“I like taking apart a very big problem, dismantling it into tiny parts, and then treating those parts like puzzle pieces. 至少我是这么看的。” “就像我解决难题得到了奖励，我觉得这很有趣。”

Leaning into the video chat window, smiling widely, Mudawi’s excitement about computer science was most obvious when he talked about the projects he’s worked on. The conversation was sparked by the Collin College transfer student’s acceptance of a full scholarship to Yale University, but Mudawi was happy to talk about putting that puzzle-solving ability to good use while attending Collin’s Plano Campus.

他不是唯一一个。

Dr. Greg Sherman, a Plano Campus physics professor and advisor for Collin’s Center for Advanced Studies in Mathematics and Natural Sciences (CASMNS), said he was “blown away” by software that Mudawi wrote to simplify tracking asteroids.

“He just built it from scratch, mainly because he was going through (the process of plotting asteroid locations) and thinking about how it takes a long time,” Dr. Sherman said. “And he just said, ‘I wonder if I could figure out a way to do this a lot more efficiently.’他就照做了。”

The software mines data from a star archive, and when astronomers have an image of an asteroid, the software matches the surrounding stars to that image and determines where the asteroid is relative to them. Before the software, CASMNS astronomers used a much more time-intensive process of plotting, checking, and revising repeatedly to determine the asteroid’s location.

“这是一个多步骤的过程，有点艰巨，”谢尔曼博士说。 “Yassin basically built a program where you just enter in what you want to do, and it goes to the archive and builds the plot automatically.

“我们会经常使用这个工具。”

During his time at Collin, Mudawi also participated in undergraduate research for Dartmouth, Princeton, and Yale universities and a biotechnology incubator group named Helix. In his free time, he studied disparities in satellite mortality surveillance data and researched the Indian government’s discontinued attempts at building a more accurate platform for that country. Using those insights, he created a working mortality surveillance platform for an international non-governmental organization that is currently being used in refugee camps across the globe.

Mudawi got his first taste of coding by modifying game consoles with community-based software — a necessity, he said, because his family could not afford to buy many of the games or consoles that he wanted. From there, he took an introductory computer science course in high school and focused on self-directed learning.

“我自学了很多概念，只是练习，”他说。 “I guess I have an affinity for coding, and I really like programming.”

Mudawi came to Collin College for the same reason many students do _— proximity, flexibility, and price point. He lives in Allen, roughly equidistant from the Plano and Wylie campuses. He said he liked having the option of attending classes in person or online through the iCollin Virtual Campus but quickly decided that in-person education suited him best and began building a peer group through student organizations.

During his first two semesters at Collin College Mudawi worked with CASMNS and was effusive about working on projects with Dr. Sherman, Dr. Christian Aars, and Professor Ann Mampilli. Mudawi joined the Astronomy Club during his first year at Collin, later serving as vice president and then president. A 2024 Coca-Cola Leaders of Promise Scholar and member of the Phi Theta Kappa honor society, Mudawi also served as a Texas Junior College Student Government Association representative.

穆达维说，他很高兴今年秋天能加入耶鲁大学。 He said that much like his time at Collin, he plans to be very involved with student organizations. He also said he believes there will be other similarities to his time at Collin.

“The student-to-faculty ratio over there is relatively small, so there are a lot of opportunities to have those small personal interactions, kind of like, in some of the courses that I’ve taken at Collin, which I really, really appreciated,” Mudawi said. “It is good having that close community within those classes and being able to know your professor instead of being one out of 300 students in a large lecture hall, where you can feel invisible.”

Mudawi plans to pursue a combined degree in Computer Science and Psychology and possibly double major in Cognitive Science. He’s also considering pursuing certificates in Quantum Science and Engineering and Energy Studies. At Yale, certificates are the university’s version of minors. And like many Yale students, he wants to develop a few start-up ideas that he’s been mulling over through the Tsai Center for Innovative Thinking at Yale, also known as Tsai CITY.

Speaking as someone who knows Mudawi and what he accomplished while at Collin, Dr. Sherman is confident that Mudawi will do well at the university.

“我认为他绝对是一个了不起的年轻人，”谢尔曼博士说。 “I mean, he’s incredibly curious. He’s incredibly enthusiastic and was eager to learn about what we were doing and to try out new things.

“我认为这种内在动力真的会让他走得更远。”

Mudawi said he likes the idea of trying new things, drawing from multiple areas of study, and fitting them together like puzzle pieces.

“There’s something deeply satisfying about it because you can draw on ideas from different fields, and you can implement them in a meaningful new way that produces a measurable impact, and it’s pretty cool,” he said. “这是一种赋权。”

一旦你解决了一个谜题，总会有另一个谜题等着你去解决。

••••

你喜欢编程吗？ Yassin Mudawi will already be at Yale University when Collin College introduces its new Bachelor of Applied Technology in Software Development this fall, but if you want to create software, it might be a good fit for you. Learn more about Collin’s associate and bachelor’s degrees by visiting www.bc-jinsha.com/department/software-development.