Dhanasri Prabhu is a senior at Cedarcrest High School in Duvall, WA. She is also a full-time Running Start student at Bellevue College, working towards an Associates in Arts and Sciences with a focus in Computer Science.

Dhanasri acquired her passion for technology at an early age. Her first exposure to software was during a kindergarten computer lab session, where she was introduced to Scratch, the block-based visual programming interface. Since then, she has expanded her toolkit, now creating mobile apps and tinkering with machine learning models. In fact, she recently developed Stulio, a user-friendly digital portfolio app where students can document their four years’ worth of high school experiences in one place! She was inspired by the fact that many older siblings and first-gen students aren’t aware of the opportunities present for high schoolers, and hopes that her app’s networking aspect will close that bridge. She is also curious about how her interest in computer science intersects with interdisciplinary fields, like astronomy. During her sophomore year, she worked on the Hazardous Asteroid Detection System, where she processed NASA’s asteroid dataset through supervised classification models. Additionally, Dhanasri also advocates for responsible technology usage in society through her roles as Artificial Intelligence Writer for PromptNexus and Northwest Action Manager for the Global Initiative for Digital Rights. 

Apart from her STEM activities, Dhanasri loves to give back to her community. She volunteers as a teacher at the Bharathi Tamil Academy, teaching children ages 7-10 about the Tamil language and culture. This past school year, she also served as the Riverview Youth Council President, where she has led numerous community-related activities for the Snoqualmie Valley. During her downtime, Dhanasri enjoys exploring new music and perfecting her matcha recipe (the secret is to use maple syrup as your sweetener!). 

Learn more about Dhanasri’s project in the Subramanian Lab here.