Hey friend, I'm Adriana, a Ph.D. student in MIT CSE working with Prof. Tess Smidt! My research interests are to encourage fast feedback loops between ML-proposed novel materials, experimental synthesis, and DFT-based characterization. My work is funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship award.

I completed my B.S. in Computer Science with Honors and a minor in Physics at the University of South Florida (USF), where I was a full-ride merit scholar under the Bright Futures Florida Academic Scholarship and the USF Directors Award. In Spring 2022, I was honored to be featured in USF's Outstanding Graduating Students and College of Engineering NSF students articles!

My past mentorship roles included being the Vice President of Women in Computer Science and Engineering (WICSE) at USF, as well as an undergraduate Teaching Assistant and Peer Leader through the USF College of Engineering. In these roles, I helped promote gender diversity in CSE and guided students through programming projects and the research process. I am also the creator of STEM Cells, a website created with the purpose of supporting undergraduate STEM students through graduate, research, and diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI) resources. Finally, as a 2021 alumna of the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP), I am a reviewer on the MSRP Application Review Committee, in which I aid in selecting applicants based on their commitment to diversity and STEM research.

Outside of the lab (aka my computer), I enjoy hanging out with friends and doing these activities, as shown in some of the pictures above. Post-Ph.D., I plan to pursue a career as a professor focused on the computational design and engineering of novel materials, with emphasis on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion for historically underrepresented groups (i.e. women, LGBTQ+, people of color) in STEM.