Featured Spotlight: Harshita Gangaswamy – Class of 2024

In her own words – interviewed end of Spring Quarter 2024

• Hometown: Cupertino, CA
• Year: Senior
• Favorite Course: Sensor and Peripheral Interface Design (ECE 153B) instructed by Professor Yogananda Isukapalli
• Senior "Capstone" Project: ECE 189 - HomeFlow (an intuitive health wearable that collects meaningful data)
• Student Organization Memberships: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
• Last Book Read: The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
• Interesting aside about you: I love elephants and I would love to see one in a wildlife sanctuary

Harshita’s Favorite

• Hobbies: reading, trying new food, learning something new
• TV Show: Queenmaker
• Movie: Hidden Figures
• Activity: hanging out with friends and family
• Sport: Softball
• Geeky Possession: DVD set of all the Harry Potter and LOTR movies

Favorite Things About

• CE Program: I love how you learn both computer science and electrical engineering fundamentals and as you continue through the major you can choose what path you want to take, whether that’s more computer science, computer engineering, or electrical engineering related
• UCSB: The library that’s open 24/7, which I definitely utilized a lot
• Santa Barbara: I love downtown! It’s such a cute place!

Harshita’s most memorable moments that happened each year

• Freshman Year: I met my first friends in CS24 (Problem Solving w/ Computers II) and CS32 (Object Oriented Design and Implementation)!
• Sophomore Year: Watching Doctor Strange Multiverse of Madness premiere night with my roommates
• Junior Year: Driving to Malibu, Chino Hills and Santa Monica all in a day with my best friend
• Senior Year: Hanging out with all my friends in the last 2 weeks of senior year

Harshita and Computer Engineering

Why CE as a major? I chose CE originally because I already knew I liked programming but I wanted to know hardware. CE provided that balance and connection between software and hardware.

Why did you select UCSB's CE program? I really liked the sequences UCSB offered. They offer a range of classes that can allow students to learn more about topics that interest them.

How did you hear about UCSB's CE program? While researching colleges to apply to I looked into UCSB’s CE program to see whether they had the classes I wanted to take.

Prospective students and parents often ask, what can you do with a CE degree? You have a lot of choices with a CE degree! If you want to go into robotics, VLSI, machine learning, cryptography, computer networks etc, UCSB CE offers classes in all of those subjects. Depending on what your interests are you can find classes that align to those interests or if you just want to learn something new, CE offers that as well.

The Curriculum

What has your experience been like taking the Math and Physics core classes? I didn’t find them to be too bad. They’re definitely not a walk in the park, you have to put your time in it and go to office hours to get help, but they are doable.

What has been your most challenging but rewarding course? Definitely the ECE 130 series (Signal Analysis A & B and Intro to Applied Linear Algebra). The content is quite challenging when you learn it for the first time, but after learning it you will quickly discover that a lot of the new technologies rely on signal processing concepts.

Are there any specific classes that you are looking forward to? ECE 179D, Robotics: Dynamics and Controls. I didn’t get to do robotics in high school, so I really wanted to learn about it in a nice 10 week consolidated course.

Talk about your Capstone (ECE 189ABC) experience: My capstone project was called HomeFlow, and it was a smart watch. It had various sensors that collected heart rate and blood oxygen, body temperature, weather, noise level, step counting and would display all of that on the watch and the corresponding phone app that we also developed. I got to work with a group of hardworking and talented students that made this project a fun learning experience.

What area do you want to specialize in? I hope to specialize in machine learning and robotics. I’ve taken ECE 180 (Intro to Deep Learning) and the CMPSC 165 series (Machine Learning and AI), and they were all really interesting classes that helped me understand how the technology is developed and their applications in the real world. ECE 179D (Intro to Robotics: Dynamics and Control), is a rigorous class that covers the math that goes into programming a robot.

Have you had any on-campus research opportunities at UCSB? I was in Early Research Scholars Program, aka ERSP, with a group of 4 other students under Professor Michael Beyeler’s Bionic Vision Lab during my second year. I also continued research under his lab during a part of my senior year. I worked on using machine learning to optimize how much light should be shined so that the user can see the picture (I put that as simply as possible). This was a valuable experience where I got to learn machine learning with guided help into an application I was passionate about. If you’re interested in research, definitely join ERSP if you can and even if you can’t, reach out to professors because they are very easy to talk to and are always looking for passionate research assistants.

Preparation from High School to College

What prepared you the most for studying engineering in college? I went to a pretty rigorous high school and took AP classes so I already had a decent work ethic. Once coming to college I had to make my work ethic stronger, but having a good work ethic coming in helped me prioritize finishing my work on time amidst taking multiple demanding STEM classes.

Are there any classes that you suggest CE students take before entering UCSB? Any kind of college level math (especially calculus), physics, and computer science will definitely help you. Getting familiar with the subject will help the transition so you already know the concepts while adjusting to college life.

Any additional experiences that you would like to share with students to help them prepare for college? Where there’s a will, there’s a way. A lot of times you will have to make compromises, but trust. Whatever you want to accomplish you can do it and you can make it happen in these 4 years. It won’t be easy but be resilient, always ask for help, work hard, and be optimistic.

Student Life at UCSB

What is campus life like for CE students? You will be in the same parts of campus for the next 4 years and your class sizes will shrink as you start to specialize. You’ll look forward to those places because that’s where you will run into your friends all the time and have your club meetings.

What is the social scene like on campus, in Isla Vista (IV), and off-campus like for CE students? On campus, off campus, and in Isla Vista people are very friendly and like to do various activities. Yes there are parties but you only have to go if you want to. You can meet people and do activities that are not party related like open court hours at the recreation center or just going downtown to have dinner and walk on the beach.

Describe your housing experience frosh to present: Freshman year I was at home so no comment. Second year I was in Manzanita Village Residence Hall and that was definitely the typical college experience, but it was a lot better than most because the people on my floor were great, bathrooms were private and the communal kitchen was pretty big. Junior and Senior year I lived in an apartment very close to campus so I could walk to class or go to the restaurants in Isla Vista. Finding housing was difficult so definitely start early if you want to live in Isla Vista. Other than that, having my own place that I only had to share with 4 other people allowed a lot of flexibility in cooking, inviting friends over, etc.

After Graduation

What are your “big picture” plans/aspirations after graduation? After graduation I plan to look for a job and in the near future, apply for an MBA. Hopefully one day, I’ll be a part of a startup company in the Bay Area that focuses on machine learning and robotics in the healthcare field.