CAC: How did participating in the Congressional App Challenge contribute to your personal journey, career path, and accomplishments so far?

ML: Participating in the Congressional App Challenge helped to grow my creativity and technical skills, and connected me with an amazing network of other students. The chance to see the apps that other students built provided insight into other issues across the country. Overall, the experience was extremely valuable. 

CAC: Try to remember back to competing in the CAC – what was your app about and why did you create it?

ML: My app, Safe Water Operation, was a website that allowed Long Island residents to check the real-time water quality of local bays, harbors, and rivers. Back home, on Long Island, algal blooms and other events that affect water quality were quite common. Unfortunately, it was often difficult to check the water quality. I designed Safe Water Operation to solve this issue by displaying live water quality summaries over a map of Long Island. 

CAC: What are you most proud of in your academic or professional career thus far?

ML: I am most proud of my computer science research, especially in compilers and programming languages. Over the past three years, I’ve had the privilege of working in research labs at the University of Michigan, New York University, and Stony Brook University. My projects have spanned computational physics to computer architecture, each shaped by the guidance of incredible mentors. Most recently, I’m especially proud of my work at Stony Brook, where I collaborated with IBM to explore novel architectural forms for machine learning accelerators. This experience deepened both my technical expertise and passion for research.

CAC: Let’s look into the future – where do you hope to be in 2035?

ML: In 2035, I hope to be deeply engaged in advancing computer science research. My goal is to continue building my expertise through undergraduate and graduate studies, ultimately pursuing a PhD after completing an integrated MS/BA. By then, I aspire to have completed my doctoral work and to be working full-time as a researcher, contributing to new ideas, tools, and technologies that push the field forward.

CAC: What excites you most about the future of technology and innovation?

ML: I’m excited by the rapid pace of innovation in computer hardware and low-level systems. In particular, the emergence of new architectures tailored for machine learning, such as data-flow designs, captures my interest. These breakthroughs have the potential to significantly improve all computation, and I look forward to contributing to this evolving field.