Annie Ostojic Pays It Forward
By Paula Golden, President of Broadcom Foundation
Parents get a thrill when their kids reach young adulthood, spread their wings, and go forward into the world. They nurture their children through important rites of passage: from middle school to high school, high school through college or trade school, and on to their first big job.
This is exactly how I felt when I received a photo of Annie Ostojic bestowing the Broadcom Coding with Commitment® award to Simone Smith at the Southern Arizona Regional Science & Engineering Fair (SARSEF) in Tucson, which is celebrating 70 years as a free, large-scale community event that brings the excitement of STEM learning to over 6,000 participants.
I first met Annie in 2014 when she was a curious thirteen-year-old. Her early fascination with cooking and how microwaves heat food led her to a science fair project that won awards in Indiana and earned her a spot as a Rising Star at the Broadcom MASTERS®. (My big take-away from Annie that year was to use the outer rim of the microwave to evenly heat the food, and that circular dishes work better than any other in the microwave.)
Annie went on to represent the United States at the International Broadcom MASTERS®, where like Broadcom founder Henry Samueli, she experienced the wonderment of building a working short-wave radio at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). This led to another project that resulted in Annie winning the 2015 Samueli Prize at Broadcom MASTERS and advancing to the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF). An invitation to Stockholm’s Nobel Prize ceremony preceded Annie’s research on gene functionality using AI and mathematical modeling where she discovered CCDC191’s unknown double-agent functionality as both a tumor suppressor and oncogene in a DNA pathway for breast cancer patients.
Fast-forward to today. With a double degree from Stanford University, Annie is now a Signal Processing Engineer II and Integrated Product Team Lead at Raytheon in Tucson after receiving other accolades, including being selected as a Forbes 30 Under 30, a Davidson Fellow Laureate, and a U.S. Presidential Scholar.
This year, Annie was a judge at a local Arizona Science Fair that selected students for the 2025 Southern Arizona Regional Science & Engineering Fair, which brings her full circle from being the middle schooler who began her STEM journey at a science fair in Indiana to a science fair judge of students like Simone. Simone used machine learning, a skill she developed at Girls Who Code, an afterschool code club, to develop an AI program to reduce land mines in war zones. Said Simone, “I learned on the news about the PFM-1 anti-personnel mines and how they are maiming people in the war between Russia and Ukraine, and I wondered if I could create an AI program that shows if these mines are present in an area.”
Annie endorsed that Simone’s project met the criteria for the Broadcom Coding with Commitment® award that the foundation created to recognize achievements by under-resourced and underrepresented students whose access to STEM and coding resources may be more limited than other science fair participants, and provide a catalyst for students to learn basic coding and AI as essential problem-solving tools in STEM and fosters active civic engagement by “thinking globally while acting locally.”
All of Broadcom Foundation’s sponsored programs are intended to inspire children like Annie and Simone and set them on a path toward a STEM career that awaits them. Digital Literacy outreach programs like Coolest Projects Global, sponsored science fairs, the National STEM Festival, and the Congressional App Challenge provide Broadcom Inc. engineers and others like Annie opportunities to volunteer as role models, mentors, and judges in communities where they live and work. Code Clubs like Simone’s provide a two or three-hour stretch of optimal project-based learning time for coding and AI, which today are foundational skills needed for STEM education and workforce readiness.
The photos of Annie as a Broadcom MASTER and - eleven years later - as an engineer honoring Simone creates a beautiful “pay it forward” moment for me and everyone at Broadcom. Our pride in these young women, and all of those inspired to develop 21st century+ skills and follow their passion through foundation programs, knows no bounds.
ABOUT:
Broadcom Inc. is an American company and global technology leader that designs, develops, and supplies a broad range of semiconductor, enterprise software and security solutions. Solutions include service provider and enterprise networking and storage, mobile device and broadband connectivity, mainframe, cybersecurity, and private and hybrid cloud infrastructure.
Broadcom Foundation is a corporate nonprofit that advocates equitable access to STEM education and acquiring digital literacy as essential for attaining meaningful employment and becoming productive citizens in a tech-driven society. The foundation promotes basic coding as a critical 21st Century+ skill that all young people need to be creative STEM problem solvers who think critically, communicate and collaborate and who will help realize the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations.
