Jonathan Lisena

Jonathan Lisena always knew he wanted to major in something related to mathematics or technology.

After a stint in the accounting program at Paradise Valley Community College, he quickly realized the business route was not the right fit and began taking computer-related courses.

“Eventually I started researching technology-related majors and found that ASU had an information technology degree program,” Lisena says. “After looking at the program goals, objectives and courses, I knew instantly that this would be my field of choice.”

Lisena’s primary focus area is computer system security and networking.

It was while Lisena was touring Arizona State University’s Polytechnic campus that he realized ASU was the best school for him.

“Everyone here is in an engineering or technology related major,” he says. “It’s great to have many alike minds in one place.”

Over the course of his senior year, Lisena worked with classmate Austin King on a capstone project where they were given one task and challenged to find a modern problem and create its corresponding solution.

Lisena and King wanted to find a smart solution to find parking spaces, and began researching and analyzing parking trends at the Polytechnic campus.

They created a mobile app that allows users to select preferred parking lots and be alerted to the number of available parking spots as they approach those lots.

“All of this was done with machine learning,” Lisena says. “We had live video feeds in multiple parking lots that were able to detect vehicles and parking spaces to see which parking spots were occupied and which were vacant.”

Now at the culmination of his undergraduate studies, Lisena has a clearer vision of how information technology and engineering can change the world.

“Engineering is an endless frontier that offers numerous possibilities,” he says. “There is an abundance of new technologies that can be utilized to make our day-to-day lives much easier.”

Lisena is hopeful for his future in computer system security and networking after graduation.

“Information technology is a massive field with plenty of opportunities,” Lisena states.

Read about other exceptional graduates of the Fulton Schools’ fall 2019 class here.