Ugo Nwachuku credits his early achievements as a software engineer to his experience at Khoury College’s Vancouver campus. Initially trained as an electrical engineer, he believes that the diverse viewpoints he encountered from his fellow students helped equip him for the industry.

Just being here, I felt like I got the sense that I was getting prepared to join the industry and that’s what I’m seeing while I’m out there

Ugo Nwachuku, Align MSCS ’22

While working in Seattle with software engineers, Akriti Chadda started to wonder if there was a place for her in the tech industry. Now an alumna of the Align program, she’s grateful for the community she found at Khoury College and her part in increasing representation in the field.

The one word that comes to my mind when I think about Khoury is ‘grateful,’ and it’s not just because of the skills that I learned over the years … I think the community that we formed just by virtue of the fact that we were all working towards the same goal of increasing representation in tech is absolutely wonderful

Akriti Chadda, Align MSCS ’97

When Marina Moskowitz arrived at Northeastern University in 2014, she was undecided about her major. Although she knew she wanted to study business, she also wanted to explore her other passions. The combined majors program at Northeastern, which offered her the flexibility to pursue two disciplines, played a crucial role in her decision to attend the university.

One of her interests was computer science, but she had no prior experience in programming. So she enrolled in the course Fundamentals I at Khoury College, which introduced her to computing and programming.

“It was extremely difficult,” she said. “My brain was not used to thinking in that way, but I fell in love with the field because it taught me how to think objectively and independently.”

By the end of her first semester, Moskowitz declared a combined major in computer science and business. As she progressed in her studies, her focus shifted from pursuing grades to learning for learning’s sake. This allowed her to not only retain information better and understand the subjects more deeply, but also to explore them more extensively.

The success I have achieved is a direct result of my experiences at Khoury College, where I fell in love with learning. I was taught how to think objectively, at the most fundamental level, about what cybersecurity and artificial intelligence can do for us in the future

This refined ability to think quickly and apply her computer science knowledge became valuable during her four co-ops at the Department of Defense, as well as her two internships at Apple focusing on cybersecurity and machine learning. Although she had no experience in these fields, she was welcomed into these positions because of her aptitude for fast learning.

“I’m fortunate to have been in positions where I was given problems for which my manager said, ‘This doesn’t have a solution. If you fail, that’s okay,’” Moskowitz recalled.

Moskowitz explored these problems and soon fell in love with the work. By the end of her co-ops at the Department of Defense, Moskowitz had earned several awards for developing tools that the organization still uses. At Apple, during her first internship, she leveraged her skills in machine learning and natural language processing to create a tool that identified critical threats in Apple’s network. This tool was then implemented on a third-party vendor website, allowing anyone to benefit from the algorithm. During her second internship, she built upon this tool to pinpoint the location of vulnerable systems and machines within Apple’s network.

After each internship and co-op, Moskowitz returned to Northeastern to take advanced classes that allowed her to delve deeper into each new subject, further expanding her knowledge. Additionally, during her senior year, and under the supervision of Professor Alina Oprea, she conducted an independent research project in which she applied machine learning to find red flags in a network. She concluded her time at Northeastern having earned several awards, including being recognized as a Young Global Leader and as one of the most 100 influential students at Northeastern University (the Huntington 100).

Today, Moskowitz holds the position of AI and cyber security engineer at Apple’s Information Security department, where she writes algorithms to help protect Apple’s internal network from threats and vulnerabilities. Her focus is on reinforcement learning, an emerging field in artificial intelligence. She is also pursuing her master’s degree in machine learning and data science at the University of California, Berkeley.

Given the impact of rapid advancements in cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, Moskowitz believes that students exploring these fields must be prepared for a lifelong journey of continuous learning. She stresses the importance of students learning to think independently as they master foundational course material.

“The success I have achieved is a direct result of my experiences at Khoury College, where I fell in love with learning,” she said. “I was taught how to think objectively, at the most fundamental level, about what cybersecurity and artificial intelligence can do for us in the future.”

Cathy Bilotta began as one of Northeastern’s first computing college students. Now she’s giving back.

In telling the story of Khoury College’s 40th anniversary, it helps to highlight people whose computer science stories bookend those 40 years perfectly.

Cathy Bilotta’s does. She began studying computer science at Northeastern on the eve of the college’s founding, and her son Andrew graduated with his cybersecurity degree from Khoury College just last year. In between, Bilotta amassed a career of remarkable achievement in the aerospace and defense industry, and made a point of mentoring and developing others along the way.

