Sulekha

Exploring space as a computer science major

Learn how Sulekha Kishore helped prototype a moon rover, studied election data in Washington State, and filtered infrared telescope images as a Caltech student.

Growing up five miles from Caltech, Sulekha Kishore ‘25 always had the famed institution on her radar.

"I've come to Watson Lectures and other events Caltech puts on for the Pasadena community since I was young, so I knew the caliber of research and the amazing things happening there," she said. "It was my dream school since middle school."

So when Sulekha enrolled in the school and entered the campus as a Techer, she felt elated, especially because of her interest in computer science (CS), space systems, and robotics.

"I knew this is a place where I could get connected with the community and be part of something big because people are doing such amazing work here," she shared.

Delving Deeper into the CS Major

Sulekha had some experience with coding and programming before attending Caltech as a computer science major. But her learning accelerated at the school, especially now that she's a junior.

"In the first couple of years of courses, you're learning things like Python, Java, C++," she described. "But I've come to a point where now we're doing math, but we scale it up and see how it influences the real world."

For example, Sulekha studied both the theory and application of machine learning over three terms in the machine learning track.

"After we learned the theory, we generated Shakespearean sonnets using machine learning models," she explained. "We also classified movies based on people's ratings and created profiles for what people are interested in, like how Netflix suggests movies to you."

Adding a Political Science Major at Caltech

An academic twist for Sulekha occurred while taking a political science course to fulfill Caltech's core curriculum requirements. She had always been interested in politics, but the class opened her eyes to how researchers use scientific methods to study democratic processes.

So Sulekha decided to add a major in political science, which at Caltech, places heavy emphasis on using the scientific method and quantitative methods to study the field.

In Sulekha's favorite course, American Electoral Behavior and Party Strategy, she worked on a research project analyzing vote-by-mail ballots in Washington State. She completed data analysis on which ballots were getting rejected and why.

"It was an exciting class to see how research is done in the social science field," Sulekha said. "But a lot of it was also CS because we did data analysis using skills that I've learned in my CS class. So it was a nice moment of putting the two together."

Engaging in Lunar Research

Sulekha also joined research projects outside the classroom that coincided with her interest in outer space. During her first year, she joined Caltech's Lunar Architecture for Tree Traversal in-service-of Cable Exploration (LATTICE) project, which competed in the 2022 NASA Breakthrough, Innovative, and Game-Changing (BIG) Idea Challenge. The team competed with schools nationwide to find effective ways for robotic systems to traverse steep lunar terrain.

The LATTICE project developed a robotic shuttle that could travel across lunar craters using a stakes and cable system. She worked alongside Techers and scientists from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL).

"The fact that we have these close ties to people from JPL—that's a highlight of Caltech," she enthused. "They are willing to come out, spend the afternoon, spend a couple of hours explaining these topics with their years of experience."

Because of their research and proposal, Sulekha and her team were named one of seven finalists in the BIG Idea Challenge. She even helped present their project at the BIG Idea Forum, where LATTICE won the Most Visionary Concept award.

"It was a nice pinnacle to the end of our research," she said proudly. "Seeing how the research process, how to prototype, and how to build things was exciting."

Combining Computer Science and the Stars

Sulekha worked in space research again through the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowships (SURF) program, in which students receive a grant to collaborate on a project with faculty mentors.

Working with Professor Mansi Kasliwal, Sulekha relied on her computer science skills to create a data pipeline for a telescope called Wide-Field Infrared Transient Explorer (WINTER). Her pipeline would help filter the millions of images coming through the telescope and identify the objects scientists want to study.

"I'm not an astronomer, but I love space, and I love the fact that I was able to help other researchers," she said. "That was a great experience to see how CS can be applied to other fields," she explained."

Experiencing the Power of a Caltech STEM Education

Now a junior at Caltech, Sulekha looks forward to finding her niche within computer science.

"I'm very interested in space systems, satellites, and robotics," she said. "I really enjoy applying CS to real-world problems, and that's something I want to work on in a research setting—and it obviously comes from being at a place that's so research-heavy."

For students interested in going to Caltech, Sulekha affirms Caltech's reputation of being a rigorous school. Still, she adds that no one who loves STEM should be afraid of that.

"If you're truly curious and truly excited about science, this is the place to come because you'll be getting all this time every day just to learn things," she said. "Caltech is hard for sure, but knowing everyone else is working just as hard as you is encouraging. And all the research and all this excitement keeps you going when you're in the trenches trying to do a proof."