Perimeter College Graduate Driven to Engineer Housing Solutions

CLARKSTON, Ga. - For Ndeye Sarr (A.S. '26), graduation marks more than an academic milestone. Her journey was shaped by resilience and a deep commitment to improving lives, inspired by her experiences living in Senegal.

Graduating this spring from Georgia State University's Perimeter College with an associate degree, Sarr is an Honors College student, a semifinalist for the Jack Kent Cooke Undergraduate Transfer Scholarship and a recent recipient of Perimeter's STAR Award in engineering. She was also honored as a STEM Scholar during Perimeter's STEM Student Scholars Awards Program and received two STEM Community and Research Awards.

After completing high school in Senegal, Sarr started attending the local university. She was enrolled in a dentistry program, not because she had a great interest in becoming a dentist, but because it was an affordable program and she was able to easily enroll. Presumably this program would lead to a stable career, so she dutifully pursued it. She was also able to further her education without putting financial strain on her parents.

A few months after she started the dentistry program, political unrest shut down universities across the country. She returned home and was stuck in limbo for the next year and a half. School wasn't an option and without formal education it was impossible to find a job. Sarr felt disheartened, unable to continue her education or move forward.

"That period was incredibly frustrating for me because my life has always revolved around education," Sarr said. "I love learning and being in school."

Sarr's father lived in the United States, and her parents decided it would be best for her to move to Atlanta to live with him while attending college.

"That decision changed everything," Sarr said. "If I had stayed in Senegal longer without access to education, it would not have been good for me."

Once she arrived in Atlanta, learning English was Sarr's top priority. She enrolled at Interactive College of Technology for an intensive English as a Second Language (ESL) program and was able to learn the language fluently in eight months.

After mastering English, Sarr planned to apply to Georgia Tech. Her father was a fan of the school, but two obstacles were in the way: Sarr's high school transcript from Senegal didn't properly align with their admission requirements and tuition was very high. Sarr's father talked with friends in hopes of finding a better option, and a friend told him about Perimeter. Before applying, Sarr and her father toured the Clarkston Campus, where they learned about the affordable tuition as well as the engineering program. Sarr began to realize that her real dream might come true. She wanted to study civil engineering.

Looking back at the political unrest in Senegal, Sarr said it was the catalyst to get her to Perimeter College.

She had overcome two giant obstacles - moving to the U.S. and learning English - and could focus on her primary mission, attending college. Now, after two years at Perimeter in the engineering pathway, she has developed a plan to major in civil engineering and minor in biomedical engineering. She plans to get her master's degree and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering. She's not certain yet if civil or biomedical will be the primary focus of her career.

Growing up in Senegal, Sarr saw firsthand how poor living conditions affected people's lives, and this is where her initial interest in engineering began.

"The condition I was living in back home was one of the reasons why I specifically chose civil engineering," she said. "Most people I knew at the time, including my grandma, were living in very bad conditions. The construction materials used for houses were poor. After just a few years, houses would start collapsing. Some didn't have roofs and tons of water would get in the house."

It varies by region, but most rain in Senegal comes down during a short 90-day season and can be as much as 50 inches per year or more.

"I started to think," Sarr said, in reference to the housing situation. "This might be my path."

Sarr would like to use civil engineering to help communities in Senegal that are lacking resources to optimize construction methods and to use better building materials. Ultimately, she wants communities to be safer for residents as well as construction workers.

Sarr was introduced to biomedical engineering through her friend and classmate Paloma Hodje. They formed a team with another Perimeter student, Najma Jama, and the trio was one of only 12 teams in the country invited to the Innovation Boot Camp sponsored by the Community College Innovation Challenge (CCIC) and hosted by the American Association of Community Colleges in partnership with the National Science Foundation in the summer of 2025. Sarr, Hodje and Jama designed a low-cost medical device called RoyaNest, which uses passive cooling methods and temperature regulation materials to address the problem of birth asphyxia in babies in low-resource countries. RoyaNest won second place in the competition.

Since the CCIC competition, the team has explored the patent process and plans to see how far they can take the project. Sarr's sister is a doctor in Senegal so she knows firsthand that medical resources are very limited in the country. Through affordable, accessible medical devices, like the electricity-free RoyaNest, healthcare is not limited to just one hospital or one expensive machine per city.

Sarr's graduation from Perimeter College May 7 is the next step toward becoming an engineer. Afterward, she will attend one of her dream schools and only time will tell if she pursues civil or biomedical engineering. What is certain is that her future is grounded in innovation and a belief that engineering can change lives.

-Story by Christy Petterson
-Photo by Bill Roa