People / Students / Class of 2026
Arielle Weinstein graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science in Engineering Physics from Tufts University in May 2025. Throughout her undergraduate studies, she gained a strong foundation in physics and astrophysics, did projects concentrated on statistical analysis, and also developed robust coding skills through data science courses.
She spent two summers as an intern at NASA working with the team behind the ULTRASAT satellite. In her first summer, she made predictions for the distribution of galaxies that the four different surveys will observe. She was published as a co-author in the 2023 ULTRASAT paper by Shvartzvald et al, and found it an immense privilege to experience the collaboration of the research team through the publication process. In the second summer, she created simulated images of the sky based on previous UV images to test and evaluate source detection algorithms and advise the team on which tools would be most useful when the data is eventually collected. She gained experience with many different analysis tools and honed her coding skills over the course of the two summers.
During her time at Tufts, she did research with Professor David Martin in the Astronomy department to write and compile extensive Python code to search for exoplanets using the TESS satellite. The project examined light curves from binary star systems to search for transiting planets and analyzed the trends in the flux data for eclipses. This work required extensive data cleaning in order to identify the specific signatures of exoplanets. Arielle is looking forward to gaining experience with advanced machine learning algorithms, big data systems, and databases to become a more complete data scientist. She is excited to collaborate with her peers and participate in hands-on projects through the MLDS program. She hopes to connect her education with her passion for sports, and become an analyst for a professional organization or league. Outside of her education, she enjoys playing the piano, running and playing sports, hiking, and crossword puzzles.
