Krutika Deshpande (she/her) is a master’s student at the University of Missouri pursuing studies in geospatial data science and analytics. Before beginning her master’s program, Krutika worked as a software engineer at UBS and was a research student at the Manipal Institute of Technology, where she studied the application of evolutionary algorithms. In her current research as a Gregory Scholar, Krutika pursues both her interest in the interdisciplinary application of data science as a solution for improving public health communication and in the innovations that new research can bring to unsolved social problems. Her two main goals as a Gregory Scholar are to learn from interdepartmental exposure to journalism and to gain more experience in academic writing. Krutika values collaboration and teamwork and how they enhance her experience Gregory Scholars program.