When she began at Northeastern as a computer science student in the early 1980s, she was intent on standing apart from her older brothers, both engineers.

“Personal computers were just starting to come into focus, and I was fascinated by that,” Bilotta recalls. “Northeastern was the only local school that recognized computer science as a separate discipline with its own degree program.”

During her undergraduate years, right around the time Northeastern established the College of Computer Science, Bilotta became interested in applying technology for business solutions, and sought co-ops accordingly. A couple of years after graduation, she landed a position with Raytheon Company, where she spent the next three decades working in information technology, strategic planning, project management and shared services. Among her leadership roles, she led the strategy development for the company’s billion-dollar Global Business Services organization, executing enterprise strategic initiatives to drive transformational change.

Three words that, to me, define my experience at Khoury are interdisciplinary, persistence, and opportunity

Cathy Bilotta, BSCS

“I was supporting manufacturing and business, and I got to rotate through many different roles within the company,” she recalls. “I love diversity of assignments. The worst thing I could do is repeat the same thing over and over.”

As an executive sponsor for the company’s IT leadership development program, Bilotta fulfilled another of her passions: helping the next generation. It was something she’d long wanted to bring to her alma mater, too.

“Northeastern’s Boston campus is one of my happy places,” she says. “I’ll look for any excuse to get back there. I love it, love the energy and the wonderful memories it brings back.”

So when her son, Andrew, enrolled at Khoury College in 2017, Bilotta had another excuse. She joined the Parent Leadership Council, a group of volunteer ambassadors that strives to steer Northeastern’s community outreach and provide feedback on its activities. It also aims to create and strengthen experiential learning opportunities for students, and its members have all contributed financially to further this goal.

After leaving Raytheon during the company’s merger in 2020, Bilotta joined the board of directors for Wellspring House, a Gloucester-based nonprofit that aims to prevent homelessness and inspire people to achieve financial security. She was also elected to the Select Board in her town of Manchester-by-the-Sea, meaning the one-time commuter student can walk to work at the town hall. All the while, Bilotta has continued in her role as an alumni mentor at Northeastern, where she can impart not just the lessons she learned in industry, but those from her “life-changing” co-ops, and from her experience as one of only a few female computer science students in her cohort.

“I’ve accumulated a lot of experience and knowledge, and sharing it is really important,” she says. “I have a special place in my heart for women who are going into this industry. They need a different kind of support sometimes, and I’m happy to help.”

For Mani Sundaram (MS ’99), attendance at Northeastern was somewhat happenstance. After getting an undergraduate degree in India, he was set on coming to the US for graduate work. His father made something clear to his ambitious son: he only had enough money to support a one-way ticket. Due to cost of college applications, Sundaram applied to just four colleges. He got into Northeastern with a scholarship, though he thought he was applying to Northwestern, he admits now.

In the end, Sundaram could not be happier, as he credits Northeastern as a key factor in his professional achievements.

“What I learned at Northeastern gave me the foundation for what I do right now,” Sundaram said. “Without clearly understanding the foundations of computer science, it’s hard to be a security practitioner.”

After completing his MS degree, Sundaram was hired during an on-campus interview for Stratus Technologies, and later moved to Virtify. The bulk of his career, however, has been spent at Akamai, a web and internet security company. He is currently executive vice president and general manager of the Security and Technology Group, overseeing strategy and product direction for Akamai’s security solutions, as well as the business and platform security units’ core functions of engineering, product development, and product management.

Sundaram finds the security field very engaging because it is always changing and presenting new opportunities.

“The opportunities are boundless,” he said, noting that he’s approached each opportunity he’s been given with “the explicit goal of learning as much as possible.”

Since graduating, Sundaram has remained connected to Northeastern as an alumnus and donor. He and his wife Meena sponsor six students in the College of Professional Studies’ “A2M for Tech” program, which provides financial assistance to community college students continuing their studies at Northeastern. “It’s a joy to sponsor these students,” they said.

What I learned at Northeastern gave me the foundation for what I do right now. Without clearly understanding the foundations of computer science, it’s hard to be a security practitioner

Mani Sundaram, MSCS ’99

In addition, numerous Northeastern students have pursued co-op opportunities at Akamai during Sundaram’s tenure.

“The one thing I have always admired about Northeastern students is they are very pragmatic,” Sundaram said. “They come in talking about how to get things done, something they are able to do on day one.”

