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Lara Djukic

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Bio

Hi, my name is Lara, and I'm a rising sophomore at Columbia University studying Electrical Engineering. I'm passionate about using engineering and technology to create solutions that positively impact the world. In my free time, you can find me reading books, building little games using Arduino, and doing food crawls around the city!

Education

Columbia University in the City of New York

Bachelor's degree program
2025 - 2029
  • Majors:
    • Electrical, Electronics, and Communications Engineering
    • Electrical and Computer Engineering
  • Minors:
    • Computer Science

Ed W Clark High School

High School
2021 - 2025

Miscellaneous

  • Desired degree level:

    Bachelor's degree program

  • Graduate schools of interest:

  • Transfer schools of interest:

  • Majors of interest:

    • Computer Science
  • Not planning to go to medical school
  • Career

    • Dream career field:

      Electrical/Electronic Manufacturing

    • Dream career goals:

      Electrical Engineer

    • Barista- My Responsibilities include: taking orders, memorizing and making different drinks, lifting heavy boxes & equipment, working Drive-thru order & window, cleaning bathrooms, mopping & sweeping floors.

      Starbucks Coffee
      2023 – 20252 years
    • Intern -My responsibilities include: creating an Learning Management System (LMS) through Power Platform & Moodle, creating a PTO request app, Asset Management app, and Employee Onboarding app.

      Lalaith Astor Technical Consulting House
      2025 – 2025

    Sports

    Dancing

    Club
    2016 – Present10 years

    Softball

    Varsity
    2021 – 20232 years

    Awards

    • Scholar Athlete

    Arts

    • Orchestra

      Performance Art
      2017 – Present

    Public services

    • Advocacy

      Society Of Women Engineers — Member
      2025 – Present
    • Volunteering

      Key Club — Secretary
      2022 – 2025
    • Advocacy

      Code.org — Ambassador
      2024 – 2025

    Future Interests

    Volunteering

    Philanthropy

    StatusGator Women in Tech Scholarship
    Winner
    A short walk from my grandmother’s house in Bosnia sits a bright red warning sign reading “Zabranjeno Prolaz. Mine!” (Do Not Enter. Land Mines!). A weapon engineered for mass destruction that continues to hold back my community even thirty years after the war. This contamination is a barrier to socio-economic development for many Bosnians, leading to the country being one of the poorest in Europe. With many mines still undetected and causing casualties annually, the question I am to answer is: How do I stop this? During a CS Club meeting my sophomore year, I was introduced to a new concept – Machine Learning. We can teach computers to recognize patterns and adapt without explicitly being programmed, essentially teaching computers to learn just like humans. This is the solution that I was looking for. I want to use AI and machine learning for landmine detection in Bosnia. By training machine learning models to detect patterns in soil composition and terrain maps, these systems can be used to accelerate landmine detection. I want to pursue a Bachelor's and Master's in computer science to build an understanding of AI and Machine Learning to use to help my community, especially in my parents’ home country of Bosnia, where war remnants plague the local communities. My main goal is to become an AI Engineer and establish a company based in Bosnia that focuses on using AI, Machine Learning, robotics, and technology to help local communities contaminated by the landmine crisis. Hearing the horror stories from my parents and grandparents of locals accidentally stepping on landmines while doing everyday tasks like picking fruit, I realized that this is a problem that I wanted to dedicate my education to solving. I dream of developing advanced AI technologies to pinpoint the locations of landmines and leftover explosives in Bosnia while making this information accessible to citizens through public websites. I want to program robots to disarm the mines instead of sending Bosnian bomb technicians who suffer casualties annually. In my English 102 class, I’m currently writing a research paper on how AI and Machine Learning can be used to solve the landmine crisis in Bosnia. In college, I hope to dive deeper into this research and start creating prototypes of these systems. I dream of walking back to the forest near my grandma’s house without seeing any bright red warning signs again. AI is the future, and I want to use it to help people.