Spotlight: Adnan Hoq
Adnan Hoq is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department at the University of Notre Dame. Adnan completed his B.S. in Mathematics and Computer Science at St. Joseph’s University in New York. He worked as the lead data scientist for a tech company in NYC for three years before starting his Ph.D. program.
Spotlight: Nandini Banerjee
Nandini Banerjee is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science and Engineering department at the University of Notre Dame. With a keen interest in the intersection of technology and human behavior, Nandini’s research focuses on studying disruption in citation networks to understand how scientific knowledge evolves and how innovation is fostered within academic communities.
Spotlight: Mihir Surve
Mihir Surve is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, working in the Helquist-Wiest Group. He obtained his BS and MSc in Chemistry from the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay. As a part of the NSF Center for Computer-Assisted Synthesis, he is interested in utilizing data-driven approaches to predict and optimize aspects of chemical reactions.
Spotlight: Austin Wyman
Austin Wyman is a PhD student in the Quantitative Psychology program at the University of Notre Dame. His research interests relate to the intersection between machine learning and psychometric approaches for scale development and validation. In particular, he is interested in the improvement of bias detection methods and their application in the development of inclusive measures for high-stakes clinical and educational assessments.
Spotlight: Aydin Wells
Aydin Wells is a Ph.D. student in the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) department at the University of Notre Dame. He completed his B.S. in Physics and Mathematics at Northeastern University. Before entering his Ph.D. program, he was a Lead Data Specialist at Leidos, Inc. under the Security Detection and Automation (SD&A) division. His research interests lie at the intersection of biology, computer science and physics.
Spotlight: Adriana Albanus
Adriana Albanus is a PhD Student in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame specializing in Comparative Politics and Methods. Her dissertation project at Notre Dame explores the relationship between populist rhetoric of presidents and its relationship with public opinion in Brazil and in the United States. She is also a PhD Candidate in Political Science at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul (UFRGS – Brazil) with a specialization in Political Culture.
Spotlight: Barnabas Agbodekhe
Barnabas Agbodekhe is a Ph.D. candidate, advised by Prof. Edward J. Maginn in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. His doctoral research efforts are directed towards addressing challenges hindering the phaseout of harmful greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
Spotlight: Simon Weaver
Simon Weaver recently received his PhD from the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program, graduating from the lab of Matthew Champion in April 2025. Simon’s work addresses human health problems with analytical proteomics. Specifically, he develops informatics tools to analyze the massive datasets generated from mass spectrometry.
Spotlight: Anna Sokol
Anna Sokol is a PhD student in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Notre Dame. Her research is mainly focused on solving problems related to environmental sustainability through machine learning. She is actively researching the concept of green machine learning, aiming to reduce the carbon footprint and energy consumption associated with machine learning models and algorithms.
Spotlight: Seham Kafafi
Seham S. Kafafi is a psychology Ph.D. student in the Cognition, Brain, and Behavior area. She is pursuing a double minor in Advanced Quantitative Social Science and Peace Studies. Her research examines how brain frequencies and physiological arousal shape our emotional memories as we grow older.