Pratik Nyaupane

Pratik Nyaupane finds people remain in the dark about what informatics involves, but his studies in the field have brought to light a world of possibilities.

Informatics not only “sounds cool,” Nyaupane says, “but you get to learn about a wide variety of things in science, technology and big data.”

He has put the knowledge to use in a variety of ways during his college years.

In the Fulton Schools Engineering Projects in Community Service program, Nyaupane prototyped a mobile application to encourage young people to stay civically engaged.

He also used his skills as treasurer and secretary of the Nepalese Student Association, as an officer with the NextGen ASU civic engagement group and Living United for Change in Arizona, or LUCHA, an organization that advocates for social justice and community empowerment.

Nyaupane, a student in ASU’s Barrett, The Honors College who got support for his education from ASU’s New American University Provost Award, did internships with the city of Chandler’s information technology department, Nationwide Insurance and LiveOps Inc., a virtual call center company.

Nyaupane completed an honors thesis on the human rights crisis in Qatar, the country preparing to host the 2022 Word Cup soccer competition. He also coauthored “I Just Couldn’t Believe I Was There: An Exploration of Soccer Pilgrimage,” an academic paper published in the International Journal of Sport Communication, and presented his work at the 2019 international Summit on Communication and Sport.  

He worked as a research fellow with Assistant Professor Kirk Jalbert on a project for the Civic Science for Environmental Futures Collaborative at ASU to study advocacy groups’ use of technology and data practices to mobilize against fossil fuel pipelines in their communities.

Jalbert “taught me how engineering can be used to fight environmental injustice rather than perpetuate it,” and along with other ASU faculty members “gave me an appreciation for the amazing and hard work that professors do in contributing to societal knowledge,” Nyaupane says.

Outside of classwork and research projects, even his role as a co-captain of a local Sunday soccer league team, the Tempe Newboys, “has taught me incredible lessons about service, selflessness and accountability,” he says.

“I hope to use my degree in informatics to make a real difference in marginalized communities,” Nyaupane says. “There is a need for technical knowledge and analytical skills to fight systemic injustices, and I hope to help bridge that gap.”

Read about other exceptional graduates of the Fulton Schools’ spring 2020 class here.