Senior Spotlight: Isha Nagireddy

STEM I. The name brings back many memories for any student who’s been through junior year. Whether it’s the despair of a failed test or the post-Feb Fair high, every student has a story to tell about their STEM project. For some students, STEM I ends at the STEM fair. But some, like Isha Nagireddy, a MAMS senior from the class of 2025, take it further. For her STEM project, Isha developed an app called OptiCare, which is designed to improve the accessibility of diagnostic tools for glaucoma and cataracts. Isha was recently selected as a semifinalist in the Regeneron Science Talent Search and the winner of the 2024 Congressional App Challenge in Massachusetts’ Second District.

When asked about her project, Isha revealed her dedication to her work. “I first became interested in eye care after visiting India,” she recalls. “One of my relatives there has his own eye clinic, and it was one of the best in the area. When I went to visit, I realized that a clinic that was seen as really advanced in a rural part of India didn’t even have the same resources as the normal eye clinic I go to here in the US.” This inspired her to begin creating more options for eye care in underserved communities.

OptiCare began its life as solely a mobile application, but early in development, Isha realized this approach had its challenges, namely that “point of care diagnostics for cataracts and glaucoma would be difficult because the tools required to gather data for a diagnosis were not accessible themselves.” This “lack of accessibility,” as she described it, was the most surprising part of her project. So, she decided to pivot and additionally create an “affordable, 3D printed device for gathering the required data for an autonomous diagnosis with the app.” Although she’d never used OnShape or other CAD programs before, this became one of her favorite parts of the project, along with coding the application.

Knowing that she’ll be graduating soon, Isha plans to continue the work that she started last year. “I hope to continue my research in eye care and other interesting areas of computational biology this upcoming fall at Cornell,” Isha told me. “I believe my experience developing my project OptiCare will help me delve into more advanced research and coding projects in college.”

MAMS students have many hobbies outside of school, Isha being no exception. “When I’m not studying, I love playing volleyball,” she says. “I used to play for my sending school and now play club and oftentimes just in my free time for fun.” She also danced for eight years prior to coming to MAMS.

Isha’s advice to future computer scientists and researchers is drawn from her experience. Asked about how she discovered computer science, Isha responded, “I first got into coding during the COVID pandemic when I was in 8th grade. I was really bored during lockdown and started taking this free online course called Harvard CS50. It was an introductory CS course, and I found the topics covered in the lectures very interesting and enjoyed completing the problem sets. Having finished this course by the end of 8th grade, I decided to take some CS electives in high school and it spiraled from there.” She recommended this course highly to any student looking to enter the world of programming, noting that “the instructor makes all the lectures very interesting.”

Her advice to the next generation of scientists is simple: start experimenting early. She recommends that all interested high schoolers reach out to labs and professors as early as they can to get involved in real research. “Learning from a professor and helping contribute to their research will help you branch out in the future to conduct your own research,” she stressed.

Congratulations again to Isha for being selected for these prestigious awards!