Siddhant Dubey
At what age did you realize you were interested in STEM? Tell us about that defining moment.
I realized I was interested in STEM when my Dad started to teach me C# in 3rd grade by giving me YouTube videos to watch. I loved being able to build something from seemingly nothing and spent countless hours writing C# code.
What has been your favorite class to take in HS thus far?
My favorite class that I took in high school is definitely Mathematical Modeling. It exposed me to the practical applications of math to problems in the real world using things I had already learned like calculus and graph theory. The glass also gave me the avenue to utilize my programming skills to solve real-world math modeling problems. I also ended up participating in a few mathematical modeling competitions and got an outstanding mention in my first one.
What types of TV shows/movies interest you?
The types of TV shows/movies that interest me are comedy movies. I love a good laugh.
In a similar vein, what are you currently binging?
I’m not binging any TV Shows right now. Most of what I watch is YouTube videos from a bunch of different categories but mostly watching people play the video game VALORANT.
Are you currently reading anything?
Yes, I am! I love reading fantasy books and I’m currently working my way back through Robert Jordan’s The Wheel of Time series. It’s one of the greatest fantasy series of all time in my opinion.
Why do you think STEM education is important?
STEM education helps break down barriers. By teaching STEM, one inspires others to innovate and think critically. Of course, I think STEM students should also take their fair share of humanities classes because that’s incredibly important if one wants to have a complete STEM education. Simply put, STEM education is important because it inspires people to create innovations.
What is your favorite part about being a student at NCSSM?
My favorite part about being a student at NCSSM has definitely been the people that I’ve met and the connections I’ve made. I’ve learned so much from the people around me and I’m super grateful for that. Also, I have to mention the classes! I’ve learned so much from the wonderful classes at NCSSM, not just in STEM but also in the humanities and I think that I’m a better person and student for it.
What are your current career goals?
I’m planning on majoring in Computer Science with a focus on Artificial Intelligence for my undergraduate degree and then working at a startup once I graduate and hopefully creating a software company of my own one day! I may also pursue graduate school, but that’s a bit iffy. I love playing around with Machine Learning and I’m incredibly excited to do so in the future. I’ll probably focus on Natural Language Processing, but I love all aspects of Machine Learning and AI.
What achievement has been the highlight of your academic career thus far?
I can’t pick just one, so I’ll cheat and pick two. One was winning the Samsung Solve for Tomorrow National Competition with my school’s team for developing an object detection algorithm to detect and classify waste to make it easier for people to recycle and the other was getting to work on a research project in Natural Language Processing under the mentorship of two professors at UNC-Chapel Hill.
