this day. 

Caltech students have long been known for their quirky sense of humor, whether it be through planning creative pranks, building elaborate party sets, or even the year-long preparation that goes into our annual Ditch Day. Please describe an unusual way in which you have fun. (200 word max)

I stand with my arms extended, feet shoulder-width apart, and snap my wrist. I watch as the stone from my hand skips across the water before me, dancing across the surface.  As a child, my grandfather taught me how to skip stones, guiding me to find the flattest ones along the beaches of India. Since then, it has become a hobby of mine. I often bike through the woods near my house to the shores of Lake Washington, finding peace in skipping stones along its clear blue waters.

There is an exact science to skipping stones: hurling the rock at an angular precision of fifteen to twenty degrees, spinning the stone like a frisbee to allow for as many jumps as possible. The stone skips as a result of the conservation of momentum -- bouncing up due to the surface tension of the water, eventually falling in as the drag force slows down the horizontal velocity. Even on good days, I usually get no more than four to five skips. 

Skip, skip, skip, skip, PLOP!

Not again! I reach for another stone, determined to make six this time. 

In an increasingly global and interdependent society, there is a need for diversity in thought, background, and experience in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. How do you see yourself contributing to the diversity of Caltech's community? (200 word max)

At first, machine learning seems to just be a series of algorithms run in succession. But it is also a study of history, digging into the past to find patterns to understand the present.  In junior year, as I researched machine learning to predict epileptic seizures while taking AP U.S. History, I became intrigued by the parallels between the subjects. 

In both machine learning and the historical method, I must sift through the past with scientific rigor. I draw upon past brainwave data to identify “pre-seizure” spikes in frequency as predictors for more dangerous seizures to come, understanding the biology of the brain. 

Similarly, I find connections in historical patterns of action to make sense of contemporary world problems. The Tulip Mania of the Dutch Golden Age inflated tulip prices to extraordinarily high levels before suddenly crashing in 1637 -- the first recorded speculative bubble. I reference this knowledge in understanding today’s economics, tulips replaced by housing bubbles. 

Being an enthusiast of many subjects, I realize how seemingly polar fields have much in common. 

I work in the interdiscliplinary. I connect the dots from computer science to other fields - history, biology, economics - and bring this understanding to all my work. 

Scientific exploration clearly excites you. Beyond our 3:1 student-to-faculty ratio and our intense focus on research opportunities, how do you believe Caltech will best fuel your intellectual curiosity and help you meet your goals? (500 word max)

Ever since I read the Harry Potter series in first grade, I’ve wanted to attend Hogwarts. As I grew older, I realized my interests lay in science and engineering rather than Charms and Transfiguration, and my sights shifted to Caltech. A scientist’s Hogwarts, Caltech is where my dreams of becoming an interdisciplinary artificial intelligence researcher can come true. 

As a researcher, I learn for the sake of learning, to seek the unknown. Caltech’s curriculum embodies this principle and I look forward to being challenged by the core classes to learn the fundamentals of science. In addition to the core, I hope to take interdisciplinary courses such as Neural Computation, providing me the foundations to apply my love of computer science to the fields of biology, chemistry, and physics. 

Conducting research, I will be able to implement this classroom knowledge for a hands-on learning experience. Last summer, I interned at Stony Brook University’s Department of Radiology to research the diagnosis of multiple sclerosis lesions using artificial intelligence. Working in a lab setting, I was able to collaborate with faculty and run my models on supercomputers, something I could never have done independently. At Caltech, I will be able to take advantage of their unparalleled research facilities and learn from world-reknown faculty, hoping to work at labs such as the Caltech Brain Imaging Centers. 

Collaboration is at the heart of Caltech’s culture. I look forward to solving problem sets in study groups, learning with and from my peers. I also hope to join clubs such as Society for Women Engineers and Caltech Bioinformatics Club to explore my interests with like-minded students. Additionally, as the Head Organizer of defHacks() Seattle and the attendee of many hacker events, I know the value of hackathons in bringing together people to work on impactful projects -- at a past hackathon, I led a team to create an app that takes social media data to estimate flu rates in the city of Seattle. I hope to attend and perhaps one day organize HackTech, Caltech’s premiere hackathon, to continue to work with my peers to create technology I am passionate about. 

Beyond academics, I know I will feel welcome in Caltech’s vibrant and diverse community. As a member of the LGBT community, I hope to join PRISM, Caltech’s LGBT organization, and attend Pride Prom and Gaypril. Regarding housing, I’m looking forward to being part of a close-knit community where I will be able to make life-long bonds with my peers and learn from the experience of the upperclassmen in my house. Coming from a small STEM high school myself, Caltech will feel just like home. 

With rigorous courses, extensive peer collaboration, and a strong commitment to diversity, Caltech is the exact college environment I have been searching for. At Caltech, I know I will gain a foundation in science that will set me on the right path to achieving my dreams. I look forward to four years of problem sets, annual themed Ditch Days, and incredible inter-house parties. 

Caltech Additional Information:

I think a description of how I spent my last two summers would allow the admissions committee to see my interest in research, as well as know more about my personality.

How I spent my last two summers:

In the summer after my sophomore year, I interned at the University of [name]’s Neurology Department, computationally analyzing microglia biomarkers for Alzheimer’s. This experience opened my eyes to the world of computational neuroscience, which I further explored in my junior year with my Intel ISEF project. However, I also took time off from research to visit Yellowstone National Park. After taking AP Environmental Science, I was intrigued by the geology and flora, excited to see the secondary succession of trees that I had read about in my textbook. In particular, I will never forget the intense beauty of the Grand Prismatic Spring, its rainbow colors a result of thermophilic microbial mats.

The next year, I was a fellow of the [name] Research Program, interning at [name] University’s Department of Radiology. Further exploring my interest in computational neuroscience, I researched the automatic segmentation of multiple sclerosis brain lesions using artificial intelligence under the mentorship of Dr. [name]. While in [state], I also had the change to tour [name] Laboratories and marvelled at their enormous particle accelerator, one of only four in the world.

Both summers, I spent most days in the lab, loving every minute of it. However, I also had the opportunities to visit and learn from some of the most interesting places in the world.

I believe an explanation of my work with my organization STEMcademy with be helpful in describing my commitment to make science and engineering available for everyone, regardless of background.

Essay regarding STEMcademy:

Comic Sans text with animated puppy GIFs flashed on a saturated, bright purple background.

Basically, it was the embodiment of “10 Things NOT To Do When Building a Website.” But I couldn’t have been prouder. 

The website had been created by [name]-- an eighth-grader I mentored through a series of web development workshops. She was a student at [name] Middle School, a Title I school where the majority of students do not have much exposure to STEM education or access to technology at home. 

As part of my organization STEMcademy, I created the [name] STEM initiative to encourage students to pursue STEM careers. I co-founded STEMcademy in freshman year, creating a curriculum spanning from chemistry to computer science. By junior year, I had run ten workshops and one hackathon, teaching over 400 students. 

At the beginning of the [name] initiative, many students had trouble with basic computer skills such as typing or using the Internet. My team and I worked through these challenges by first lecturing to the class, then mentoring students individually. Most importantly, we encouraged them when they became frustrated, often recounting how we worked through our own coding dilemmas. 

Over time, our students became more confident in their abilities and excited about STEM. Some of them were even coding during recess! By the end, all 30 students had built their own websites (with full creative control!) and knew the basics of HTML. 

But it was only when [name] told me “I want to become a web developer when I grow up!”, did I know I had finally achieved my goal.