Undergraduate Student Ambassadors
Akshaya Ganeshkumar (she/her)
Major and year
Mechanical Engineering, Senior
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"She is Mechanical Engineering, an Mechanical Engineering student organization dedicated to building community and offering resources and opportunities to women and allies in mechanical engineering. It has been a pillar of support throughout my college journey, and being involved with this student organization for three years has given me valuable leadership skills, opportunities to network with industry professionals, and a tight-knit community within my major."
Anant Gupta (he/him)
Major and year
Computer Science, Sophomore
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"My most impactful experience has been my Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) work on BOOM with Professor Coughlin. Building the alert-broker pipeline taught me how real scientific systems operate, including debugging telescopes, designing Rust APIs, and presenting progress to the team. It was the first time I felt my code contributed to actual astrophysics."
Amelia Rosenhamer (she/her)
Major and year
Mathematics, Senior
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"My most impactful experience was an Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program (UROP) research project focusing on connections between mathematical style and math proficiency. I designed my own study with the support of my advisor and presented my findings in a poster. This project furthered my interest in research and its potential to improve math education."
Avery Lenderman (she/her)
Major and year
Electrical Engineering, Sophomore
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"My best experience as a student has been participating in a physics research lab. It has allowed me to connect with people who share my passion for physics and attend events that deepen my understanding of the research."
Calla Massari (she/her)
Major and year
Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering, Sophomore
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"My most inspiring experience in college so far was a field trip with the Bioproducts and Biosystems Engineering department to Jay Cooke State Park, where my class observed the environmental remediation that followed the destructive 2012 flooding."
Luxi Tian (she/her)
Major and year
Chemical Engineering, Junior
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"I’ve worked as an undergraduate researcher in Dr. Timothy O’Connell’s lab since my freshman year, conducting computational structural biology on ChemR23 to study ligand-receptor interactions for potential therapeutics. I also performed molecular biology work, including RNA/DNA extraction and tissue preparation, which strengthened my technical skills and independence in research."
Madelynn Mikkalson (she/her)
Major and year
Chemical Engineering, Senior
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"My most impactful experience as a student was leading a water distribution and sanitation block implementation trip in Malawi through Engineers Without Borders. I not only applied the technical knowledge I had gained through my coursework but also learned the importance of ethics and human-centered design in engineering."
Mason Hamar (he/him)
Major and year
Chemical Engineering, Senior
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"Engineers Without Borders at the University of Minnesota has been incredibly impactful for me. I’ve had the amazing opportunity to travel to Malawi and help design engineering and technical solutions to meet the identified needs of communities around the world."
Rahini Giridharan (she/her)
Major and year
Biomedical Engineering, Junior
Hometown
What has been your most impactful or best experience as a CSE student?
"My most impactful experience has been working in the Provenzano and Wood research labs, contributing to pancreatic cancer in vitro device projects. Being trusted with real experiments, analyzing data, and learning from graduate mentors showed me the ‘why’ behind science and confirmed that I want a career in biomedical research."