Saketh Pabolu

Had you known him as a boy, Saketh Pabolu says you might recall a youngster who took his toys apart to see what was inside, watched YouTube videos and flipped through encyclopedias to learn how various things worked.

He recalls thinking from a young age that his father’s job as an engineer “sounded really cool.”

Flash forward to when it was time to choose a college major.

“Computer science felt like the right direction. It’s a fast-moving field, and with all the excitement around artificial intelligence and machine learning, I knew I wanted to be part of it,” Pabolu says.

Far from finding it geeky, he was enthralled with how creative computer science can be and how much valuable impact it could have.

“The code we write can shape user experiences across the world, and it’s important to think about things like accessibility and cultural context. That’s something I learned in my internship at SolarSPELL,” he says.

 “Another thing I find interesting is how fast the field is evolving. Tools like ChatGPT completely changed our curriculum. It’s exciting, and it also means you’re constantly learning and adapting,” he adds.

Pabolu’s performance in leadership and service roles and his academic achievements helped to earn him an Arizona State University Provost’s Award, a Next Generation Service Corps Award, the Arizona Business Scholarship Award to help pay his tuition and a Grand Challenge Scholars Program Experiential Grant to study abroad in Ireland.  

He also worked at Intel as a software engineering intern and applied his growing skills to winning multiple hackathon awards and competing in several hosted by the ASU Enterprise Technology Spark Challenges team.

Pabolu was a technical director of a Python Users Group, hosting workshops and events for club members and helped with outreach efforts.

In the Next Generation Service Corps program at ASU he worked on solutions for the public, private and nonprofit sectors, including partnering with St. Mary’s Food Bank to design a mobile application to foster an alumni network for students who went through St. Mary’s community development classes. 

Other experiences included three semesters as a teaching assistant in an introductory computer science and engineering course taught by Adwith Malpe, a computer engineer and Fulton Schools assistant teaching professor in Engineering Academic and Student Affairs.

After graduating from ASU, Pabolu plans to pursue a master’s degree in computer science at Cornell University in New York.

“I hope to either launch my own startup one day or join a company that’s making a real difference in the world,” Pabolu says.

Read about other exceptional graduates of the Fulton Schools’ spring 2025 class here.