UNC Charlotte junior Arnav Sareen has been named the university’s fifth recipient of the Barry Goldwater Scholarship, according to a May 1 announcement. The scholarship is considered one of the nation’s most prestigious awards for undergraduate researchers in science, engineering, and mathematics.
The award recognizes college sophomores and juniors who plan to pursue research careers. Sareen was selected from an estimated pool of more than 5,000 students nominated by 482 academic institutions. He is currently pursuing a double major in computer science and data science with a minor in statistics and is part of both the Levine Scholars Program and the Computing Honors Program.
Sareen said, “Research is more than just a lofty endeavor reserved for graduate students and professors. It is a way to apply what you have learned in your courses to pressing, real-world problems, meet brilliant people who can be transformational mentors throughout your undergraduate career and be exposed to some amazing opportunities.”
Andrew Keener, assistant director for nationally competitive awards and advising in the Honors College at UNC Charlotte, said, “Arnav is a spectacular and deserving Goldwater Scholarship recipient. What people need to also know about this scholar is his generosity and pay-it-forward mentality, qualities that really showed up in his application.”
Sareen shared that he feels passionate about teaching: “I feel so fiercely passionate about teaching and mentoring in computer science because I truly believe it is one of a select number of fields in which one can advance from a near novice to working on the most advanced, complicated projects with just a laptop, time and patience.”
He described how his family influenced his path: His grandfather traveled from India to complete his doctorate in the United States during the 1960s before returning home with stories of scientific innovation. Sareen noted that his current research area—at the intersection of artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing—would have made his grandfather proud.
Currently studying abroad in Finland this spring semester, Sareen has focused on fine-tuning large language models as part of an education chatbot project developed with a Finnish company. The goal was to create an open-source model prioritizing privacy while producing reliable results across English, Finnish, and Swedish languages.
“Many of the conversations I have had with computer science students in Finland have centered on how Anglocentric many models tend to be,” Sareen said. “Realizing that we are risking isolating this revolutionary technology to only an English-speaking segment of the world was a powerful insight.”
Reflecting on representing UNC Charlotte nationally through this scholarship recognition, Sareen said: “Getting a chance to represent Charlotte on a national stage is deeply gratifying as the school has invested a massive amount of resources into me… winning the Goldwater Scholarship is testament to how effective support can be at UNC Charlotte.”
