CRA Welcomes Satoe Sakuma as its 2016 Eben Tisdale Fellow

By Satoe Sakuma, 2016 Eben Tisdale Fellow

I am currently a rising senior at Boston University, double majoring in computer science and international relations with a focus in East Asian economics. I am very interested in high tech public policy, especially areas of cybersecurity, because it allows me to utilize both my areas of studies. My two very different majors are finally coming together during my last year as an undergraduate student through my acceptance into the senior honors program, which requires a year-long research project culminating with a thesis and defense. My thesis will examine data privacy laws in East Asia.

At Boston University, I am heavily involved in extracurricular activities that consume most of my time outside of the classroom. I was recently elected president of the Asian Studies Initiative at Boston University, which acts as a liaison for the faculty and students to promote Asian Studies through informative events, and Women in Computer Science, which provides a community as well as technical training for women in a male-dominated field. I am also involved in Boston University High Performance Computing (BUHPC), which competes in international competitions about the optimization of supercomputer applications. Through BUHPC, we ranked in the top 16 of 148 teams worldwide, and I was fortunate enough to travel to Wuhan, China to compete in the Asian Student Cluster competition in April.

Besides my hectic academic life, I find balance in yoga, traveling, and enjoying my time in nature. My travels this year include not only China, but also visiting the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE and scuba diving in Bali, Indonesia. Although Boston does not provide lush forests, the past three summers I was able to escape the busy city life in exchange for fishing in Kodiak, Alaska. If you think fishing is boring, like I used to, I highly recommend fishing for salmon and halibut in Alaska, which somehow never fails to make fishing thrilling.

I am honored to be an Eben Tisdale Fellow this summer and am really looking forward to working with CRA.