At Cy Ranch, there are many outstanding students. Cy Ranch students have received various awards and several distinctions throughout the school’s seven years. As of this year, a new name will be added to the pantheon of officially recognized students—and that name is senior David Zhou.

Zhou is not only a scholar who had received recognition as a National Merit Semifinalist, but also is a rising programmer. He entered into the International Siemens Competition with his invention, a phone app to help the visually disabled in backing up their car, and advanced to semifinals.

Zhou’s project is an ultrasound sensor that helps the visually impaired back up their car. The sensor also links to a smartphone, creating a convenient app.

“It uses a breadboard with a ultrasound sensor which gets distance readings from the back of your car,” Zhou said. “After it retrieves the data, it gets sent to a smartphone which then optimizes the data to produce audible warning noises to warn how close an object is.”

The idea came to him from another project he was working on at the time. Along with his main projects, Zhou works on his many pet projects in his free time.

“I had multiple projects leading up to this one,” Zhou said. “It was an optical-test recognition project and judging by the fact that my car had an ultrasound sensor, I combined the technology with the ultrasound.”

Zhou spent hours upon hours preparing for this project by reading journals and doing practical studies with his mentor Professor Yonggao Yag at Prairie View A&M, where he did most of his research. His computer science teacher Bryce Hulett also helped him explore his interests.

“They definitely had a very large part in the entire process,” Zhou said. “I wouldn’t be where I am without them.”

Zhou’s placement in the Siemens Competition is not the end for his computer science career, as he plans to continue work on his numerous projects, ranging from a program able to read a book phonetically to a starfighter mobile game that is still in the works. Zhou wishes to keep doing what he does best and head into a computer science major.

“I program for fun and hope to do it professionally,” Zhou said.