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Data Science Program

Columbian College of Arts & Sciences

2026 Data Science Newsletter

Message from the Program Director
Program Spotlights
Program Kudos
Alumni Class Notes

Message from the Program Director

Dear Data Science Alumni,

Another eventful academic year at GW is coming to a close! In 2025, the Data Science Program celebrated its 10-year anniversary—a significant milestone and a testament to how far we have come. The collective efforts of our faculty, students, staff and alumni have enabled us to sustain our academic mission and continue advancing our goals.

In fall 2025, we welcomed three new faculty members, whose profiles are featured in this newsletter. We are also pleased to welcome Ms. Georgia Middleditch, who joined us in October as our new associate director.

The MS program remains the cornerstone of our department, and we are delighted to see our undergraduate program flourishing as well. This academic year, more than 70 undergraduate students and over 90 graduate students are graduating, marking an exciting phase of expansion.

This is a remarkable time for data science. Data scientists are playing an increasingly vital role in addressing complex, real-world challenges. The rapid advancement of AI continues to present both new opportunities and important questions, making our work more relevant than ever.

I would also like to take a moment to recognize the winner of this year’s Michael Thacher and Rhonda Rundle Prize for Excellence in Data Science — Jupiter Kang, MS ’25. This prize recognizes exceptional scholarly achievement, and we are deeply grateful to our donors for their continued support.

Subrata Kundu

We are equally proud of the continued success of our alumni, some of whom are featured in this newsletter.

Thank you for your ongoing support and engagement. We look forward to staying connected and hope to see you—whether in person at upcoming events or through our LinkedIn community.

Sincerely,

Subrata Kundu
Director, Data Science Program

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Program Spotlights 

The Data Science Program welcomed new faculty members (from left) Sarah Burnett, Angie Walker and Junjun Yin.
The Data Science Program welcomed new faculty members (from left) Sarah Burnett, Angie Walker and Junjun Yin.

Data Science Program Welcomes Three New Faculty

In fall 2025, we welcomed three new faculty members to the Data Science Program: Professors Sarah Burnett, whose research integrates applied mathematics, scientific computing and data science to understand complex physical systems, with a particular focus on fluid dynamics and particle-laden flows; Angie Walker, whose areas of scholarly interest are in the interdisciplinary field of data science applied to molecular and cellular biology; and Junjun Yin, whose research focuses on geospatial data science and GeoAI, with particular emphasis on the spatiotemporal dynamics of human behavior and urban systems. 

Their innovative ideas have made a positive impact on the Data Science Program. Please join us in congratulating them for completing their first academic year!

Program alumni Satya Phanindra Kumar Kalaga, MS ’25, and Deepika Reddygari, MS ’25,
Left to right, alumni Satya Phanindra Kumar Kalaga and Deepika Reddygari with Vice Provost for Libraries and Information Technology Geneva Henry and Open Source Program Director David Lippert at the award ceremony.

Data Science Alumni Making Their Mark

Program alumni Satya Phanindra Kumar Kalaga, MS ’25, and Deepika Reddygari, MS ’25, received the 2025 Student Open Source Award for their Danger Detection System. The open-source system, which uses computer vision and machine learning, was presented at GW’s Second Annual Open Source Conference. They are now actively looking for collaboration opportunities with schools to implement and refine this technology for campus safety.

In addition to this award, Satya and Deepika have been selected as featured speakers at the upcoming Grace Hopper Celebration (GHC). Their session, “The Open-Source Edge: When Sharing Your Code Becomes Your Startup Moat,” explores the strategic role of open-source development in building resilient startup ecosystems. GHC is the world’s largest gathering of women in tech, bringing together thousands of women from across the globe to learn, network and celebrate their achievements. 

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Program Kudos

  • Through the GW Study Abroad Program, economics and data science major Kaia Arditha (with Chilean band Tortuganónima) spent spring break in Chile, improving her Spanish and exploring the music scene.
  • Two of our DATS majors, Bridget Kinnaman and Georgia Semenzato, are being inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa (ΦBK) Alpha Chapter at GW.
  • Junior economics and data science major Spencer Ma was named one of four finalists for the 2025 Best Undergraduate Paper Award from the International Atlantic Economic Society.
  • Dhanush Mathivanan, a first-year graduate student, has been awarded the 2026 Phi Delta Gamma Scholarship.
  • Ritu Patel, a graduating MS student, and her team won BisonHacks 2026 in the Graduate Track.
  • Dusty Rogers, a senior double-majoring in data science and Japanese, came to GW not knowing a word of Japanese. Now she is a Gold Award winner at the annual J.LIVE Talk competition, a national Japanese speech contest.

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Alumni Class Notes

  • Dinma Ruth Akor, MS ’20, graduated from the D.Eng AI and Machine Learning program at GW and is now an academic advisor for current students in the same AI program. Dinma also works as a senior manager at American Express in New York.
  • Modupeola Fagbenro, MS ’25, published first-author research, “Improved Multi-Agent Knowledge Sharing System using Knowledge Graphs for News Bias Detection and Fact-Checking,” in Neural Computing and Applications (Springer), and continues to advance research in machine learning and AI for information integrity and misinformation detection.
  • Aaron Gauthier, MS ’20, is working in consulting on advanced AI-enabled data center and enterprise architecture initiatives, supporting mission-focused organizations. He is also pursuing further research in data science and AI, with a focus on large-scale systems and decision intelligence. Aaron plans on pursuing his PhD in game theory/asymmetric information.
  • Ryan Kinsey, MS ’19, is a lead data science analyst at Hilton Corporate HQ in McLean, Va. In this role, Ryan has had the opportunity to manage an offshore team of six data scientists and two data engineers. Their team maintains 70+ customer propensity models that are used to power much of Hilton’s targeted marketing campaigns. Check out Ryan’s LinkedIn page for more information!
  • Sasha Kumar, BA ’25, joined EY in their Government and Public Sector as an AI and data technology consultant!
  • Satya Phanindra Kumar Kalaga, MS ’25, hosted a table-talk and a presentation of his work on LAiSER at the 2025 Badge Summit at University of Colorado, Boulder. LAiSER is a project built to help badge and credential issuers bridge the gap between curriculum and employment demand. This was Satya's first time attending and presenting at an external conference.
  • Deepika Reddygari, MS ’25, has focused on advancing data-driven energy solutions within the aerospace and storage sectors. She had the opportunity to present her research at the 7th Battery and Energy Storage Conference and collaborated with industry partners on applying data-driven thermal energy storage solutions for spacecraft.
  • Chiemeziem Oguayo, MS ’23, started a new position as a senior federal data scientist at IBM. Congratulations, Chiemeziem!
  • Dan Stevens, MS ’19, started a new position building data platforms and AI solutions for future-focused clients.
  • Akshay Verma, MS ’24, began a new role as the product owner for the AI Platform at the World Bank Group. Akshay also published a paper in Applied Network Science titled, “Transnational and trans-topic web-of-influence ahead of U.K. city riots.”

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