Two Huskies Nominated for the Churchill Scholarship
The Churchill Scholarship provides funding to American students for a year of master’s study at the University of Cambridge, based at Churchill College. The program was set up at the request of Sir Winston Churchill to fulfill his vision of US–UK scientific exchange with the goal of advancing science and technology on both sides of the Atlantic, and helping to ensure our future prosperity and security.
Read on to learn more about this year’s nominees!
Maya De Los Santos, COE’25, Electrical and Computer Engineering
Mentors: Saiph Savage, David Kaeli, Tina Eliassi-Rad, Daniel Klug, Kevin Pacheco, Markiyah Bullard, Richard Harris, Julienne LaChance
Maya De Los Santos is dedicated to collaborating with marginalized communities to co-design socio-technical tools to advance agency over personal data and promote well-being. Her pursuit of Electrical and Computer Engineering within Northeastern University’s John Martinson Honors Program has equipped her with the technical skills to develop these tools, while her love for research has deepened her understanding of the impacts of privacy violations on vulnerable individuals. In 2021, Maya was selected for an NSF grant to participate in Carnegie Mellon University’s REUSE research program, where she published a first-author paper on TikTok users’ awareness of the platform’s privacy policy. Following this experience, she worked in Dr. Saiph Savage’s Civic AI lab as an AJC Merit Research Scholar, publishing four papers about her designs for human-centered AI systems that ensure fair work opportunities and privacy protection for crowdworkers around the world. Aside from research, she is also an active member of Northeastern’s Chapter of the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers and Black Engineering Student Society, serving as president of the former for an academic year. Maya hopes to expand her research in data privacy and AI fairness through a year of independent study offered by the Churchill Scholarship. While in the UK, she will explore how stronger privacy legislation affects mainstream and marginalized communities.
Georgios Vassilakis, COS’25, Applied Physics
Mentors: Jacqueline McCleary, Juner Zhu, Ajay Gill, Ennio Mingolla, Kate Driscoll
Georgios (George) Vassilakis is driving astrophysical discovery forward using data science and machine learning. By studying the makeup of galaxy clusters and mapping their masses out in the sky, he looks to study the properties of dark matter to reveal its true nature. George, an applied physics major with a concentration in astrophysics and a minor in data science, started his research working for Professor Jacqueline McCleary on NASA’s SuperBIT Telescope team. There, he performed solo operating shifts of the telescope and while learning more about academia. In his next co-op with Professor Juner Zhu, he developed scientific machine-learning algorithms to model the governing physics of solid-state batteries, enhancing and accelerating their development. His current work focuses on processing SuperBIT’s spring 2023 science flight data and developing the software package Shear Mapping in Python (SMPy). Funded by a PEAK Summit award, he is developing SMPy into a robust, efficient, and user-friendly tool for astrophysicists to map dark matter. The software will be used to create the first dark matter map ever from stratospheric observations. Using these experiences, he plans on pursuing a PhD in Astrophysics with a heavy focus on data-driven methods to push the boundaries of astrophysics in an age where astronomical surveys are of unprecedented precision and volume. Aside from research, George is a member of Northeastern’s Olympic Weightlifting team and an avid guitar player.