College of Engineering Dean Kim Needy recognized several students for their achievements at the Student Awards reception on May 3. The Computer Science and Computer Engineering department was well represented, and student Ananya Vangoor was named Freshman of the Year for her hard work and involvement on campus.

Vangoor is involved with Engineering World Help Teams, Boss Hog Outfitters, Association of Computing Machinery, extracurricular racquetball and more. Being an active member of both academic and extracurricular activities on campus has spread her reach to students around her, she said.

Vangoor declared Computer Science and Computer Engineering as her major on Decision Day for the College of Engineering this past semester. When asked why she chose this department, Vangoor said, "I had previous experience with coding simple websites using HTML and CSS in high school, and I was very interested in the way I could see the changes reflect on my screen after typing code - I really liked it! I also went through a cybersecurity program, CyberStart America, during my senior year where I learned a lot of computer science skills like Linux commands and hacking prevention."

The most memorable part of freshman year was the Association of Computing Machinery's annual Spring Hackathon, she said.

"It is a 22-hour competition where I made great memories with my roommate and another friend. We created a machine learning app that would read images and translate them to actions based on the image. For example, if you took a photo of your hand in the phone position, a call would be placed," she said.

Vangoor's freshman year was busy, and she is grateful she was able to experience it in person and on campus.