Destiny Brown wanted to become a nurse, but now she wants to work in health tech

When Destiny Brown, a junior at Delaware State University, stepped onto campus as a freshman back in 2014, she had dreams of becoming a nurse. It wasn’t long before she realized that although she loved helping people, her true passion was computers. Brown is now a computer science major and works as a research assistant in the Department of Computer and Information Sciences.
How’d you get interested in tech?
Ever since I was a little girl, I have always been interested in everything that had to do with computers. From video games and artificial intelligence to human computer interaction and user experience , you name it, I was into it! Growing up and watching technology advance really sparked my interest. Even though I planned to come to Del State and major in nursing because I love to help people, my main passion has always been computers. I realized that I could still help people through technology because millions of people use computers and technology daily.
What type of courses are you currently taking?
I am taking a lot of computer courses. A lot of them have to do with computer networking. I also really enjoy my computer graphics class. I like learning how to take images and change the way they look on the screen.
What are you working on right now?
Right now, I am excited about a project I am working on with my professor, Dr. Gary Holness. It combines both the medical field and technology. I can’t really explain it in a lot of detail now because he just starting teaching me and helping me do research, but it will help patients if their blood pressure is high.
What’s a project you’ve been proud of?
Last year I was really interested in robotics and animation. For my mid-program project, I created a social robot using a Raspberry Pi 2. I love space, so I made him look like WALL-E, the Disney character. My robot was able to listen, play sounds and display text with an LCD screen. He also used cameras to take pictures, take video and detect motion. In the future, I hope to continue to develop him. I think he would be good for children with Autism.
Your graduation date is coming soon. What do you want do when you graduate?
I want to use technology to make a difference in the world. I hope to create things that benefit either the medical field or space exploration.
As a woman of color in tech, why do you think it is important to be a part of this industry?
It is important because we can do anything that anyone else can do. It’s not just about women of color, but women in general. In the tech industry, you don’t see a lot of women. I believe that if more women got involved in tech, we could do great things and make the industry boom even more.