Scholarship Award Alumni - Sabrina NoorAhmad-Yarzada

photo of Sabrina NoorAhmad-Yarzada

Sabrina NoorAhmad-Yarzada

University of California, Davis
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Bachelor of Science - 2023
2022 USRA Distinguished Undergraduate

Sabrina’s first exposure to the various topics within engineering and its many applications was through her participation in FIRST Robotics in middle school and high school. This fit with her creative problems-solving mindset and enjoyment of crafting and do-it-yourself projects. By designing electrical, pneumatic, and mechanical systems she learned how hardware and software come together to perform complex tasks. With her deep-seated interest in the breakthroughs made in the space industry, she was able to see her place contributing the space research and engineering.

Sabrina has always been mesmerized by space exploration and NASA, and has been able to begin to see how she might contribute by interning at NASA Ames Research Center and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Understanding how electronics work “holistically and on a low-level”, she chooses to explore both hardware and software aspects. Extending her internship work, she is looking forward to “further exploring performance and sustainability enhancements of mixed-signal integrated circuits critical to all electronic systems.” Her 10-year-old self would “definitely be pleasantly surprised about what I am doing now and what I have accomplished.”

Sabrina still serves as a mentor to her high school’s FIRST Robotics team. She guides them not only in the technical work but also in providing underrepresented students and adults in their community with STEM opportunities, including workshops at community centers and libraries where people of all ages can participate in miniature robot-building activities. She says, “Solving the world’s biggest problems relies on unique perspectives from all walks of life, which is why it is important to ensure that underrepresented groups are not left out of STEM.”