By Rachel Robey
Congratulations to all our 2025 graduates!
From video game creators to tech development consultants, this year’s crop of Computer Sciences graduates is as impressive as ever. With different passions, goals, and interests, one thing remains constant across all our graduates: the bright future ahead.
Below, we’re sharing the stories of seven standout students who’ve made a lasting mark on the UW.
Google Generation Scholar advocates for gender equity in computing
“When I joined UW–Madison, one of my goals was to encourage other young women who might feel hesitant to take the first step in tech,” says Ananya Aggarwal, one of 50 students nationwide to be named a Google Generation Scholar in 2023.
As a volunteer with Microsoft’s TEALS program, she teaches computer science to high school girls in order to break down perceived barriers. “I saw firsthand how representation and encouragement can make a real difference,” she says. “Watching the students grow more confident and less afraid to choose computer science as a career path was incredibly meaningful.”
Throughout undergrad, Aggarwal was a two-time attendee of the Grace Hopper Celebration, the world’s largest gathering of women and non-binary technologists. “It showed me what a supportive, inclusive community in computing can look like,” she says.
As a software engineering intern at Microsoft, she helped organize events to empower and connect with other female interns. “All these experiences shaped not just my technical skills, but my purpose,” she says. Post graduation, she says she’ll continue to promote inclusion in her new full-time software engineer role—also at Microsoft.
From Illinois, but on the “Road to Wisconsin”
As a high school student, a prestigious education was Usman Khan’s dream. After graduating high school, he found himself on the Road to Wisconsin, a guaranteed transfer program which allowed Illinois students to start at a two-year institution and then transfer to UW–Madison after their freshman year.
“Especially coming from a smaller high school, it made a top-tier university feel more accessible,” says Khan. With community college and transfer enrollment on the rise nationwide, Khan is one of many students who’ve found that there’s more than one path to obtaining a nationally ranked education. Yet, he says, they’re all paved with “curiosity and grit.”
“Progress isn’t about having perfect conditions. It’s about staying steady, finding your rhythm, and not giving in,” says Khan, who’ll be starting as a full-time software engineer at Fannie Mae following graduation. “The structure, the support, and the people at UW–Madison all helped shape the kind of engineer and person I’ve become.”
A “leap of faith” into data science
When Vasudha Khanna signed up for her first data science hackathon, she had no idea it would define her academic career—in fact, she had little familiarity with data science at all.
“It’s true—participating in the MadData hackathon as a freshman was a leap of faith,” says Khanna. But at the encouragement of dotData’s then-president Gautam Agarwal, she got more involved: “I joined the executive board to help support the club technically—but what really pulled me in was the opportunity to lead.”
From freshman to senior year, she became vice president and then president, overseeing the club’s vision and producing the annual MadData hackathon. This year, in pursuit of recreating her own revelatory MadData experience for as many people as possible, Khanna led a team to scale the hackathon to over 300 participants. Following graduation, she’s joining NVIDIA.
A student-made video game covered by the Cap Times
Launched last summer, Garage Sale is an atmospheric game born out of UW–Madison’s Game Design and Development club. For players, the only “goal” is to explore Lettuce Village at their own pace. For lead programmer Rishit Khare, who spent 30 months working on a team up to the game’s July 2024 release, development wasn’t quite so relaxed.
“The final push was very demanding,” he says. “I’ve been taking a bit of a break.”
He uses the term “break” loosely here. Khare—who added a certificate in Game Design during his last semester and is now president of the Game Design and Development club—has been credited in around 10 publicly available games ranging from platformers like The Legend of Aeolus to the philosophically-minded Infinite Monkey Theorem. Bigger projects like Garage Sale aren’t yet in the works, but he has “a trove of unfinished prototypes” in his hard drive—and now, the technical skills to make them happen.
“Computer Graphics (CS559) allowed me to create distorted water reflections and lighting that really added polish to the games I created,” says Khare. “Some of the game audio processing code I wrote involved solving unique concurrency bugs that we learned to tackle in Operating Systems (CS537).”
A born-and-raised Badger sharing the “hacker spirit”
“If I had grown up surrounded by experienced software engineers, I may have been more intimidated and less likely to try things,” says Michael Noguera, who grew up in Madison. “Instead, I learned a lot from my own trial and error.”
Given the importance of self-guided experimentation to his own learning, Noguera sought to share the “hacker spirit.” At UW he mentored others—first as a lab coordinator at the Undergraduate Projects Lab, then as an organizer behind MadHacks, “one of the largest hackathons in the midwest.” MadHacks offers a beginner-friendly space to gain hands-on experience—according to Noguera, it’s the first such opportunity many students have.
“Beginning to learn something is scary, as it immediately confronts you with the possibility of failure,” says Noguera. “The thrill is in the challenge of thinking through new problems.”
Noguera would know—through WISCERS, a sophomore research fellowship, and the David Dewitt Undergraduate Scholarship, he spent four semesters immersed in academic research. “It’s in these environments that I’m a beginner myself,” he says. “I hope to always have the spirit of a beginner.”
Following graduation, Noguera will pursue a PhD at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
For CDIS ambassador, it’s all about “showing people they belong”
If Sreya Sarathy’s name rings a bell, it’s for good reason. Since arriving on campus, she’s been at the heart of things in the School of Computer, Data & Information Sciences (CDIS). One day she’s appearing in Instagram Reels about student life and conferences, the next she’s serving as a Day of the Badger ambassador and sharing her story with the CDIS community.
But before arriving on campus, Sarathy actually didn’t have much of a background in computer or data science—now she’s majoring in both. It’s part of what makes her such a good role model.
“I remember how overwhelmed I felt when I first got to Madison, so being able to support others who are just starting out has been really fulfilling,” she says. “I love making things feel more approachable and showing people they belong here too!”
A member of Society of Women Engineers and Rewriting the Code, Sarathy has learned that campus involvement isn’t just about academic enrichment — it also teaches valuable skills and leads to lifelong relationships.
“Being a leader has given me the chance to help shape other people’s experiences on campus and provide the support I wish I had,” she says. “These roles helped me grow a lot—not just professionally but also in how I connect with people and show up for them.”
A Consulting certificate leads to a job with EY
Like many students, Quintynn Vaughn came to UW–Madison knowing she’d study computer science—and probably at least one other academic discipline. Unlike most, she opted to expand her portfolio outside the realm of STEM courses and instead pursued a certificate in consulting from the School of Business.
“I landed on consulting due to its versatility and the technical opportunities it allowed me to pair with my programming interests,” she explains. While many computer science students are hooked on the development side of business, Vaughn found herself fascinated by the idea of using technology to address different needs across an organization. A technology development and support position with UW–Madison’s IceCube Lab gained her new skills and a range of programming languages, while the consulting certificate allowed her to tie in a burgeoning interest in “technology-oriented business growth.”
Her unique path paid off, and Vaughn will be moving to New York City to start a new role as a software engineering consultant with EY, one of the “big four” global accounting firms, following graduation.
Congratulations again to our 2025 graduates!