NHS 2024 Graduate Spotlight: Violet Oliver

Niwot High School graduate and traditional salutatorian Violet Oliver made NHS history in her four years as a Niwot student. Not only did she earn her high school diploma with flying colors, she also received an Associate's Degree in Engineering at the same time.

During her senior year, Oliver took all of her classes at Front Range Community College, which will result in a reduction of over a year of school towards getting her bachelor's degree.

Apart from Oliver's impressive achievement of earning her associate degree, she also managed a broad range of other activities and accomplishments.

Oliver was a part of St. Vrain Valley School District's Up-A-Creek Robotics team and held leadership roles for three years, including serving as co-captain. During her sophomore year, the robotics team won the world championships. Alongside her work with the Up-A-Creek Robotics team, Oliver has also been lobbying with a separate robotics team located in Fort Collins as well as the Colorado House Representatives to create a robotics-themed license plate to further spread awareness for STEM.

Oliver also has been working as a research assistant at CU Boulder for the past three years at Tom Yeh's Center for the Brain, AI, and Child. There, she works at the intersection of AI and neuroscience.

This summer, Oliver's team has worked to create AI algorithms that will generate synthetic neuroimaging data, a method that is sparse in the scientific community. As a result of the work she has done at the CU lab, Oliver is a published research author.

Alongside her work as a research assistant at CU, she also works at CU events such as concerts and football for fun. "The Prime Time atmosphere can't be beat," she said, "and it's pretty much the only job in the world where dressing up as a Buffalo is both normal and encouraged."

This past year, Oliver piloted the NASA HUNCH program for SVVSD. According to NASA HUNCH's official website, "The HUNCH mission is to empower and inspire students through a Project Based Learning program where high school students learn 21st century skills and have the opportunity to launch their careers through the participation in the design and fabrication of real world valued products for NASA."

Oliver and partner Yash Deshpande designed and prototyped a weighted blanket intended for use in space. Because of their innovation, they were awarded the highest designation that the program offers, NASA HUNCH finalists, and they were invited to the Johnson Space Center in Houston by NASA's lead biomedical engineer to present their work to astronauts.

Oliver received multiple merit scholarships, which made her college decision "both difficult and rewarding," she said. In the fall, she will be attending Georgia Institute of Technology for Biomedical Engineering. She is currently involved in their Grand Challenges program, an interdisciplinary living learning community hosted by the Office of Leadership, Education, and Development (otherwise known as LEAD) in partnership with the College of Engineering.

After obtaining her bachelor's degree, Oliver hopes to continue on to graduate school to seek further education. "Eventually, I'd like to work in the fields of bioastronautics, applied machine learning, or neuroimaging, but I'm open to wherever life will take me," she said.

In her free time, Oliver enjoys peaceful activities such as knitting, sewing, hiking, and biking. She especially enjoys the beautiful Niwot trail system. Her work throughout high school is inspiring to her peers, current Niwot High School students, and mentors.

Those who helped Oliver get to where she is have a special place in her heart, including her computer science teacher and robotics mentor at NHS, Teresa Ewing, her Innovation Center teacher and boss, Jayme Sneider, and her counselor throughout high school at NHS, Dr. Calan Anderson.