Khoury News
A lucky phone call brought Dipti Kulkarni to Portland. Her community work made it home.
During her time at Khoury College, Dipti Kulkarni devoted herself to improving Maine's environment, animal shelters, and public transit use. “It's good stress relief," she says, "to do things I'm passionate about and help somebody in the process."
For Khoury alumna Dipti Kulkarni, technology and sustainability go together like water and plants.
Kulkarni received her master’s in computer science in December 2025 from Northeastern’s Roux Institute in Portland, Maine, where she championed environmental causes and led student groups dedicated to serving the community.
“My interests have always spanned a few areas, but they are connected by a common goal to use technology thoughtfully to create solutions that are both effective and responsible for people and the planet,” Kulkarni says.
Kulkarni was so driven to pursue this work that she chose to leave a comfortable job, family, and friends in India to come to the United States and enroll at Northeastern.
“I never really planned to come to the US, but I started my job during the lockdown. It was a remote job which got very monotonous, and I felt like I wasn’t learning or doing what I really wanted to do,” she says.
Kulkarni originally intended to come to the Boston campus, but after a fortuitous call with a graduate enrollment officer, she opted for Portland instead. Part of what drew her there was Data for Social Good, a student-led group that uses data-based solutions to address societal problems, particularly in collaboration with nonprofits across Maine.
It wasn’t long before Kulkarni became an events coordinator in the group.
“I was very excited to join the group as soon as I could. The first project I did with them was with Shared Animals Count,” says Kulkarni, referring to a nonprofit that collects and analyzes data on animal shelters. “It was amazing … I got to work with Docker, create a forecasting model for resource allocation in animal shelters, and get feedback from the clients. I also got to work with Jim Sheldon who was an amazing team lead and a great cloud computing professor.”
Kulkarni eventually became a sustainability ambassador at Northeastern, which helped her work with Maine Audubon and Portland Parks Conservancy. During one of these collaborations, she learned about the Animal Refuge League of Greater Portland. With support from her manager, she started volunteering there and continues to do so. During her tenure as an ambassador, she helped Roux staff members Terra Dunham and Cait Enz found Roux Interest in Sustainability and Environment (RISE), a student group that organized community cleanups in collaboration with local partners in Portland.
“I got to be part of conversations surrounding waste management pipelines on campus, and I led a few cleanups, which is how I got in touch with community organizations and some very helpful Portland park rangers,” Kulkarni says.
Kulkarni and RISE also worked with Greater Portland Metro, the largest public transit system in Maine, to promote the use of community transport by giving free bus passes to staff and faculty at Northeastern.
“I was also taking a computer vision course during my last semester with Professor Ryan Bockmon,” Kulkarni says. “His course and encouragement from my advisor Michaela Gill helped me create a trash classification app designed to reduce contamination in our campus’s trash bins.”
Despite her lengthy resume, Kulkarni is modest about her motivation to do this kind of work.
“It’s good stress relief for me,” she says. “It just feels good to be busy doing something that I’m passionate about and maybe helps somebody in the process.”
Kulkarni’s numerous experiences with nonprofits, as well as in more traditional corporate settings, have given her a broad skill set, and each environment comes with its own set of challenges and rewards.
“I find that whenever I work with nonprofits, I feel much better after I complete a task or a project, probably because I can usually directly see the impact of my work. But it can definitely come with its challenges as there might be more hoops you have to jump through,” she explains.
During her master’s program, Kulkarni did a co-op with ATX Advisory Services, becoming the Maine-based business consultancy group’s first ever co-op. Her experience with Data for Social Good aligned with the company’s needs and, after graduating in December 2025, she took a full-time job with the company. She’s enjoying her position but says she still has a lot to learn.
“I think communication has been a big, big learning curve, and working with a bigger team definitely has its own challenges, but they’re very patient with me,” Kulkarni says. “Everyone has been incredibly helpful and generous with their time whenever I have had questions.”
Kulkarni is just getting started in this new phase of her career, and she is excited to see what the future holds.
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