A swirl of shades of black and white, splashed out on a screen: circles and ripples and reflections. The artwork might look like something completely original, thought up in the depths of an abstract artist’s brain. While it is Sidra Xu’s (12) creation, it’s also the creation of dozens of other artists, computer code and artificial intelligence. 

Sidra loves creating artwork on her laptop, specifically using programming to do so. She scours artwork from the online database WikiArt, which she trains a Large Scale Generative Adversarial Neural Network on. Her computer program generates a unique piece of art from the given data, which Sidra later touches up through Procreate and Adobe Photoshop. 

“Despite it being incredibly fun for me, because I really love art, it’s really beautiful, seeing the different colors, the shapes, compositions of nature and what I can create … it’s also fulfilling to know that I’m this intersection between human creativity and technological creativity,” Sidra said. 

The aspect of ethics and the problems that arise from this artwork also intrigue Sidra. She often questions who the creator of such pieces of work are, and she ponders whether it’s herself or the other artists or the computer. These deep questions involving ethics and technology inspired her to found a club at the upper school, the Ethics in Technology club with fellow member Jason Lin (12). The club has invited speakers and holds discussion forums about different technological aspects of the world. 

“The key point of Ethics in Tech is the discussions that we hold, usually every two weeks. And it’s really opened my eyes to different perspectives. I have my own opinions coming from a very science heavy background. But there may be some students in the discussion room who are very into politics or law, so then they will bring a new perspective,” Sidra said. 

By listening to other people’s thoughts and sharing her own opinions and knowledge, Sidra has found a joy for teaching. She joined an organization called Opportunity X, which helps support students at underprivileged schools conduct research projects and science experiments. 

“When I was looking at the middle school students, I realized I saw myself when I first started research in eighth grade. So then Opportunity X was a perfect platform for me to continue what I loved about the bonds in academia, as well as further my interests in research and teaching,” Sidra said. 

Sidra is the president of the Science Competitions Club, and one initiative she and the other officers started was preparing mock finals for each science class to prepare students for the tests. During the weeks before finals, Sidra would find herself in the library, with students coming in to ask her biology questions, and she would do her best to share her knowledge with them. Upper school biology teacher Dr. Matthew Harley, who taught Sidra her junior year, admires her willingness to help others and spread her passion for science. 

“She’s so intelligent, but [what I admire] more [is] the interactions with people, that she wants to help others understand. She wants to help teach them, understand where they’re coming from, and then be able to help them in that way,” Dr. Harley said. 

From participating in math competitions in middle school to linguistics and biology olympiads and joining several STEM clubs in high school, Sidra’s love for all the sciences is evident to those around her, and she wishes that others see its greatness as well.

“Everything I do, I do it because I really love it. And I really wish other people could also see the joy and sublimity that I find in some disciplines, like math [and] biology,” Sidra said. “[I want to] help show students who are not as interested in those activities, the power and beauty of sciences.”

Arya Maheshwari (12), a close friend of Sidra’s who has been in many of the same math classes as Sidra since the fifth grade, has learned from Sidra during their conversations together. 

“Being able to talk with Sidra, who’s so genuine and committed to things she does, getting to talk with her about any topic is always an opportunity to learn something new and get a new perspective,” Arya said. 

Close friend Luisa Pan (12) admires Sidra’s persistence and inner motivation to pursue everything that she wishes for and is passionate about, and she respects her drive to always find more to learn about. 

“Something that I really admire in Sidra is her persistence to keep on working and her own self-motivative reasons. I think sometimes most people are motivated by outside influences, but I think Sidra really has an inner drive to succeed as well as push herself to commit,” Luisa said. 

Sidra also cares very much about her friends, and she tries to put her best effort in whatever she does, whether it’s talking to and helping out her friends, writing research papers about complicated molecular genetics at the Stanford Medical Lab or leading Ethics in Technology discussions. 

“[Sidra is] genuine and caring. As a friend, she’s been someone who’s really committed to the friendships she has, someone who’s always there for other people. I know whether it’s academics or her extracurriculars or her friends, Sidra doesn’t do anything half-heartedly,” Arya said. 

Other traits that Sidra holds true to herself is living in the moment, because she believes that experiences should be cherished, and staying true to oneself. 

“Value the present. Cherish your memories. Don’t worry about the future, and keep real… [This is important to me because] I like living in the present. And the past is what really supports you along the way. But it’s not everything, there’s also the future, that there’s a lot to hope for,” Sidra said.