Self portrait, made in Procreate (2022)
About Me
Art + Science + People = Cyrus
When I was in the 8th grade, I had to pick between being the captain of my robotics team, or the lead in the school musical. I chose both and made it work.
That spirit has stayed with me while I attended an Engineering magnet high school. They had no arts curriculum, so I opened an art and design business to get creative entrepreneurship experience outside of school. I still wasn’t being pushed to my full artistic potential at my STEM-only high school, so I graduated early to attend a local junior college. I graduated at 17 with four Associate Degrees in Social and Behavioral Sciences, Psychology, Communication, and Natural Sciences.
I then headed to UC Berkeley where I studied Psychology, Design Innovation, and Entrepreneurship and Technology. Through the Fung Fellowship- a partnership program between UC Berkeley’s Colleges of Engineering and Public Health- I was able to practice Human-Centered Design. I did user research, storyboarding, journey maps, empathy maps, and interviewed experts from UCSF, Kaiser, PACE, and plenty of end users for the health technologies I was working on developing. I loved it all.
In the Fall of my Senior year, I was scouted for IBM, where I’ve worked as an Innovation Designer for the past 2 years. Through my work, I lead design thinking workshops, conduct user research, manage resources on 4-6 week Proof of Value projects, and co-create AI-powered solutions with Fortune 500 clients—turning ambiguity into actionable insights and strategy.
Through design, I finally feel like I’ve found a niche that allows me to combine my interests and be forever learning in my career.