Meet the DS4CG 2024 Team
Chhandak Bagchi
Chhandak is a PhD Computer Science student who is primarily interested in machine learning and computational social science. His research applies statistical and computational techniques to investigate sociotechnical systems across various domains, including the science of science and social media.
Paula Navarrete
Paula is a second-year Computer Science PhD student whose primary areas of interest are algorithms, fairness and explainability. Her past research mainly involved mathematical/ML methods to forecast time series related to natural disasters and renewable energies. Paula is now working on the analysis and implementation of fair allocation algorithms.
Mashrur Rashik
Mashrur is a third-year Computer Science MS/PhD student whose interest lies in the intersections of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and Natural Language Processing (NLP). He is affiliated with the HCI-VIS Lab, where he works on building conversational systems for journaling and public informational elicitation. Before UMass, he worked as a Machine Learning Engineer at TigerIT Bangladesh Ltd. on Conversational AI and Machine Translation.
Anju Santhosh Kumar
Anju is a first-year Master’s student studying Computer Science, specializing in Data Science. Her primary area of interest is in Computer Vision focusing on object detection and scene understanding alongside Generative AI technologies. Prior to joining UMass, she worked at the Indian Space Research Organization on data analysis and algorithm development for satellite thrusters. Anju’s free time is spent reading, singing, or socializing with friends.
Angela Zhu
Angela is a first-year Master’s student studying Computer Science. She is interested in computational sustainability, machine learning and public interest technology. Prior to UMass, she was a software engineer at Microsoft in Seattle, WA. Her free time is spent outside (cycling, swimming or running), watching movies, finding cool places around town to explore, spotting wildlife, and learning new animal facts.
Ozel Yilmazel
Ozel is a rising senior studying Computer Science with a concentration in Data Science. His primary interests are applications of natural language processing, deep neural networks, and generative models. Ozel worked at a start-up during his junior year where he developed back-end services and implemented NLP solutions. Ozel’s free time is spent working on motorcycles and bikes, playing his guitar, or sailing.
Yajie Li
Yajie is a Computer Science graduate student with three years of experience as a machine learning engineer, focusing on AI-powered technologies in educational settings. She is a skilled engineer with expertise in both web development and machine learning. Yajie has earned a patent from her successful projects and is a published author in the field of graph databases.
Sergei Pogorelov
Sergei is currently pursuing a Master’s in Computer Science with a concentration in Data Science at UMass Amherst. He has three years of industry experience, a strong background in Python, JavaScript, and SQL, and extensive experience working on internal ERP systems. Prior to software engineering, Sergei spent eight years as a Senior Project Manager in advertising mastering his managerial skills.
Luna Dziewietin
Luna is a third-year undergraduate, majoring in Informatics & Social Thought in Political Economy. She is interested in how Data Science can shed light on or perpetuate other systems of institutional violence. Her academic work reflects this theme, including a project that compares the racial makeup of a county with its social interconnectivity. Beyond work, she loves to write short-form fiction and spend time in nature.
Past Teams
2023
Stephen Scarano
Debanjan Mondal
Aditi Garg
Aditya Salveru
Nelson Evbarunegbe
Zhangqi (Gavin) Duan
Purva Pruthi
Katherine Avery
Swathi Natarajan
Aashish Nehete
Sushrita Yerra
Sriharsha Hatwar
Sakshi
2022
Jay Meyer
Spurthi Tallam
Manan Talwar
Boming Zhang
Neeharika Karanam
Will Rebelsky
Shrayani Mondal
Sora Ryu
Aleksandra Burushkina
Siddhi Brahmbhatt
Peter Tran
Sahasra Iyer
Anshita Gupta
Yunfei Luo
2021
Matt Rattigan
Disha Singh
Collin Giguere
Tanmay Agrawal
Virginia Partridge
Bob Muhwezi
Ian Birle
Gizem Cicekli
Sowmya Vasuki Jallepalli
Paige Gulley
Anushka Basu
Chhandak Bagchi
Interested in meeting the rest of the CDS team?