by Sushma Upadhayay ’27
I am a senior at Bucknell pursuing a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Data Science. What keeps me in this field is how fast it moves. There is always a new tool, method, or problem that pushes me past what I already know. After graduation, I plan to work as a data scientist. I have not decided on a sector yet, though I enjoyed working towards MedTech. Outside of academics, I play tennis with friends whenever I can.
I joined DCDS in spring 2026, working under the mentorship of Kelly McConville on Finding Opportunities for ShiftMed through Data Explorations. ShiftMed is an app nurses use to find shifts near where they live. Using data on app users, our project explored how to improve retention by identifying distinct user groups, such as “power users,” so the company can strengthen long term engagement and better inform how it recruits new users. It has been a wonderful first experience working with a real, messy dataset and turning it into something a client can actually act on.
This August, I attended my first conference: the Joint Statistical Meetings of the American Statistical Association in Boston. I was honored to receive the Norman Beery Memorial Scholarship, awarded to only two first-generation college students across the United States. Receiving this scholarship from ASA president, Jeri Mulrow, was incredibly meaningful to me and that moment was a reminder that persistence opens doors, sometimes ones you didn’t know were there.
As one of only a handful of undergraduates at JSM, I spent most of the week talking with PhD students and industry professionals while trying to figure out my own path. I met statisticians and data scientists across an unusually wide range of fields: Instacart, Waymo, Sierra Nevada Corporation, and General Atomics, and asked about their day-to-day work and their advice for someone about to graduate. I was surprised by how generous people were to answer my questions and share their experiences. Having one-on-one conversations with people who have spent years in industry was surreal and genuinely useful. I also learned a great deal from poster presentations by PhD and master’s students, and I especially enjoyed the sessions on how AI is being implemented across different industries.
None of this would have been possible without support on both ends. The ASA travel award covered my registration and meals, and Bucknell covered my flight and lodging. My thanks to Chris Brown and Jenn Brown at the Center for Access & Success, and to Kelly McConville and the DCDS community, where I first heard about JSM and the ASA.
