Computer science major Kavya Subramanian (CAS’27) says she’s looking forward to exploring the confluence of technology and wellness as a BU student.

STUDENT PROFILE

Meet BU’s Newest Terriers: Kavya Subramanian

Computer science major and Trustee Scholar hopes to make advancements in the health tech industry

This week, 3,147 freshmen and 931 transfer students will begin their careers at Boston University. It’s time to meet a few of them.

When it comes to academics, Kavya Subramanian has two passions: creating accessible health technology and getting girls interested in STEM.

A computer science (CS) major and Trustee Scholar, Subramanian (CAS’27) already has two major tech projects to her name. First: cAIra, an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that assesses an individual’s mental health state and facilitates therapeutic interventions. Second: SeiSure, a wearable device for people with epilepsy that senses oncoming seizures and sends notifications to caregivers. (Subramanian’s Trustee Scholarship, an award given to roughly 20 outstanding incoming students each year, covers her full undergraduate tuition and fees.)

In addition, she founded Bonsai, an outreach toolkit designed to introduce girls at a rural village school in India to STEM concepts. That’s all on top of her work as Head Girl and chairperson of the Student Welfare Council at her Dubai high school, where she started programs to help students alleviate stress and anxiety. 

It’s an impressive résumé for anyone, let alone an incoming freshman. But when you have a deep love for a subject, it’s easy to get swept up in one project after another. 

As Subramanian tells it, her interest in math and technology began at a young age. She did a General Certificate in Secondary Education (GCSE) in computer science as a high schooler, which greatly fueled her interests in CS and coding. Supplementary online classes—like AI and machine learning—helped her build up her knowledge base and experiment with building her own tools for her two projects.

Her interest in wellness took root after returning to in-person schooling following COVID lockdowns, when she realized how deeply she and her peers had been impacted by isolation. She hadn’t really thought about mental well-being before then, she says. But it quickly became a priority—both in attending to her own (she’s big into yoga) and improving that of her community. 

She’s driven by a deep desire to problem-solve, she explains. “I love to dig deeper and look for the ‘why’ behind things, and logically work through problems to find the most optimal solutions,” she says. “I just love the confluence of technology and wellness; there’s so much potential in this area to develop socially responsible and accessible tools that positively impact human lives. I can’t wait to explore it at BU and beyond.”

But first: Move-in.

Subramanian is living in a Bay State brownstone. It’s a half day’s flight from her Dubai home, but a quick walk to her College of Arts & Sciences classes. She spent the tail end of her summer vacationing and dorm-shopping with her parents, soon-to-be empty nesters. (They’re more excited for her than sad, she says—for now.) She already has BU friends thanks to a Dubai meetup she attended for incoming Terriers. 

When it comes to classes, she’s looking forward to diving into her CS courses, of course. But she’s just as interested in the sociology elective she signed up for, and is currently kicking around a potential economics minor. 

“I was always like, ‘I’m a STEM person—science, math, and CS only,’” Subramanian says. “But I’ve become more open-minded over the last few years, and my interests have broadened.” This she credits to her extracurriculars. One unwavering interest? Food. Boston’s food scene was a “big, big factor” in her decision to attend BU, she says.

It’s all part of her mission to be a lifelong learner (and eater). A big move is nothing new for her—her family moved to Dubai from Mumbai when she was 12—and she’s eager to jump out of her comfort zone and keep expanding her interests and experiences in Boston. She already knows she has initiative. Now, she says, she hopes her sense of curiosity keeps her motivated in this next phase of her life.

“I do believe that everyone should be a lifelong learner. I hope I continue to have curiosity within me and never let go of the student in me,” Subramanian says.

“There’s this Winnie the Pooh quote that goes, ‘I always get to where I am going by walking away from where I have been,’ which I think is one of the most beautiful quotes ever. But I guess I only truly understood what it meant when I got older. I do have big expectations from college academically. At the same time, I want to continue to grow and become a better version of myself every day, and learn from everyone on campus as much as possible.

“I think that sums it up for me.”