Zoya Hussain

Zoya Hussain

Researcher and Developer in Dallas, Texas, She/Her

About

I'm Zoya, a 17 year old interested in the development of human-centered software and interfaces. I love exploring the intersection between the humanities and STEM, from ethics and policy to technology and neuroscience.

Currently, I'm working on increasing AI ethics literacy @ Encode Justice, introducing teenagers to a community of worldwide hackers @ Hack Club, and learning about the scope of neuroscience research @ Stanford.

Education

2021 — Now
High School Degree at Great Hearts Irving
Irving, Texas

Receiving a liberal arts education from a classical charter school. Maintaining a 3.9UW/4.7W grade-point average, and currently taking Honors Calculus, Honors Spanish III, Humane Letters: Ancient Greek Literature and History, Studio Art/Drama, and Honors Physics.

  • Newspaper publication writer and editor, working with peers to create inclusive and thought-provoking magazine issues

  • Student body representative, leading my peers as an ambassador and event coordinator

  • Founding chairperson for the Alpha Delta Omega STEM society, campus' first after-school STEM-based opportunity to meet industry professionals and increase depth of inquiry in applications of scientific research and academia

  • Working with Master Teacher to help organize and create science labs for underclassmen

2023 — Now
AI Certification at Coding School, Department of Defense
Remote

Selected to partake in two-semester, for-credit course on AI and intersectional applications, where we:

  • Learn about ML Algorithms (KNN and k-means clustering), data visualizations, Reinforcement Learning, Deep Learning, and Natural Language Processing (NLP)

  • Work on capstone projects for national military labs

2023 — 2024
Remote

Selected to participate in a Neuroscience Journal Program at Stanford University, where I learned about current advances in Neuroscience and research techniques from Stanford faculty members.

Work Experience

2023 — 2024
Shelburne, VT

Worked with a team of high-school and gap-year students to organize large-scale seasonal events, including:

  • Outernet (2023), a 4-day experimental coding/camping trip, bringing 200 high-schoolers together, working on event design, marketing, and storytelling.

  • Days-of-Service, an initiative partnering with Girl Scouts to bring coding experiences to underserved communities. Working on four hackathons with 100+ total attendees, including design, workshop development, and mentorship.

  • Boreal Express (2024), a trans-continental train hackathon focused on creating solutions to the ongoing climate crisis, working on event storytelling, logistics.

2019 — 2023
Tutor, Data Entry Specialist at Kumon Education
Irving, Texas

I worked as a Math and English Instructor at Kumon, where I:

  • Taught 250+ regular students fundamental math concepts, ranging from addition/subtraction to Pre-Calculus and Trigonometry. Also mentored in English concepts, from grammar to comprehension in classical literature.

  • Scheduled assessments for students and created curated lesson plans depending on student performance.

  • Trained for data-entry specialization, tabulated student performance in center-specific database.

Volunteering

2023 — Now
Texas, USA

Founded a statewide organization with Encode Justice, the world's largest network of youth mobilized for creating human-centered AI. With our efforts, our team of high-school and undergraduate students is actively:

  • Lobbying with politicians statewide to ensure that technology is compatible with democratic values; discussed implementation of C-COPS legislature created by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) with city council members and mayors.

  • Partnering with youth-led organizations for large-scale events and social media collaborations

  • Providing AI Ethics education workshops for several school districts, colleges, and congressmen, and organizing workshops, summits, and "learnathons" for 1000's of students statewide

  • Researching intrinsic biases in popular LLMs (large-language models)

2020 — 2023
Campaign Coordinator at American Red Cross
Texas, USA

Worked region-wide to implement and oversee 3 campaign cycles (2020-'21, 2021-'22, 2022-'23) for IHL YAC's (International Humanitarian Law Youth Action Campaigns). In the process, we:

  • Garnered 10,000+ unique participants throughout duration of campaigns

  • Advocated for children's access to education in warring countries, the protection of cultural property, and environmental impacts of warfare

  • Developed campaign websites to direct participants to educational resources and promote campaign messages

  • Held events with school districts, local businesses, museums, and youth organizations

  • (Coordinator-specific) Trained 150+ regional volunteers in an introduction to youth activism and campaign strategy, and supervised 12 region-wide campaign teams

2021 — 2022
Internship Coordinator at International Internship Program
Remote

Led a team of 15 high-school and undergraduate students on a year-long advocacy campaign, where we:

  • Advocated for women's education rights in Nigeria to communities impacted by poverty, corruption, and lack of resources

  • Created official censuses in consultation with human rights agencies to survey communities on sentiments surrounding education

  • Organized and performed workshops demonstrating the importance of diverse perspectives in education

Projects

2024
  • Novel, patent-pending metric for biometrically-secure ID development in developing countries

  • Conrad Innovation Finalist: Chosen as 1 of 5 in Cyber-Technology & Security to present innovation at NASA for patent and start-up support

2022
GenGreen

Worked in a team to create a web-app for promoting environmental activism for youth. In the process, we:

  • Used React and TailwindCSS to create a front-end application, and MySQL and Python (data science libraries: NumPy, Matplotlib, Scikit-learn) to create databases and data visualizations

  • Compiled over 100 volunteer opportunities for local youth to get involved with climate activism in school clubs and organizations

  • Worked with local volunteer organizations to educate citizens about sustainability

2021
Productivity Application

Worked with a team to develop an iOS app designed for students with neurodivergencies. In the process, we:

  • Implemented time-tracking features with Pomodoro and flow-time techniques

  • Included features for journaling and mindfulness

  • Incorporated an ADHD-friendly user interface for frill-free, feature-driven use

  • Received commendation from Congressman Van Taylor for efforts in STEM and activism

Awards

2024

One of five teams chosen to participate in the Conrad Innovation Summit, the final stage of a year-long innovation competition spanning 50 countries and 5,000+ students. Developed a provisionally-patented innovation for creating biometrically-secure identification in under-developed countries.

2024
Gold Award from Girl Scouts

Receives Gold Award for community contributions in technology, the highest accolade earned by <6% of Girl Scouts.

2022
Invitation to Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson's Youth Summit from Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson

Invited to youth summit on diverse dialogues alongside 50 local youth, where I:

  • Learned about diverse pluralistic perspectives and equity

  • Proposed and planned a community initiative with local libraries and school districts to the congresswoman and city council members

2022
Aspirations in Computing Award from NCWIT

Honored by National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT) for aspirations in computer science

Teams

Current
Hack Club