(Real from Comm App) How did you discover your intellectual and academic interests, and how will you explore them at the University of Pennsylvania? Please respond considering the specific undergraduate school you have selected. (300-450 words) (447/450)

I fell in love with Computer Science after creating my first Scratch game in fifth grade - a one level maze game that was impossible to lose. But this astounded my baby brother, and he considers me a wizard of sorts even to this day.
Since then, I’ve been obsessed with finding the next exciting computer language and concept to toy with. You’ll often find me, a lone high schooler, listening attentively to keynotes at Blockchain conferences in the Computer History Museum, learning in public IBM Watson Labs, or competing in online IoT design challenges.
UPenn’s engineering program allows me to continue my exploration of these topics, all in one place. CIS 419 and 421 allow me to study Artificial Intelligence with crucial emphasis on its practical application as AI augments our decision making. CIS 233 will answer questions about blockchain my dad could never answer despite his hype, hopefully revealing applications past just cryptocurrency. I can pursue my newfound passion for cybersecurity - and continue competing in cybersecurity competitions with friends on campus - with courses such as CIS 331.
Many of my projects would likely become inspired by those classes, as just reading the course description about the computer vision course CIS 581 makes me consider adding a transcript feature to my lecture live-streaming project, scraping images of lecture sheets in conjunction to the audio to form a transcript of the lesson and study guides. I would also be able to strengthen my knowledge in fundamental coding languages imperative for IoT innovation, taking courses for C, C++ and Haskell.
Of course, I also love the unique ethical aspect offered even in the engineering classes, which seems to be giving Zuckerberg so much trouble lately. Courses like CIS 125 (Data Privacy and Law Enforcement) will make me reconsider how we crunch users’ calendar data in my projects such as the Walk-in talkin closet, which gives users updates about the weather and summarizes their schedule for the day. Certainly, the more interdisciplinary, practical aspect of UPenn engineering makes it truly exciting.
Finally, as a capstone experience at UPenn, I would love putting it all together in CIS 400, in a project that reminds me of my weekends in San Francisco hackathons, coding obsessively for 24 hours straight. I’d even try to make the project-building experience reminiscent of my high school competitions by trying to enter it into the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition, potentially commercializing the product as my first startup. Regardless of the outcome of these attempts, I’m confident my exploration of my passion in UPenn would create a better version of me. Maybe, just maybe, my brother won’t be the only one who considers me a wizard.



After creating my first Scratch game in fifth grade - a one level maze game that was impossible to lose, I became obsessed with finding the next exciting computer language and concept to toy with. Since then, I try to immerse myself in a different facet of computer science whenever possible. You’ll often find me, a lone high schooler, listening attentively to keynotes at Blockchain conferences in the Computer History Museum, learning in public IBM Watson Labs, or competing in online IoT design challenges.
UPenn’s engineering program allows me to continue my exploration of these topics, all in one place. CIS 419 and 421 allow me to study Artificial Intelligence with crucial emphasis on its practical application as AI augments our decision making. CIS 233 will answer questions about blockchain my dad could never answer despite his hype, hopefully revealing applications past just cryptocurrency. I can pursue my newfound passion for cybersecurity - and continue competing and winning cybersecurity competitions with friends on campus - with courses such as CIS 331.
Many of my projects would likely become inspired by those classes, as just reading the course description about the computer vision course CIS 581 is making me consider adding a transcript feature to my lecture live-streaming project, scraping images of lecture sheets in conjunction to the audio to form a transcript of the lesson and study guides. I would also be able to strengthen my knowledge in fundamental coding languages imperative for IoT innovation, taking courses for C, C++ and Haskell.
Of course, I also love the unique ethical aspect offered even in the engineering classes, which seems to be giving Zuckerberg so much trouble lately. Courses like CIS 125 (Data Privacy and Law Enforcement) will likely make me reconsider how we crunch users’ calendar data in my projects such as the Walk-in talkin closet, which gives users updates about the weather and summarizes their events coming up for the day. Certainly, the more interdisciplinary, practical aspect of UPenn engineering makes it truly exciting.
Finally, as a potential capstone experience at UPenn, I would love putting it all together in CIS 400, in a project that reminds me of my weekends in San Francisco hackathons, coding obsessively for 24 hours straight. I’d even try to make the project-building experience more reminiscent of my high school competitions by trying to enter it  into the Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition, or potentially commercializing the product as my first startup. Regardless of the outcome of these attempts, I’m confident my continued exploration of my passion in UPenn would create a better version of me, a version of me that I chase every day.