Site icon Knight Foundation School of Computing and Information Sciences

Engineering student uses data to solve big-picture problems

Today’s world is loaded with information. For someone with the right computer skills, that data can represent tremendous opportunities to help people. 

College of Engineering and Computing senior Lara Garcia has a passion for using data to solve problems. She is applying her computer science and engineering skills to prompt social change.  

Garcia’s past work includes creating maps to show researchers how best to deliver medical care to underserved communities as well as designing illustrations to show philanthropists the true impact of their investments. 

“I find data so fascinating,” Garcia said. “From one perspective, it’s just a set of numbers that look tabular and stagnant. But data can represent anything. It can stand for human behavior, economies and nations.” 

At FIU, Garcia says that she enjoys taking a variety of computer science and computer engineering courses that help her get ahead. She is one of an increasing number of students at FIU’s Knight School of Computing and Information Sciences. The school has seen its number of undergraduate degrees awarded increase by 99% since 2017, booming in unison with the Miami technology industry. 

“I had this really amazing course at FIU recently called Introduction to Applied Machine Learning. That was really one of the first times I was able to work on a lot of machine learning projects, both supervised and unsupervised,” Garcia said. 

Read more at FIU News.

Exit mobile version