Professional Development Scholarship Winners for Fall 2025
Willow (You) Wu
Hi! My name is Willow Wu, and I’m pursuing an MS in Computer Science at Columbia University, focusing on machine learning and explainable AI. My current work explores graph neural networks and knowledge graph reasoning for interpretable, data-driven systems. Outside of research, I enjoy running, traveling, photography, and exploring cafés around the city.
Smriti Vaidyanathan
Smriti Vaidyanathan is an M.S. student in Computer Science at Columbia University. She got her Sc.B. in Computational Biology with Honors from Brown University in 2024. At Brown, she researched mechanisms of sex-specific splicing in the Larschan Lab, developing bio-image analysis pipelines to study RNA-binding protein condensate dynamics in Drosophila. Currently, in the Knowles Lab at the New York Genome Center, she develops deep generative models that integrate single-cell gene expression and splicing data to improve representations of cell state. Her research interests include multi-modal data integration, probabilistic modeling, and computational genomics.
Avirath Dodabele
Avirath Dodabele is a second-year Biomedical Engineering Master’s student and member of the Columbia Laboratory for Unconventional Electronics, advised by Prof. Ioannis Kymissis and Prof. Ilaria Fratelli. His research focuses on developing wearable thin-film transistor sensors and wireless readout systems for real-time, high-resolution radiation dosimetry in radiotherapy, aimed at improving dose delivery accuracy and patient safety. Prior to joining Columbia, Avirath earned his Bachelor’s in Biomedical Engineering with Highest Honors from the Georgia Institute of Technology and gained industry experience at iRhythm Technologies, where he contributed to the design of continuous and non-invasive medical devices for blood-pressure monitoring and sleep apnea diagnosis.
Om Agrawal
Om Agrawal is a Master’s student in Business Analytics at Columbia University, specializing in data-driven decision-making at the intersection of technology, operations, and leadership. His work spans research in optimization, machine learning, and generative AI, with publications under development in regression and cryptographic algorithms. He has worked across multiple domains in the industry, starting from autonomous vehicles, insurance, bioinformatics, and banking, to name a few. A Tata Global Internship Program awardee and recipient of the Business Analytics Fellowship at Columbia, Om integrates academic rigor with real-world impact through projects across finance, consulting, and sustainability analytics. Passionate about innovation and education, he aims to advance data science for responsible, high-impact organizational transformation.
Sandra Maesta-Pereira
Sandra Maesta-Pereira is a doctoral student in BME, co-advised by Drs. Grace McIlvain, Denise Cai (Sinai), and Joshua Jacobs (UChicago). Her research bridges human and animal neuroscience to uncover how memory adapts across dynamic contexts. She also investigates the prefrontal cortex and the periaqueductal gray in anxiety and binge eating with Drs. Avishek Adhikari and Fernando Reis (UCLA). Sandra earned her M.S. in BME from Columbia in 2022 and her B.S. in Cognitive Science and Computing from UCLA in 2019. She is passionate about translating discoveries in basic neuroscience to improve understanding of human cognition and behavior.
Yatin Gilhotra
Yatin Gilhotra is a Ph.D. candidate in Electrical Engineering driven by a passion for bridging neuroscience and engineering. He develops fully wireless, subdurally implantable optical brain-computer interfaces for high-resolution brain imaging and optogenetic stimulation. This volumetrically efficient technology leverages the advantageous optical modality to enable truly naturalistic studies in large animals, forming the basis for new neuroscientific discoveries. His research has been published in leading conferences and journals and has resulted in two US patents. When not in the lab, Yatin enjoys hiking, board games, and occasional baking experiments.
Volkan Arslan
Volkan Arslan received the B.S. degree in Electronics Engineering with a minor in Physics from Sabanci University, Istanbul, Turkiye, in 2019, and the M.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from Columbia University, New York, USA, in 2020, where he is currently a final-semester PhD candidate. His research focuses on CMOS-based ultrasound arrays for high resolution photoacoustic imaging applications.
Soosan Kim
Ph.D. candidate in Earth and Environmental Engineering at Columbia University, researching Alkali and Alkaline earth metal for Direct Air Capture with a focus on catalytic pretreatment and CO2 adsorption–desorption mechanisms.
Nassim Tavakoli
Nassim is a Medical Physics M.S. student at Columbia and completed her undergraduate in physics at Caltech. She is passionate about using exciting concepts in theoretical physics to make healthcare safer and more comfortable. Her current work centers on an experimental ultra-high dose rate radiation therapy for cancer called FLASH. Outside of the lab, she enjoys practicing yoga, weightlifting, and painting
