Angela Tsai

Angela is passionate about computer science, and involved in competitions and projects related to her major, but also finds time for a “balanced social life.” She is in the Honors Program at Thurgood Marshall College, and has worked in the Computer Science and Engineering Department as a tutor helping students with programming assignments, but also going a step further by organizing a tutor potluck.

Her team won second place (against seventeen teams) in the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) Quarterly project. They developed a “Google Drive clone with facial recognition at the final showcase.” She also participated in the Halıcıoğlu Data Science Institute, where students can choose their own research topics and “work closely with a mentor to develop analytical skills, develop data science portfolios, and foster novel data-driven approaches to problem solving.”

Angela is the Logistics Coordinator for Women in Computing at UCSD and the Funding Manager at the Association for Computing Machinery. She is also a Website Developer at the Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) Undergraduate Student Council and a volunteer with the Women in Computing EDGE Program, where she mentors two high school students. Another interest is improving Chinese-to-English machine translation for novels.

For Angela, it isn’t a cup of coffee that motivates her to stay awake, but a laptop and the opportunity to participate in a “hackathon.” She especially enjoys working with teammates, whether inside or outside of the classroom. She understands that “teamwork is essential to what programmers do in various companies,” and this has led her to know that “ I will enjoy a career in computer science.” She aspires to put her programming talent to good use in areas she finds meaningful, such as environmental sustainability and accessible healthcare. Interdisciplinary projects also appeal to her, specifically in the medical field, such as being able to recognize skin cancer through computer vision. She wants to continue her volunteer work post graduation and encourage more young women to pursue majors in STEM fields.