Student, 16, stands out as high-tech researcher
Amulya Garimella does research in a Carnegie Mellon University lab, working to find epigenetic blood biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease. One day, she hopes to find a cure.
But Amulya is no ordinary researcher — she’s 16 years old.
Earlier this month the Fox Chapel Area High School junior was recognized for her work. She was one of just 40 women to win the National Center for Women and Information Technology’s Award for Aspirations in Computing. Amulya, the daughter of Satya Venneti and Srinivas Garimella, was chosen from more than 4,700 applicants across the nation and is one of two winners from Pennsylvania.
On her ninth birthday, Amulya’s brother gave her a Raspberry Pi, a basic computer used to teach computer science. She has been fascinated by the field ever since.
Amulya explained that computation can be used to strengthen research in any field — that’s why she finds it so interesting. She said she started to feel like a “real computer scientist” once she could apply her coding knowledge to her work in CMU’s Neurogenomics Lab, which deals with a field of study that looks at the role of genetics in the nervous system.
She said coding is “really, really empowering” because it can help researchers make discoveries more quickly. For example, computers in biology labs can speed up the process of sorting through genetic data and finding patterns, which in turn can help researchers find cures.
Megan Collett, Fox Chapel Area School District’s executive director of Instructional and Innovative Leadership, who endorsed Amulya for the award, said she stands out because of her intelligence and drive as well as her thoughtfulness and empathy.
“She’s going to change the world,” Ms. Collett said.
Amulya has run her school’s annual STEM symposium since 2017, when she was inspired to help fellow students learn about the budding field of bioinformatics, a blend of biology and computer science. Now, the conference also includes areas like game design and artificial intelligence.
Ms. Collett said Amulya deserves the prize because of the “lens of equity” she applies to every aspect of her life.
The STEM symposium had fairly high female representation from its first year, something unusual in the computer science field, but Ms. Collett said Amulya wanted to make sure the conference had socioeconomic diversity as well.
Amulya and Ms. Collett worked to gain sponsorship from CMU’s Computational Biology Department so they could fund buses to bring students to the symposium. That way, poorer school districts could send students, too. This year, they’ve increased outreach to gain further funding and are developing a sliding scale for attendees.
Amulya said that many people don’t see themselves as computer scientists, because of their gender or their race or the field they are working in. She hopes to help change that.
The computer systems people interact with every day often don’t work as well for minorities and women, Amulya explained, because the systems weren’t built by diverse groups of people. Until recently, she said, we didn’t know much about the symptoms of heart attacks in females, because most of the researchers were men.
“Computing has revolutionized the world,” Amulya said, and it will continue to do so. That’s why it’s important that a wide variety of people are writing code so that future developments serve all kinds of people.
According to NCWIT’s website, winners of the Aspirations in Computing Award are selected based on applicants’ “aptitude and aspirations in technology and computing,” demonstrated by their computing and leadership experience, “tenacity in the face of barriers to access,” and applicants’ plans for post-secondary education.
In 2019, Amulya received a national honorable mention, and in 2018 she received a regional affiliate honorable mention for the award.
This year, Sofiya Lysenko from Huntingdon Valley was the other Pennsylvanian to win the Aspirations in Computing Award. Additionally, Fox Chapel junior Vivian Shao was one of 360 young women nationwide designated as an honorable mention winner.
Amulya will travel to the award’s celebration in March at the Bank of America headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., with Ms. Collett or her mom, should Ms. Collett be unable to attend.
Additionally, she will receive a cash prize and an engraved award as well as scholarship and internship opportunities and induction into the aspirations in computing network.