The inaugural cohort

In their own words

Aunray Stanford is a Community Technologist based in NYC. I combine technology, research, community leadership, writing and lived experience in my work. SafeStep is by and for underrepresented people building a different future.

Edward Sie is a sophomore Computer Science student at Howard University with a strong interest in software engineering, data science, and technology for social impact. He currently serves as a Research Assistant at the Core Futures Lab, where he develops and maintains applications for the Climate Signal project, contributing to technology solutions that support climate research and community resilience.

Nissim Ram is a civic technologist focused on web development, GIS, and building public-facing tools that increase transparency and centralize information. He recently graduated from NYU's Urban Data Science program, where he co-founded CivilChat, a web tool that helps residents track complaints of potential officer abuse of authority.

Nonso Elelleh is a 3L at the University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School, where she concentrates at the intersection of law, design, and technology. Her activities at the law school notably include serving as an Executive Editor of the Journal of Law and Innovation and as a member of the Wharton Venture Lab. An alumna of Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Oxford, where she wrote a thesis on participatory design, she built an early foundation in human-centered approaches to technology. Her projects include Amicus Aria, a moot court simulation and legal argumentation tool, and Served, an interactive dining concept addressing attorney isolation that won Philadelphia's Social Justice Hackathon and was featured at the 2026 Information Architecture Conference.

Meet the team

JP

Junaid Pathan

Co-founder · OceanEye

I am Junaid Pathan, a junior Computer Engineering student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I'm passionate about building AI systems that turn raw data into something people can actually use, especially for environmental problems. As a co-founder of OceanEye, I built the detection to dashboard pipeline that feeds our results into a live dashboard, and I worked on a RAG layer on top of it so users can ask questions about the detected waste data and get grounded, useful answers.

Tanish Gupta

Co-founder · OceanEye

I am Tanish Gupta, a junior Computer Science student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I'm passionate about applying AI to real world environmental problems that most people overlook. As a co-founder of OceanEye, I integrated Google's Gemini vision model into our pipeline, using it to classify detected ocean waste into specific categories so we can turn raw detections into actionable insight.

Tirth Jajadia

Co-founder · OceanEye

I am Tirth Jajadia, a Computer Science student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. I'm excited about leveraging technology and algorithmic problem-solving for real world impact. As a co-founder of OceanEye, I built the map visualization and pathfinding system, mapping out debris clusters and calculating the best possible collection routes to make cleanup operations faster and more fuel-efficient.

Rudra Patel

Co-founder · OceanEye

I am Rudra Patel, a junior Computer Science student at University of Massachusetts Amherst. I am really passionate about public interest technology and love to do something for the common good. As a co-founder for oceaneye, I help build the training and validation of our computer vision model so that we can classify wastes into different categories.