Nupoor Gandhi

 In her final year as an undergraduate student, Nupoor Gandhi is grateful for all the experiences and people she has met during her time with Grainger Engineering. Nupoor is a computer science major, and a leader in the women in engineering community on campus.

A Language of its Own
Nupoor has always been interested in studying language. Computer science allows Nupoor to study this, but in a much different way.  

“I wanted to be able to look at a body of text, and understand a person’s character, the strain of prejudice, the influence of media, the thought processes that led them to each conclusion.”

In addition to her computer science major, Nupoor is also minoring in math and eventually wishes to pursue a PhD in natural language processing. In the future, Nupoor wants to use her background in computer science to build better public policy. 

Women Engineers Supporting Women Engineers
One of Nupoor’s first experiences with the Grainger Engineering community was through Little Sister’s Weekend, which is an event led by the Society of Women Engineers. She was able to meet current engineering students and how they supported one another. Nupoor has been involved with SWE for four years, and some of her fondest memories of being a Grainger Engineer stem from her membership. 

Nupoor served as the president of SWE, the largest engineering registered student organization.

“I was able to grow section membership by 38%. With 100+ chair positions and 23 officer positions, SWE Illinois manufactures an army of unique leaders, and I have been blessed with constant inspiration from these women for the past four years.” 

Character Drives Engineering
Nupoor feels that becoming a Knight is a reflection of how well Grainger Engineering shapes the future generations of STEM. 

“I think the honor of knighthood represents the construction of your character over time at the university. In my case, I am the product of a lot of other people demonstrating what courage and empathy looks like in difficult situations.” 

Nupoor is very grateful for all that Grainger Engineering has to offer, as it has helped her find confidence in her abilities to be a strong critical thinker, even when faced with failure. 

“There is incredible faculty, really well-taught classes at the undergraduate level, meaningful research opportunities , and much more. As a student in the college, one could pursue many different directions and fail, but at the same time there is room for failure. This is valuable, because it allows students to take risks and take advantage of more opportunities with the assurance that a bumpy journey is acceptable.”