STEM Conference expands into L.A.  

Expanding into Los Angeles for the third annual STEM Conference, Abiela Sarrieddine is showing no signs of stopping anytime soon.  

The University of California, Santa Barbara, sophomore, who founded the conference two years ago as a senior at Valencia High School, discussed meeting high school students in areas such as Santa Monica and Calabasas. 

“The difference between this conference and the previous one is that we have fully expanded into L.A. County. The biggest jump being moving it from a high school gym into an official venue in L.A., and with that, we’ve expanded not just the location, but also the demographic,” Sarrieddine said. “In the past, it’s been predominantly Santa Clarita students, but this time we had high school students and some college-level students. It was really nice to see people from different backgrounds from where they’re growing up, what they’re interested in, and what their school offers them.” 

The conference consisted of start-up companies who sponsored the event, as well as clubs from UCLA that focused on optometry and dentistry. 

“We had Marc Khamis from Zyra AI, who gave a talk on (artificial intelligence) preparedness and how you can utilize it. Ryaan Sayegh from Hollo AI spoke about what your suppose is, and how he went from his degree in math and science at [University of California, San Diego], to now having a startup, and his journey with that,” Sarrieddine said. “Ayana Sarrieddine did a talk on biomedical informatics. She is a University of Washington PhD student and how she went from undergraduate, to master’s, to industry, back into academia.” 

The panelists who were present included: Breeze Aguilar, member of Caltech Society of Women Engineers, Sayantoni Chaudhuri, doctoral student in marine and earth science at UCSB, and David Vakil, dean of the School of Mathematics, Sciences and Engineering at College of the Canyons.  

“We also had a competition, which was super cool. I think the number, overall, was about 60 [attendees]. Overall, the network has grown. It was a bit more difficult this year because we’ve expanded the demographic and location. So I think that this year was a great stepping stone for future years, because now a lot more people have learned about the conference,” Sarrieddine said.  

Sarrieddine is already planning her next strategies to ensure that more L.A. County students, who are interested, attend in the coming years. 

“This year, the conference was in a different light, and it’s setting us up to make it something bigger. This year was an investment to really push for the future years — I plan to work more closely with the districts as opposed to clubs. I want to improve accessibility for all students to attend. I even want to build a [separate] community of students across all the UCs to have that form of networking,” Sarrieddine said. “The goal is to expand and make the conference more accessible, more insightful and more diverse.”