Hi 👋 ! My name is Suryaa, and here's a bit(s) (like the picture get it? ;) about me!

As a kid I spent a lot of time with Legos building worlds I imagined and spending my time in them. This evolved into designing and creating artifacts that attracted my attention at the time: lego robots that ran programs and automated tasks. 

‍Without the prenotion I was building models and dabbling with technology that actually interacted with the world.  

‍Fast Forward a couple of years, on one hand I’d explore the world through the flight simulator on Google Earth in awe, but on the other I realized how the limits of the computers I was working with were constraining. Things would be slow, messy, and uninspiring. 

Born and raised in the Bay Area, I was always in touch with the latest technology and changes of the world. Increasingly, I was a student of the information technology and sustainability space with the exceptional opportunities that were provided to me through my high school. Well designed Apple computers, Google Drive, and being 10 minutes away from the Tesla Factory changed the dynamics and my focus in life. Interacting with computers was enriching, magical, and a "spacecraft for the mind" endeavor after that, and I recognized the value of design in technology.  

My senior year of high school when I was looking at college majors I stumbled upon a plethora of fields I never heard of that immediately matched everything I wanted to work in: Informatics, Cognitive Science, and Design. At the same time, I was given a scholarship by Climate One to be a part of Students on Ice’s Arctic Expedition, where I was introduced to new ways of thinking and radically diverse perspectives on climate change: socio-cultural, biological, artistic, economical, etc. 

‍At the University of Illinois, inspired by my experiences I studied cognitive science and informatics. Along the way I stumbled on Big History, Complex Systems/Systems Thinking, and learned and worked in the field of Interface and Experience Design. 

‍Understanding how my university education taught me to better approach work challenges and life, I wanted to be more in depth. Most recently, I learned the ins and outs of Human-Computer Interaction+Design at the University of Washington.

Thanks for visiting!