Indian-American high schooler wins top computer science award
Darpan News Desk IANS, 19 May, 2023 12:19 PM
New York, May 19 (IANS) An Indian-American and three others have been selected among a pool of graduating high school seniors as a recipient of the Cutler-Bell Prize in High School Computing that empowers students to pursue computing challenges beyond the traditional classroom environment.
Sirihaasa Nallamothu of University High School in Normal, Illinois, will receive a $10,000 cash prize for her project that was selected by a panel of judges based on ingenuity, complexity, relevancy and originality.
Her project engages modern technology and computer science to address the research gap to predict Vasovagal Syncope -- a sudden drop in heart rate and blood pressure leading to fainting -- in Patients with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS).
Inspired from a TikTok that led her down a rabbit hole about POTS, Sirihaasa found to her surprise there were no research studies or consumer solutions to predict syncope on real-world data.
Sirihaasa is the first person to conduct an Institutional Review Board research study and collect human subject field data on POTS patients in the real world using non-invasive technologies, according to a news release.
She wrote a Python script to extract the 15-minute window signal data of heart rate, blood volumetric pressure, EDA, temperature, and accelerometer data, the release added.
The high schooler also founded a Girls Who Code club at her Middle school, developed and taught coding curriculum/activities, managed grants/funding, and networked and planned events.
After completing her research, Sirihaasa plans to work toward creating a consumer product and pairing her algorithm with a smart watch.
The Cutler-Bell Prize promotes the field of computer science and empowers students to pursue computing challenges beyond the traditional classroom environment.
In 2015, David Cutler and Gordon Bell established the award.
Cutler is a software engineer, designer, and developer of several operating systems at Digital Equipment Corporation. Bell, an electrical engineer, is Researcher Emeritus at Microsoft Research.
This year's Cutler-Bell Prize recipients will be formally recognised at the Computer Science Teachers Association's 2023 Virtual Conference, July 11-13.
Makhija worked at the White House, Senate, and earned his JD at Harvard Law School on the Horace Lentz Scholarship. As the son of Indian immigrants, the Pennsylvania native is passionate about enfranchising underrepresented communities and engaging new citizens in state and local politics.
Maldonado runs the 102nd Police Precinct in South Richmond Hill -- home to one of the largest Sikh communities in the US -- and is now the NYPD's first female South Asian captain. The mother of four lived in Punjab until she was nine before moving to Queens.
At the time she got admitted to the bar, Singh became the first Sikh to practice law in Houston. When first practicing in 2001, most of the faces she’d see among her colleagues were predominantly that of white men.
Prior to her confirmation, Gupta worked closely with many UN agencies and programs. She was the former Executive Director of the 3D Program for Girls and Women at the UN Foundation.
A Ph.D. from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, Gaur is an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad, and a B.Tech in Computer Science and Engineering from IIT-Delhi.
Tanden, who currently serves as Senior Advisor to President Biden and Staff Secretary, will be the first Asian-American to lead any of the three major White House policy councils in history. She served in both the Obama and Clinton administrations, as well as presidential campaigns and think tanks.
