“I like taking apart a very big problem, dismantling it into tiny parts, and then treating
those parts like puzzle pieces. At least that’s how I look at it,” Yassin Mudawi explained.
“It’s like I get rewarded for solving hard puzzles, and I find it fun.”
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.
He’s not the only one.
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.’ And he did.”
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.
“It was a multi-step process that was somewhat arduous,” Dr. Sherman said. “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.
“We’re going to use this tool a lot.”
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.
“I teach myself a lot of concepts and just practice,” he said. “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.
Mudawi said he is excited about getting involved at Yale when he attends this fall.
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.
“I think he’s an absolutely phenomenal young man,” Dr. Sherman said. “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.
“I think that internal drive is going to really carry him far.”
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. “It’s kind of empowering.”
And once you’ve solved one puzzle, there is always another to tackle.
• • •
Do you love coding or programming? 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.collin.edu/department/software-development.
