Shujahuddin Rahimi

Engineering Futures Scholar

Shujauddin Rahimi, a computer science major at the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, said he chose to pursue this career field because it gives him the ability to not only solve his own problems, but to solve other people’s problems as well. 

“It gives me the tools to be creative but at the same time be solving a problem,” Rahimi said.

Arizona State University seemed like a great fit for Rahimi after he received a lot of scholarships and it was close to home. He heard a lot of great reviews about the engineering school in particular, so it made his decision clear to attend this school. 

Transitioning from high school to college was different than what he expected because living off campus made it difficult for Rahimi to make connections and to attend organizations his first year. 

 One way he’s learned to make connections is by joining Software Developer’s Association (SoDA) and attending the events in that group that go on once or twice a week.

Dr. Jeff Watson is one faculty member who has impacted Rahimi a lot with his experience at ASU. Rahimi said Watson helped him to learn about philosophical questions that are important to ask in computer science. 

“He got me excited about learning,” Rahimi said. 

Rahimi’s favorite part of college is being around motivated people and seeing how college changes the way people behave. He said in high school it always felt like no one actually wanted to be there and couldn’t wait to leave. 

“It’s like people come here to learn to be successful to get what they need done and there isn’t any sort of stigma when you bring up an academic topic or something like that, if you brought it up,” Rahimi said. 

College has also pushed Rahimi to learn how to manage his time well and become more efficient in completing assignments by routinely using a calendar while also having time to relax or do fun things.

He said there’s this misconception that exists surrounding the idea that to take time to relax is equal to laziness or lack of dedication enough because engineers who live and breathe their work are praised for their work ethic. 

“If you want to get into engineering, don’t forget the fact that you’re a human being, have things that you like, have things you want to do and you have friends and family that you can spend time with,” Rahimi said. “Your work isn’t your whole life and even though you’re tackling maybe some of the world’s biggest problems, you still have your own problems to take care of.”

In the future he looks forward to tackling the important issues of autonomous cars. He said that car fatalities have become so common that no blinks an eye anymore and sees a hopeful solution with self-driving cars.\

“We’ve made sure that we can’t hear the roads when we’re in cars, we’ve made the seats all comfortable and everything like that so that we completely forget that we’re even driving,” Rahimi said. “So why not take it to the next step and have it so that we don’t even have to drive, and the car drives itself and everything is so much safer.” 

By Laura Stack, Science and Technology Writer, Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering
May 12, 2020