Siegel PIT Summer Fellowship – 2024 Student Bios

Saanvi Arora (University of California, Berkeley)

Saanvi Arora is studying computer science and public policy at UC Berkeley, where she is focused on studying how social justice informs the development of algorithms and civic technologies. She is committed to leveraging greater civic participation as a tool to design and deploy innovations that bridge palpable sociopolitical and human rights gaps. She is drawn to CITP to better understand how artificial intelligence and digital platforms can comprehensively and equitably fulfill the public interest, particularly in healthcare and elections.

Arora is working for the Center for Democracy and Technology.

Genevieve Bineza (Princeton University)

Genevieve Bineza is pursuing a degree in African American Studies with minors in Computer Science and Statistics & Machine Learning at Princeton University. She is passionate about applying data-driven solutions to the challenges facing marginalized communities while protecting their privacy and safety. She believes in technology’s potential to create a more equitable future, but understands the dangers that unethical tech development pose on society. This has led her to conduct research on topics such as human-robot interaction within mental healthcare and adolescent surveillance. As a Siegel Public Interest Technology summer fellow, she aims to learn more about how researchers, technologists, and policymakers can work together to combat harmful tech and pursue social good.

Bineza is working for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Phoebe Brous (University of California, Los Angeles)

Phoebe Brous is a rising senior at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she studies public affairs and economics. Her focus areas include antitrust, data privacy, and algorithmic discrimination, particularly within the search engine industry. She has written about the Department of Justice’s antitrust case against Google, ad-based revenue models, and algorithmic discrimination in employment practices. Additionally, Brous produces a podcast for a UCLA professor, which discusses these issues and explores broader questions about what it means to be human in an increasingly digital world. Beyond her work in public interest technology, Brous has experience in public policy research, writing, survey design, and econometrics.

Brous is working for the Federal Trade Commission.

Jasmine Hsu (Purdue University)

Jasmine Hsu is majoring in political science, double-minoring in history and business management, and completing certificates in public policy and data science. She splits her time between being the managing editor for Purdue’s undergraduate history journal, serving on boards for various student organizations, and enjoying the company of friends and family. Last summer, Hsu worked in the data privacy sector of The Office of the Indiana Attorney General; her work consisted of assisting deputy attorney generals in investigating data breaches, enforcing robocall mitigation efforts, and amending the 2025 Indiana Consumer Data Privacy Act. As a pre-law student, Hsu is interested in how legal structures can be used to both protect the digital privacy of citizens and encourage technological innovation.

Hsu is working for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sipho Langa (University of Central Florida)

Sipho Langa, an undergraduate at the University of Central Florida, studies economics, computational science, and cognitive science. His academic endeavors include contributions to AI, IoT, and recommender system projects at SAS Institute, backend development and architecture for UCF’s Lighthall Lab’s ‘Digital Twins’ project, and working on a localized large language model as well as developing data standards across different organizations during his time at the Federal Reserve Board. As a member of UCF’s Moot Court Team and a research engineer for the nonprofit U.S. Hunger, Langa integrates computational methods to promote human flourishing. As a Siegel Public Interest Technology Summer Fellow, he aims to ethically weave technology into public policy and societal systems, setting a foundation for a research-driven graduate career.

Langa is working for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Maxwell Lee (Hamilton College)

Maxwell Lee studies economics with a math/stats minor at Hamilton College. He is currently focused in two main areas of public interest technology: using cybersecurity analytics to inform policies about bureaucratic oversight, and leveraging educational technology to responsibly optimize outcomes in learning institutions like schools. He previously worked for the U.S. Department of the Treasury as a summer security analyst and is currently working for his school’s advising program, where he analyzes data about student access (or lack thereof) to campus resources. He is excited to explore more deeply these interests, as well as others, during the fellowship.

Lee is working for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Ashley Lin (Georgetown University)

Ashley Lin (林祐暄) is a student at Georgetown University majoring in science, technology, and international affairs (STIA). She is fascinated by the intersection of international security and emerging technologies, with a focus on AI. At Georgetown, Lin co-leads the Responsible AI Network, which organizes an 8-week AI Policy Fellowship for students. She’s also a fellow at the Red House, Georgetown’s education R&D unit, where she’s designing a Technology & Justice Core Pathway. Lin is an RA at CSET and conducts research on “AI and work” with Dr. Rajesh Veeraraghavan as a Mortara Undergraduate Research Fellow.

