The selection of the 2020-2021 Parker Skiba Memorial Scholarship recipients has been completed. This year, there will be 6 students awarded, bringing the total under the program now to 14. These are exceptional young students with entrepreneurial ambitions who will inevitably leave a mark on the world in their lives. Below is some information on this year’s scholars.
Riddhi Bhave
Riddhi Bhave is a rising junior as a computer science major at UT Austin. In addition to computer science, she is also pursuing a concentration in AI and a certificate in statistical modeling. Riddhi has an older sister who lives in New York and a twin sister who also studies at UT. Her parents worked really hard to move from India to the US to give their children a good education and more opportunities for a better life than the one they had in India. Riddhi was born and raised in Pennsylvania, and then came to UT Austin for its computer science program. Outside of school, she really enjoys playing golf and volleyball, along with going to the karate dojo to keep up with her black belt curriculum. Riddhi also serves as board member of UT Computer Science Ambassadors, acting as a liaison between the department and prospective students.
Adriana Reyes
Adriana Reyes is an incoming freshmen in the Texas CSB program at UT Austin. A graduate of Akins High School in Austin, Texas, Adriana participated in the Parent Teacher Student Association, National Honor Society, Code2College, Varsity Soccer, Air Force JROTC, First Robotics, and ChickTech. This summer, she returned to Cirrus Logic on the BSP tools team as a software engineering intern. During her internship, Adriana worked with UI and UX for panel development and created a python script that would locate stale or merged branches in her team’s repository to improve efficiency using the Bitbucket API. She is also in the Army ROTC program at UT Austin and is serving in the Texas Army National Guard. Adriana’s dream is to become a product manager and serve as an officer in the Army.
Kevin Qi
As elected president of the first Texas CSB cohort at UT Austin, Kevin Qi is a curious and driven student leader pursuing a double major in Computer Science Honors and Canfield Business Honors. Kevin enjoys using technology to create practical, real-world solutions that will positively impact his community. While technology is necessary, it is not sufficient, and he plans to be part of the human leadership guiding technology for the good. Kevin’s pursuit of a career involving business and computer science stems from his passion for both people and technology, and he strives to close the gap between these two industries through his interdisciplinary education.
Benjamin Li
Benjamin Li is a freshman from Plano, Texas studying Computer Science and Business in the newly formed Computer Science and Business Honors Program at The University of Texas at Austin. Benjamin is interested in building practical, scalable solutions to various problems, and sees computer science and business as equipping him with the knowledge, network, and critical thinking process to do so. In high school, he co-created a personal finance app called Dollary to track spending and suggest savings opportunities. This spring semester, Benjamin is interning as a software engineer at a local Austin startup that provides long distance ride-sharing, Hitch. On campus, he is involved in Texas Convergent, a student organization that applies machine learning to real-life uses, and the Texas Table Tennis Team. In his free time, Benjamin enjoys poker, film, and spending time with friends and family.
Siddhi Patadia
Siddhi Patadia is a rising junior at UT Austin majoring in both computer science and biochemistry. She is also pursuing a Spanish certificate and has received University Honors every semester. Apart from academics, Siddhi avidly participates in Women in Computer Science, tutors other undergraduates in math and science, and conducts research in a genetics lab on campus. In her free time, she enjoys editing videos for her YouTube channel, practicing her singing, and painting her next masterpiece. She hopes to one day make her contribution to the scientific community through biotechnology and believes the future of medicine lies in computer science
Diego Lira
Diego Lira is a freshman student at UT Austin in the Texas Computer Science and Business Honors program. He began his studies in computer science in high school, learning multiple programming languages and using his skills in various projects in game development, web development, and real-world simulations. During his senior year in high school, he interned at Oceaneering International Inc., where he researched how to improve the company’s learning management system and discovered why education in business and computer science is such a powerful combination. Diego is a part of Longhorn Startup and plans to join Texas HBSA and the University Securities Investment Team, where he hopes to learn more about the skills that can help him in future endeavors in entrepreneurship. In his free time, Diego can be found playing tennis and practicing piano.
