Sydney Vanda – Outstanding Graduate

Sydney Vanda
B.S.E. in Biomedical Engineering and B.S.E. in Computer Systems Engineering
Graduated from Corona del Sol High School in Tempe.

Sydney Vanda is a double major in Computer Systems Engineering and Biomedical Engineering and is in Barrett, The Honors College. She holds a Regents High Honors Endorsement, was a 3-time recipient of the Kroger Dependent Scholarship, received the 2012 Impact Award for EPICS and has been inducted in the Tau Beta Pi and Eta Kappa Nu Engineering honors societies. She participated in FURI and EPICS. She also sang in the Barrett Choir and was on intramural co-ed basketball and volleyball champion teams on engineering-sponsored teams.

Why did choose to come to ASU?
I grew up with ASU in my backyard practically and wanted to be a Sun Devil! Also because I knew there were plenty of great engineering programs, which I knew I wanted to pursue at the time.

What led you to choose to study engineering?
I knew I was great at math and science from an early age. Originally I was enrolled at ASU as an electrical engineering major, however I went to a talk given by the director of the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering at the time, William Ditto, and he inspired me to make a difference in the medical space and I switched my major to biomedical engineering. During my second semester, I took my first programming class and really loved it. Not wanting to give either up, I decided to take on the challenge of completing both degrees.

Name a professor who was particularly instrumental in helping you grow as a student?
Lecturer Debra Calliss – she inspired me to stick with computer systems and helped me make the decision to include it as another degree. She also served as a role model and an outlet that I felt comfortable talking with about current struggles and also future goals.

How do you see your future?
I would love to work on embedded devices for the medical field and hopefully create something that truly helps someone someday.