Richard J. Povinelli

Karen Wurzel grew up in Greenwood, MS. From an early age, she enjoyed identifying patterns in events and data. She initially pursued this interest in human behavior, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from the University of Mississippi, but soon discovered that applying these insights to humans was less compelling than she had hoped. She redirected her focus to programming and earned a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, where she realized that the puzzles and pattern recognition inherent to programming were a better fit for her analytical mind.Currently, Karen is pursuing a Master of Science degree in Computer and Information Science, with a research focus in Artificial Intelligence. She is fascinated by the mathematical principles that allow AI models to identify novel patterns, as well as the mechanisms behind misfires and hallucinations. As a graduate research assistant in the Knowledge and Information Discovery Lab, she applies machine learning to predict responses to anti-epileptic medications in infants with epilepsy—a project that is both challenging and deeply fulfilling.Learn more about Karen here: LinkedIn