University of Wisconsin–Madison

Celebrating spring 2026 graduates

From healthcare research to building campus community, this year’s crop of CDIS graduates is as impressive and ambitious as ever. Here’s to the class of 2026.

By Karen Barrett-Wilt and Thomas Jilk

The College of Computing & Artificial Intelligence (CAI) is proud to celebrate hundreds of spring 2026 graduates who emerge from our academic programs ready to make their mark on the world. 

The graduates featured here offer a glimpse of the wide-ranging talents of students across CAI programs. Each brings their own mix of technical skills, research experience, and leadership — along with a commitment to using computing, data, and information to improve the world. Their impact on and off campus has already been significant, and it has only just begun.   

Meet some of this year’s graduates

Dev Ahluwalia

MS Computer Science

Ahluwalia is the founder and CEO of MadMatcher, a data infrastructure startup that draws on his work with the Magellan Group and helps organizations identify when different records refer to the same real-world. Through the CS NEST program, he sharpened how MadMatcher fits into real-world workflows.

Josh Feenberg

BS Computer Science and Data Science

Now a Google software engineer, Josh’s undergraduate research explored discrete mechanism design and multi‑agent reinforcement learning. While an intern at Freddie Mac, he received an internal award for helping reduce recurring production incident escalations. 

Olivia Freedman

BA Information Science and Communication Arts

Through internships and consulting, Olivia improved digital systems through UX‑informed projects that support real business processes. At Salesforce, she’s focused on usability, thoughtful design, and the realities of modern information creation, organization, and dissemination.

Janhavi Gosavi

MS Information

As a business intelligence intern at Amcor, Janhavi supported a continent-wide analytics platform spanning hundreds of manufacturing sites. Janhavi also taught in UW–Madison’s precollege programs, developing curriculum and leading courses in engineering fundamentals and Python programming.

Darwish Rahim

BS Information Science and Economics

As Vice President of the Malaysian Student Association, Darwish helped fellow international students acclimate to U.S. higher ed. He also planned the Malaysian Sports Festival, bringing together hundreds of students around the country. For his efforts toward fostering campus community, he received the 2026 Global Citizenship Award.

Atharvan Srivastava

BS Computer Science and Mathematics

Now pursuing a biomedical engineering PhD, Atharvan was eager to get involved in healthcare research while at UW. In addition to writing for the Journal of Undergraduate Science and Technology, an internship with the Departments of Medical Physics and Radiology offered hands-on experience and led to an invite to present work at a conference in South Africa.

Carol Sze

BS Computer Science and Gender & Women’s Studies

As president of the women’s chapter of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) at UW–Madison, Carol was dedicated to building community, resources, and support systems for women in STEM degree programs. Next year, she returns to pursue an MS in Data Engineering. 

Samad Syed

BS Computer Science, Certificate in Arabic Language and Culture

In addition to competing on UW’s winning International Collegiate Programming Contest (ICPC) team, Samad interned at Amazon Web Services, Vail Systems, and Middleton Spectral Vision. He was also a teaching assistant for two of the most challenging CS courses: Operating Systems and Algorithms.

Taylor Wilmot

BS Computer, Information, and Data Science

A rare CAI triple-major, Taylorwas also a video director and host of two radio shows at WSUM, named “Best College Station in the Nation.” As a senior, she didn’t slow down, volunteering as a CAI Student Ambassador, appearing in the news twice (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WMTV 15 News), and writing about her capstone experience and the largest student-run hackathon in the Midwest — which she also helped organize.

Read about our inaugural Distinguished Achievement Award winners.

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