Pastries and projects: Khoury undergrads study data and software in Belgium

More than two dozen Khoury College undergraduate students recently returned from an exciting adventure in Belgium, complete with data instruction, software solutions, and cultural exploration.

The Dialogue of Civilizations: Data & Software in International Government and Politics enabled students to engage with international policymakers and data scientists working in Brussels — the European Union’s administrative center — while earning credit toward their degrees and pursuing challenging, relevant academic work. Courses were taught by Khoury College teaching professors Eric Gerber and Mark Fontenot, as well as guest lecturers.

For rising second-year student Nalika Palayoor, who was primarily interested in the life sciences before college, such a program wasn’t an obvious choice a couple of years ago. She decided to attend Northeastern based partly on an info session held by Khoury faculty member Laney Strange, who, Palayoor says, “made me feel like I could potentially do data science.”

She tried a data science class this past year, ended up enjoying it, and declared a combined major in data science and biochemistry. Palayoor has also involved herself with Women’s Community of Code, a Strange-advised group which has helped Palayoor feel included and welcomed in computer science — and allowed her to give back.

“We host coding workshops for girls and women in the community that haven’t had experience with coding,” she says. “It’s amazing to show them that they can do this too.”

Palayoor found a similarly supportive community on the Belgium Dialogue.

“I built a good relationship with the professors and connected with students beyond just the people that I got to know during my first year,” she says.

Students were based just outside of Brussels in Leuven, which dates to the ninth century. They stayed in picturesque dormitories at the Irish College, a historic institution founded in 1607 and surrounded by cobblestone roads and medieval architecture. The group also embarked on a weekend trip to the tiny country of Luxembourg.

For fellow rising Khoury second-year Bobby Palazzi, the opportunity to go on a Dialogue was part of his initial interest in Northeastern.

“One of the people that I talked to before I came to Northeastern mentioned that they were going on a Dialogue in the Middle East,” he remembers. “I saw pictures of them at the pyramids and it seemed like an awesome experience.”

While in Belgium, Palazzi explored all that Brussels had to offer, including a concert and myriad other cultural activities.

“It’s so fun to explore the city on [Lime] scooters and it’s really cheap,” he says.

Palayoor mentions a trip to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels as a highlight, as well as learning to make pastries at a French pastry shop.

While on the trip, data science majors took “Foundations of Data Science,” in which they worked on subjects ranging from tensors and applied linear algebra in standard numerical computing libraries to data science tools such as Jupyter Notebooks. Computer science majors took “Database Design,” which focuses on relational database management system use cases. Students in a combined track of both majors completed “Special Topics in Data Driven Application Development,” a project-based course where student teams sourced data, created minimally viable product software solutions, and implemented those MVPs in a software stack.

Palazzi worked with a small team of fellow students to create an app that invited users to indicate their preferences for weather, public transit, education, and more, then used those preferences to match users with the countries they’d most enjoy living in. The app even connects them with moving companies.

Palayoor’s project was a travel app which allows travelers to input data — including travel dates, destination, origin, and other preferences — then feeds these data points into a regression model that predicts flight and hotel costs. Artificial intelligence and data regulation, both particularly keen interests of hers, played a role in the app.

“It’s definitely going to have a big impact on my future years here at Northeastern,” Palayoor says of the experience. “I made some really close friends in Belgium. I also feel like I came out of this trip a much more confident data science student … I think getting to know the professors better and getting to know a close group of students made me feel like in the future, I can connect with more professors and students beyond the people I got to know during my first year of college.”

Palazzi concurs.

“The best part of this Dialogue was the relationships that I made, because obviously I got close with all of the students I was with, but also with both of the professors,” he says, recalling the time he and his peers stayed up late to watch the Celtics win the NBA Finals on a projector — all while they worked on their Dialogue projects. “The Dialogue was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had. And it goes so quickly, so take advantage of it.”