News: Students

Research led by Assoc. Prof. Pedram Hassanzadeh. Watch the CBS news segment.

When prospective students explore graduate programs in data science, one of the most common questions is: What tools and technologies will I actually learn to use?Current MS in Applied Data Science student Yining Mao recently reflected on her experience in the program, sharing how coursework, projects, and extracurricular opportunities exposed her to a wide range of technologies, from large language models and computer vision to knowledge graphs and AI agents

DSI Celebrates the Spring 2026 Data4All High School Workshop.
 

Joylyn Yu '26 came to the University of Chicago as a licensed forester from the Philippines. Her motivation for the field came partly from where she grew up — a country highly affected by climate change, where she lived through typhoons. That experience pushed her toward forestry as an undergraduate. After completing her degree, she earned her forester license in her home country. But by the time she finished studying for that exam, she knew forestry alone wasn't enough.
 

Joshua Frank '26 came to the University of Chicago’s MS in Environmental Science with the intention of finishing his one-year degree, finding a job, and putting his analytical training to work on problems he cared about. Three quarters in, while he's still applying for jobs, he's also looking into PhD programs. Not because the original plan was wrong, but because the program kept opening doors he didn't know existed.
 

Xinyuan Zhou ‘26 isn't your typical science student. Then again, she is exactly the kind of student that University of Chicago’s MS in Environmental Science attracts: someone who wants to use the degree to scale meaningful change and advance sustainability practices.
 

Congrats to Abigail Lee, PhD’25 in Astronomy and Astrophysics, who has received a 2025 PhD Prize from the International Astronomical Union (IAU).
 

Are you familiar with pop tubes? Resembling the corrugated section of a bendy straw, they are at the core of PopTuber, an intriguing research project from the Actuated Experience Lab at the University of Chicago.

The Physical Sciences Division has selected four graduate students to receive a William Rainey Harper Dissertation Fellowship for the 2026-2027 academic year.

CSEi’s first essay contest sparks undergraduate engagement on sunlight reflection methods (SRM), awarding $7,000 in prizes.

The “coastline paradox” helped to define fractals, but coastlines themselves turn out to be less fractal than thought. Study led by  CCAM PhD student Matthew Oline.

The work of 2024 PhD Joint Program participant Rajini Wijayawardan, a graduate student in Computer Science working in the lab of Andrew Chien, addresses a question at the forefront of many minds, particularly amidst the rise of AI: how can the environmental impact of data centers be reduced?

PhD Graduate Brennan Schaffner receives ACM SIGCHI special recognition award for his research on dark patterns, subsequent interventions, and influence users. 

Detection by Askaryan Radio Array holds promise for future research into sources, nature of cosmic rays and neutrinos. 

Schmidt AI in Science Fellows mentored twelve interdisciplinary student teams that applied machine learning to advance scientific discovery.