What does being a member of Rewriting the Code mean to you?

I joined the RTC community last year, and even then, I could not even imagine just how important it would become to my life. From everything to conferences to interviews to funny tech news, the first thing I open is RTC slack — the RTC community always has my back! In general, it helps me feel less lost when navigating early career experiences like texting a recruiter or attending my first conference. It’s like having an elder sister to guide you and a younger sister who reminds you where you came from–and the difference you can make.

You're researching LLM anthropomorphism and LLM phylogeny at the same time. What first pulled you toward the less-charted corners of AI research?

I got involved with as many opportunities as I could in my school’s CS department, and it led me to some incredibly cool professors who had some amazing projects in these fields. With LLMs/AI being the new “it” industry, I decided to dive in headfirst and I ended up joining a professor’s research project that was asking really interesting questions nobody else seemed to be asking yet! I was hooked on the idea that we’re still figuring out the basics of how these systems actually behave (despite them being integrated in our day-to-day already), and I wanted in on that.

You're exploring CS, statistics, AI/ML, data science, and tech policy all at once. How do you describe what you're building toward when someone asks what you want to do?

I tell people I’m building toward a career in tech that’s an informed decision. Duke gave me room to explore–CS, statistics, policy, research–and I took full advantage of that. The through line is always the same: I want to understand how these systems work, who they affect, and how to make them more accountable!

As Director of Connect at FEMMES+ at Duke, you're connecting high school girls with college mentors in STEM. What made that program feel like something you needed to help lead?

Honestly? I just saw myself in these kids; even wanting to try out such a complex, constantly-evolving and male-dominated industry is a feat of courage, one that I barely had as a high schooler, and one that should be encouraged. When I discovered FEMMES+ Connect, I saw the perfect way to provide these students with the resources to do exactly that! On the other hand, I think it’s essential to form a healthy community in any industry, and being a mentor to students just starting out really grounds you — it helps you remember where you came from, all the women who helped you get where you are, and to be that woman so the system flourishes.

If your LLM research had a personality type, what would it be, and would you want to have coffee with it?

I’d say my LLM research is probably a young woman with an outgoing, excitable personality and a penchant for having deep, insightful conversations at 4am. She’d know all the new restaurants in town and would meet you for 3-hour lunches to discuss the great mysteries of life, leaving you feeling like she got things out of you that you didn’t even know were there to be discovered. I’d definitely love to have coffee with her!

You're studying ethical AI while also researching AI behaviors most people don't acknowledge yet. What responsibility do you think researchers have when they find something unsettling about how models behave?

I think the biggest responsibility we, as researchers, have to society is to spread awareness about these issues in a manner that is accessible to the general public! In this way, we not only help the public use these newfangled tools with more caution and knowledge, but also spark more research on a little-known subject. After all, technology belongs to us all, and we all should get a say in how it works!

Through FEMMES+, DTech, and your own research, you're already shaping how younger women experience tech. What do you hope they feel that you didn't always have?

“This week’s CS201 homework was so easy, I finished in 20 min.”

Amidst the loud chatter of the bus, clutching my hastily scribbled notes I barely understood, that was one sentence I heard loud and clear. That was the day I decided to drop my Computer Science major. As an Indian woman in CS, I’d heard discouragement my whole life. But sitting on that bus, surrounded by men with portfolios built from years of family support, I finally believed it– that maybe, I didn’t belong here.

Then a TA at office hours told me, “Just stick with it. I promise it gets better.” That one sentence changed everything–someone believed in me. So I found FEMMES+, a Duke organization supporting underrepresented students in STEM, and stopped trying to prove I belonged and instead, I started building the community I needed.

Two weeks ago, as Director of Connect for FEMMES+, I led a Python workshop for 20 Durham high schoolers. The assignment was to build Wordle from scratch. But, these were kids who walked in not knowing what a for loop was, and so I watched them struggle, debug, get frustrated, try again. After a brutal day of work and StackOverflow, finally, one by one, they stood up and explained their algorithms. Watching them, I saw myself on that bus–except this time, they weren’t alone.

That day, I taught Python, but what I felt like the lesson that went through was just belonging. I hope every student I mentor feels what I had to fight to find–that quiet, unshakeable certainty that they deserve to be here. Not because someone told them. Because they already knew.