Lin is working at the Center for Security and Emerging Technologies (CSET).  

Brooke McCarthy (Princeton University)

Brooke McCarthy is concentrating in Princeton University’s School of Public and International Affairs and pursuing a certificate in Technology & Society. She has a particular interest in the adverse effects of online harassment and the dissemination of distressing content on users’ mental well-being. In completion of her junior independent work, she studied the nature of pro-eating disorder content online and drafted a proposal for how it can be better regulated. Through her studies of ethics and machine learning, she also developed a concern for the tendency of biased algorithms and training datasets to reinforce structural inequalities. Despite grappling with these challenging issues, McCarthy remains optimistic that technology can ultimately have a societal impact that is overwhelmingly positive and aspires to help realize this vision.

McCarthy is working for the Federal Trade Commission.

Joshua Midha (Duke University)

Joshua Midha is studying statistics and political science at Duke University, with concentrations in counterterrorism and privacy. Midha’s coursework explores political propaganda, social media, geopolitical risk, and legal power. His research has covered opinion terrorism on Twitter and in Pakistan, Facebook’s content algorithm, and, with the U.S. Forest Service, environmental incentives in Hawaii. He believes technology should be leveraged to optimize social systems. He is currently developing a forecasting market for public events and is going through the seed funding process. Midha hopes to leverage the summer and to better use his experiences to develop better frameworks for managing civic technology, expand on pre-existing programs regarding privacy, and explore policymaking processes firsthand.

Midha is working for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Oluwadara Morakinyo (The University of Texas at Dallas)

Oluwadara Morakinyo is studying computer science at The University of Texas at Dallas. She is passionate about developing a world where technology works effectively and fairly for everyone. Morakinyo is deeply engaged in community and advocacy–evidenced by her roles in mentoring engineering students at her university and organizing service events in her school’s chapter for the National Black Law Students Association. Morakinyo’s experiences spur her to work in a space that nurtures her community and promotes technical advancement. She is excited to engage in technology policy as a Siegel Public Interest Technology Summer Fellow to gain insights into the technology policy-making process as she pursues a career in law, focused on molding a regulatory framework that encourages professionally responsible technology innovation.

Morakinyo is working for the Federal Trade Commission.

Gia Musselwhite (Princeton University)

Gia Musselwhite is majoring in the School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University, with a focus on institutions and networks. In addition, she is pursuing minors in Information Technology & Society and Statistics & Machine Learning. Musselwhite’s past independent work has examined the U.S. federal government’s relationship with social media platforms and regulation of misleading content, looking at the upcoming Supreme Court case Murthy v. Missouri. She hopes to continue research on public opinion towards technology-driven changes to the workforce and economy. Musselwhite is thrilled to work in Washington D.C. as a Siegel Public Interest Technology Summer Fellow, striving to ensure technologies are ethically used to boost efficiency while protecting consumers and citizens from exploitation.

Musselwhite is working for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Sujay Swain (Princeton University)

Sujay Swain is a junior at Princeton University, majoring in electrical and computer engineering with a certificate in Technology & Society on the Information Technology Track. He is interested in the intersection of data privacy and AI governance with a focus on hardware devices and physical systems. His goal is to create policy that encourages hardware innovation while protecting intellectual property and consumer rights. With his background in scientific research, product development and policy implementation, he hopes to combine these experiences to provide a unique perspective in creating an ecosystem that promotes innovation without compromising on consumer protection.

Swain is working for the Federal Trade Commission.

Natalie Szewczyk (Smith College)

Natalie Szewczyk is double majoring in statistical & data sciences (SDS) and government with a concentration in American politics at Smith College. Her coursework across both majors, including data ethnography, politics of big data, and political opinion, has motivated her to bridge the gap between the world of technology and the government. She has particular interest in infrastructure, data privacy, and the ways data does, and does not, inform the policymaking process. She has completed research into the ethicality and validity of the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System as well as the impact of social media on the 2016 presidential election. She is passionate about making sure that when data is collected, analyzed, used, and communicated, it is done so ethically. Through this fellowship, Szewczyk hopes to use her skills to help shape technology policy that works to mitigate social issues, rather than perpetuate them.

Szewczyk is working for the Federal Trade Commission.