As an alumnus, Glen Coppersmith — who earned his bachelor’s in computer science and cognitive psychology in 2004 and his PhD in experimental psychology in 2008 — has been an active member of the Northeastern community.

“I’ve been welcomed with open arms,” Coppersmith said.

Since 2017, he has worked with faculty member Byron Wallace.​ In 2019, he​ joined the McCarthy Venture Network at Northeastern to help others shift from academia to industry.

“When I go to events, it’s nice to have a community of people,” he said. “With the launch of the ​​Institute for Experiential AI, I reconnected with a friend from freshman year who is now a professor affiliated with the group: John Basl. He was just as bright and fun as before; it was a full circle from my freshman year dorm.”

In 2019, Coppersmith received the Outstanding Alumni Award from Khoury College in recognition of his work at Qntfy, a mental health data science startup he bootstrapped from its founding in the summer of 2014.

Within a year of receiving that award, the world was facing a mental health emergency due to the pandemic. Even in the first few weeks of the pandemic, Coppersmith said, “there were already early warning signs about the mental health crisis, especially with health care workers. We spent a bunch of time generating relevant information and getting it to people who needed it. The whole world was focusing on COVID, and we were with them.”

That summer, Coppersmith and Qntfy ​saw the massive need and ​decided to seek a pre-seed round​, since the world was finally ready for what they were building​. One of their investors made an introduction to another mental health leader: Mark Frank, CEO of SonderMind.

I’m working to better understand mental health and well-being using the data that is traditionally unavailable to clinicians and provders … We [can] look at this problem differently from the rest of the field by starting from a machine learning perspective

Glen Coppersmith, BSCS ’04

“We didn’t know much about each other, but within the first ten minutes we were completely aligned on how to ​redesign and hopefully ​fix ​the ​mental health care​ system​,” Coppersmith remembered. “Frank said, ‘This might be a little forward, but​ ​could ​we ​acquire you​?​ It looks like we’re building two halves of the same company.’ Four months later, ​we were on stage together doing a fireside chat all unified at SonderMind.”

Coppersmith now works as the chief data officer at SonderMind. Switching from the “lonely” CEO job at a small company to a C-suite with colleagues and collaborators has been rewarding for Coppersmith.

“It’s exciting to be part of a larger team again,” he said. “I’ve learned so much from Mark and ​my colleagues ​at SonderMind. It’s been a continuation of the journey and a total paradigm shift at the same time.”

At SonderMind, Coppersmith leads the team towards a data-driven method of mental health treatment. They want to address the critical problem of matching patients and mental health providers to improve their access and clinical outcomes. The SonderMind team has acquired companies with apps around self-care that facilitate interaction with the platform, which is a rich source of data for a feedback loop of improving care. Other possible ideas include sleep tracking through wearables.

Looking back at his time at Northeastern, Coppersmith believes that his double major in computer science and psychology paved the way for his work at Qntfy and SonderMind.

“I was enough of an expert in those spaces to see solutions differently. It helped hone my sense of pragmatism, the desire for real world impact,” he said. “Being out in the workforce for co-op before graduation was a huge part of that Northeastern pragmatism.”

For Sam Wu-Ochs, a company’s mission is key. Impressed with Outcomes4Me’s drive to democratize cancer care, he applied for a co-op at the company as an undergraduate student. Now, he works there full time and is helping shape the company’s future.

Northeastern really does have an impressive network that would be difficult to find in other places as a college student. I think ultimately the goal of Khoury College is to give you the fundamental skills that are gonna prepare you for a career in computer science

Sam Wu-Ochs, BSCS ’22

Like many Khoury College alumni, Christina Rong was initially attracted to the college for its career-accelerating co-op program. Now working full time at Outcomes4Me, her former co-op, she leverages her software engineering experience to improve patients’ access to cancer treatment.

It’s pretty rewarding to work with a team that prioritizes patients and wants to help improve their lives. I’m pretty happy with where I am right now

Cristina Rong, BSCS ’21

Marvin Sagastume found himself drawn to Northeastern by Khoury College’s combined majors, giving him the opportunity to blend his computing passion with something wider. Now at Outcomes4Me, he’s doing just that by helping develop a user-friendly information platform for cancer patients.

I love that every day when I come to work, I’m proud of what I’m doing. I’ve gone from having very little experience … to building software that is doing very complex things. That’s inspiring

Marvin Sagastume, BSCS ’21

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