Matheus Kunzler Maldaner

Data Science and Informatics (DSI), the club I have served as the President of for the previous academic year, has won the award for Organization of the Year. I also nominated my friend and DSI's next external-vice president, My Pham, to the Emerging Gator Award which seeks to recognize underclassmen leaders - which she won!

Some of the initiatives we have held in the past year include hosting a free 400-person Nvidia Deep Learning workshop in which participants received official certifications, supporting 54 students to compete at ShellHacks (Florida's largest hackathon) and organizing a day-long research symposium with over 20 speakers, 7 student research posters and 100+ attendees.

I was honored to be inducted into the University of Florida Hall of Fame, the highest distinction a student leader can get at UF. Since 1921, the University of Florida selects 25 seniors or graduate students for this award based on leadership experiences, academic achievements, and service to the university community.

My parents (4th slide picture) drove up to attend the ceremony and my other guests included Dr. Catia Silva, Dr. Domenic Forte and Dr. Elizabeth Johnson who have supported me every step along the way.

My team and I won the Best Visualization award at the 2025 UF ASA DataFest competition. The annual event brought together over 100 students from across campus to analyze a complex, real-world dataset over a weekend.

Our team developed innovative visualization techniques to communicate key insights from healthcare utilization data, receiving recognition from judges from industry and academia for our clear and impactful data storytelling.

I was nominated by Dr. Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Demetris Athienitis in the Department of Statistics for this college-wide award. While I did not win the award, I was one of seventeen finalists!