CSC News

Oceans Away from Home, CS Student Finds Community

Nicole Zelniker | College of Engineering News | Graduation Stories

Satwika Kancharla’s NC State University journey is far from over, but in the last three-and-a-half years, she has made quite an impact as an undergraduate student in the Department of Computer Science (CS).

Kancharla, who also earned a minor in business administration, became a board member for WICS, or Women in Computer Science, where she organized events and built community around shared interests. She is also an ambassador for the CS department.

Last summer, she did research with Kathryn Stolee, associate professor of CS, who specializes in software engineering and programming languages. Her research focused on software product managers and understanding the relationship that they have with software engineers. She also co-wrote a paper with a fellow student based on that research that is now being submitted to conferences.

All this, in addition to earning her degree oceans away from her home in Hyderabad, India.

“Just being able to go out on my own and living on my own has taught me a lot about myself,” she said.

Now, as Kancharla finishes her undergraduate degree with NC State with multiple semesters on the Dean’s List, she will continue on to finish the Accelerated Bachelors/Master’s program (ABM) in CS.

“I do want to get more into research because I really enjoyed doing that over the summer,” said Kancharla of her future plans. “Just being able to continue that with the ABM is something I’m really excited for.”

The master’s program portion is expected to take two years, with plenty of time for internships, exposition, workshops and conferences. Upon graduation, she plans to pursue a career in artificial intelligence at a place where she can make a positive impact on real people. She is also interested in exploring software engineering and full-stack development.

Before coming to North Carolina from India her first year, Kancharla fell in love with computer science from a course she took in high school at Oakridge International School.

“Computer scientists are needed in pretty much every single field, regardless of what product they’re manufacturing or what they’re working in,” said Kancharla. “I can go through so many different fields and keep exploring. And along with that, the impact that a few lines of code can make is really wild, and being able to do that is something I’m really interested in. That’s what I think is really great about computer science.”

While Kancharla experienced a more conceptual education at her high school in India, she prefers a more hands-on experience. That is part of why she began looking at international schools.

NC State was one of several colleges she applied to in the United States. While Kancharla does have family in the States, she had to learn to create new connections as an international student.

“Most of it was building a community of friends and professors and utilizing resources on campus that honestly created a great sense of community,” she said. “Just having so many mentors, having so many people to talk to and meeting so many people from so many different walks of life at NC State. Not just in computer science, but the roommate I started off with was in animal science.”

As for what advice she has for incoming first-year students, Kancharla emphasized the importance of trying new things.

“It’s really important to explore,” she said. “It’s really hard at first, but I think once you get it, it really shows you who you are, as a person and as a student. It prepares you for situations that you don’t expect.”

~zelniker~