BIO

Hello all, I'm #Maia (she/her/hers)!

I am currently a Ph.D. candidate in my sixth year studying in the Applied Mathematics department at the University of California, Merced under the advisement of Prof. Arnold Kim. Previously, I attended the University of Northern Colorado, where I obtained a Bachelor of Science in Applied Mathematics with a concentration in Computer Science and a minor in Sociology. Work toward my thesis involves studying the nature of online disagreement and structural differences between different types of speech, as well as the spread of misinformation online. Equity has been a driving force, motivation, and goal throughout my entire life, and is thus present in both the interests of my personal life and my graduate research.

I would like to be a part of the growing community of individuals that are combining social justice, data, and mathematics to create measurable change toward equity.

Outside of mathematics, my hobbies are discovering/bingeing new TV shows, playing video games (primarily Animal Crossing and Pokémon), listening to music, eating dumplings, and creating art.

Data Science for Social Good Internship

Maia spent Summer 2023 in Seattle, Washington to be a Data Science for Social Good fellow with the University of Washington eScience Institute. She and her team worked on computing groundwater measurements to address drought within the Colorado River Basin by utilizing advanced satellite data.

Mathematically Gifted & Black

Maia was selected as a Black History Month 2023 Honoree by Mathematically Gifted & Black (via the Network of Minorities in Mathematical Sciences).

National Science Foundation - Research Training Grant

Maia was awarded a National Science Foundation Research Training Grant fellowship in Fall 2023.

RadioBio Podcast

Maia is an active member of RadioBio. She served as both the Vice President and Secretary, and additionally continues to work as an interviewer, editor, artist for the podcast.

SIAM News Blogs Feature

Maia Powell's collaborative research on Signaling Identity and Changing Perceptions with Hashtags was featured in SIAM News Blogs.

National Science Foundation - Graduate Research Fellowship

Maia was awarded a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship to investigate the latent processes leading to the emergence of hate speech using data science, natural language processing and machine learning in 2020. She additionally was part of the National Research Traineeship on Intelligent Adaptive Systems, as well as the Interdisciplinary Graduate Education Course.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Maia began her second internship with LLNL during Summer 2022. She previously was selected to be part of the Data Science Summer Institute as a Computing Intern (Summer 2021), and served as a Graduate Team Lead to a team of undergraduates during the LLNL Data Science Challenge (Summer 2020).

UCM Graduate Student Association

Maia served as the Graphic Design & Social Media specialist for the University of California, Merced Graduate Student Association from Fall 2022 to Spring 2023.