Sandhya Shahdeo is a Principal Product Manager at Microsoft at TEDxSeattle. She possess expertise in information technology. Colleagues describe her as "I have been acquainted with Sandhya for about two years as a M.S. student of Computer Science at University of Cincinnati. Sandhya is working on a very exciting and utterly relevant and very significant problem: can microRNAs, the endogenous regulators (mostly suppressors) of genes, be used as alternatives to drugs or as combinatorials (with drugs) to fine tune the drug-response or mitigate potential side-effects? This topic is obviously daunting for even the hardcore geneticists or pharmcogenomicists! However, Sandhya was all willing to take up the challenge and use computational approaches to analyze the integrated genomic data sets. In over nine years of my experience as a mentor, I have known other students with talent equivalent to Sandhya's. However, very few demonstrated the genuine intellectual curiosity that Sandhya has exhibited and continues to do so - a curiosity that is often accompanied and aptly balanced by her excitement or enthusiasm for an idea, solid preparedness for the assigned task, and never shying away from stepping into difficult terrains. Another noteworthy quality which is often absent in most students is that she doesn't hesitate to approach her peers for help and learning - a sign of inquisitiveness and enthusiasm to learn accompanied by a genuine concern to deliver results on time. That her computational skills, drive and abilities will truly be an asset to any establishment or group she is part of or going to be part of is an understatement and is a sure thing to happen!", "Ms. Shahdeo currently holds an Information Technology Assistant (ITA) position with the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing’s Center for Academic Technologies & Educational Resources (CATER). As Director of CATER, I have had the pleasure of serving as Ms. Shahdeo’s direct supervisor for nearly 2 ½ years. Ms. Shahdeo is a valuable member of the CATER team, providing end user, desktop, basic server, and instructional technology support. In her role as ITA, Ms. Shahdeo supports a variety of technologies – in all cases Ms. Shahdeo is able to quickly master software and hardware products – providing not only end user training/guidance, but also technical implementation/support. Specifically, Ms. Shahdeo took a lead role in the successful rollout of Office 2007 on 200 plus desktop and laptop computers. The project required Ms. Shahdeo to migrate all user data and deploy a new desktop or laptop software image – the project was completed with 100 percent success – no user data was lost or misplaced. Ms. Shahdeo is a consummate team player with a collaborative mindset. She works independently, completes projects on time, values documentation, and strives for excellence. She is a future thinker that looks for ways to improve and innovate current processes and tasks. She is always willing and ready to assist in any way needed. Ms. Shahdeo’s work ethic is exceptional – she often works beyond her scheduled hours to complete a task or project. Ms. Shahdeo consistently performs above the expectations of her position. Ms. Shahdeo has the rare combination of excellent people skills and technical ability. She is well liked by her coworkers, faculty, staff, and students. I am confident that Ms. Shahdeo will be an asset to your organization. Ms. Shahdeo has my complete and unwavering recommendation.", and "Sandhya was a valuable group member in the Biomorphic Systems class we took together. Her ability to quickly comprehend and compare situations from research papers and the applications of the related concepts was vital in bolstering the strength of the theoretical underpinnings of the groups swarm / virtual life experiment. Additionally, Sandhya worked long hours debugging code in our Machine Learning group. When I was incapacitated for part of the quarter with the flu, she and our other team member took it upon themselves to keep working late into the night to make sure to finish the group work in a timely manner. Sandhya is intelligent, energetic, determined, and resourceful. I'm glad to have had the opportunity to work with her."