Q: Tell us a bit about yourself.
My name is Jamal and I’m 16 years old. I’m currently a grade 10 student at Laurenhill Academy in Montreal. I’m in many extracurriculars at my school including Student Council, Robotics, Book Club, the Black History Month Committee and Prefects. I love math, programming, drawing, music, video games and creating stuff in general. I also dabble in game development, 2D animation and Arduinos. In my free time, I like playing Nintendo games, listening to indie rock music and hanging out with my friends.
Q: Why do you want to participate in the Shad program/What are you most looking forward to?
I want to participate in the Shad program because I love meeting new people and learning new things. I want to further my knowledge in my interests, notably mathematics and computer science, and also explore new topics that I’m less familiar with. I also like talking to new and interesting people and learning from them.
Q: What motivates or sparks your curiosity in STEAM and/or entrepreneurship?
My curiosity in STEAM comes from its versatility and ability to apply it in the real world. I’m fascinated by the applications of mathematics in computer science—computer science in art—chemistry in medicine, and so on. It encourages me to learn more about anything and everything I find even slightly interesting because all knowledge connects to other knowledge. And oftentimes, major breakthroughs and solutions to real world problems are found and the intersection of different fields, such as the creation of AI to predict the 3D structures of proteins. That Nobel Prize winning breakthrough had to merge linear algebra and machine learning in order to be realized.
Q: How do you envision your future?
In the future, I’d like to study computer science at either the University of Waterloo, University of Toronto, McGill University or Concordia University. I want to eventually get a PhD and make discoveries in the fields of computer science, mathematics, and whatever else I find interesting enough to research intensively. I want to use my love of learning to make a positive impact on the world.
