Rebecca Roskill

In the summer of her sophomore year, she joined the Perkel Lab as a Washington Research Foundation Innovation Fellow, where she developed software to model a more energy-efficient drone based on the neural and motor balancing mechanisms of birds. Hoping to further explore the diverse applications of data science and programming, Rebecca interned the following year on a Business Intelligence team at Microsoft. Her experience combining both technical and business savvy to deliver insights to the product development and marketing teams exposed her to an entirely different, yet equally compelling, application of programming and data science. This past summer, Rebecca returned to Microsoft to explore machine learning and artificial intelligence. As an intern in the Computer Vision team, she contributed to the development of mobile applications Seeing AI, a camera for visually-impaired users, and Pix, a smart-camera that uses OCR to perform functions such as reading business cards and capturing freeform panoramas.

In addition to these experiences in research and industry, Rebecca’s community involvement and global service have fueled her passion for technology. During her sophomore year, she founded Def Hacks, a non-profit, student-led organization dedicated to running hackathons worldwide. Rebecca and her team at Def Hacks have united tech corporations, advocacy programs, and students for 24-hour hackathons in Seattle, New York, Boston, Santiago, and more. Beyond Def Hacks, Rebecca co-led her high school’s DECA and Girls Who Code chapters, as well as Outreach Club.

At Columbia, Rebecca looks forward to further exploring software development, artificial intelligence, and their many applications, particularly in the fields of environmental sustainability and finance.