Pranchal Narang (she/her)

Pranchal Narang (she/her) is a 2nd year Computer Science student in UCD. She is passionate about promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion in the field and currently works closely with UCD Women at CompSci as their student co-chair, undergraduate representative, and secretary, to work towards this shared goal. Pranchal was awarded the Google Women Techmakers Irish Universities Scholarship 2020 for these efforts and for her academic achievement. She hopes to inspire other women to pursue STEM careers with the work she does.

1. Where’s your hometown?

Mountmellick, Co.Laois

2. How did you get into STEM?

I have always loved solving problems. As a child, I spent many evenings solving Sudoku puzzles or asking random questions, both of which I still enjoy doing. I believe it was the combination of these two things that came into play when I discovered coding, and that’s probably why I fell in love with it! :) Starting off, it was the visual element that appealed to me the most. Seeing the ball change color as it hit off the rectangular bar and then thinking about all the other things I could now do, that’s what opened up a whole world of possible questions which I would, with some help from the internet, answer. So, when the time came to make course selections, Computer Science was an obvious choice.

3. What is a piece of advice that you have found especially useful?

I once asked my mother, a nurse, why different people get different medication for the same disease. In response to this, she said, “There’s a solution to every problem, but what matters is choosing the best solution.” That is a piece of advice that rings true, not only to the medical world, but also to the Computer Science world. When it comes to writing code, anyone can do it, but a good programmer is the one who can solve the problem in the most efficient manner.

4. What’s a challenge you’ve faced, and how did you deal with it?

One of my biggest fears was public speaking. The thought alone was enough to give me the chills. So, when I was asked to make announcements in front of 100+ people, my first instinct was to shy away from it. However, a good friend of mine once told me that the best way to get over your fear is to face it, so I did. I agreed to do it. That day, I was really nervous, I messed up a few sentences, but when I came out of the room, I was really proud of myself for even going in there in the first place. That feeling overpowered everything else. As a result, I decided I would take every opportunity I got to practice the skill and improve little by little, learning from my mistakes. After some time, I went on to talk at events with 200+ attendees, some of which were Microsoft employees, professors, and staff! I also got to be a part of a panel discussion at Google, not something the old me would’ve imagined doing, but I did! It was all because I took that initial leap of faith and pushed myself out of my comfort zone.

5. What’s something you’ve done that you’re really proud of?

I am really proud of a project I did in 1st year that mimicked the Facebook friends recommendation system. I had very little experience with C programming at the time, so being a beginner, I found the project to be quite tough. However, when I sat down and broke the bigger problem into smaller, more manageable problems, I soon realized that the project was not some impossible task, but actually a doable problem that I had to solve. After tackling all the smaller problems, one at a time, I was left with a completed project that I was proud of. Most of all though, I was proud of how I approached the task.

6. What are you most excited about right now, in or outside of STEM?

With the coronavirus pandemic happening right now, people are looking at how we can use big data and AI to predict and prevent future pandemics, and I think that is really exciting!

7. What is your favorite source of inspiration?

My favorite source of inspiration is reading biographies, because seeing how all these amazing, influential people have struggled in their lives inspires me to do more so that people have something worth remembering after I’m gone.

8. What is your favorite book or movie?

Currently, my favorite movie is The Man Who Knew Infinity, but this changes every now and then. I love it when cinema celebrates these gifted geniuses so more people can appreciate their contributions to our world.