Empowering Leadership: Computing Scholars of Tomorrow Alliance
 
 
I am Melanie Daugherty, a freshmen at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, majoring in Industrial Engineering.  I grew up near Chicago, and decided on Illinois because of its strong engineering programs. I have always been strong in the math field, but my love of optimization and physics has lead me to engineering.  I am planning a minor in Computer Science, because I am interested in how complex computer software is, and I think it is a good offset to my major.  I applied to XSEDE scholars hoping to get a further grasp on the importance of computer knowledge in our technically advanced world.