Pallavi Gone is always on the go. Between researching, studying, presenting, writing and helping her children with homework, she has her hands full.

“Being a mom and student at the same time requires really efficient time management,” says Pallavi. “But, if anything, I give more quality time to my kids since starting my master’s program. Studying along with kids gives them motivation and inspiration to set high career goals in life.”

Pallavi has always set high goals for herself. To fulfill her dream of becoming a research scientist, she and her family moved from Hyderabad, India, to Halifax to enrol in the Master of Information program at Dalhousie’s School of Information Management in 2019. Her thesis, Scholar’s Interaction on Twitter: A Case Study on Ocean Research’s Conference Participation, shows how scholarly content on Twitter helps to analyze and measure user engagement and social relationships. Conference data from the Twitter API helped her build a data collection process to capture the user engagement, sentiments and network interconnectivity. As she explains, “I have always wanted to apply the knowledge gained in one discipline to another, particularly applying artificial intelligence and machine learning to oceans, the environment and social studies.”

“Pallavi is an exceptional student and working with her is an absolute delight,” says Dr. Philippe Mongeon (SIM assistant professor and thesis co-supervisor). “She is extremely organized and dedicated to her learning, her research and the team to which she belongs. I’m certain that Pallavi has a brilliant career ahead of her.”

She has certainly excelled in applying her knowledge in many ways. In India, she completed an undergraduate degree in Engineering (Information Technology) and a master’s degree in Computer Science. She worked as a professor at Vasavi College of Engineering, teaching courses in software engineering and object-oriented software development. “This is where I was exposed to the power of data, developing a great interest in Big Data and social media research,” says Pallavi. “I chose to pursue my MI in Canada for the high-quality education and focus on evidence-based practice.”

MI Program Coordinator Janet Music says, “Pallavi has a researcher’s mind. She is curious and dedicated to learning new methods on a variety of topics. Her insights and enthusiasm will serve to propel her far in academia.”

Enthusiasm is right. In the past year alone, she won second place in the ShiftKey Labs Virtual Reality Challenge with her project “Care for Ocean,” which focused on improving ocean literacy by teaching young children about oceans through a VR game platform. She was originally assigned as part of a team, but the others were unable to continue so Pallavi completed it on her own. Less than two months later she won a prize in the Nova Scotia Open Data Contest, co-organized by the Dalhousie School of Information Management and the Province of Nova Scotia, by developing an Android application that provides a complete guide to the Nova Scotia healthcare system. Thankfully, Pallavi was working with a supportive partner this time – her husband. Unfortunately, the province introduced new restrictions within the week due to the first wave of COVID-19.

Pallavi co-authored a paper with Dr. Colin Conrad (SIM Assistant Professor) presented at the 2020 International Conference for Knowledge Management (Comparing changes in attitudes towards COVID-19 expressed on social media: the case of USA and Canada) and served as Financial Co-Chair for the 2020 Information Without Borders conference, organized by SIM students. Pallavi also worked with the Agri-Foods Analytics Lab to develop a new app exploring the scope of home food production in Canada.

When asked what her biggest challenge was in the past two years, she indicated that there was none. This says a lot about her, although she credits support from her classmates and professors, particularly Drs. Conrad and Mongeon and Dr. Mike Smit, her other thesis co-supervisor).

As if she has not achieved enough, Pallavi will begin her Interdisciplinary PhD program in the fall, continuing her research with Dr. Smit, this time exploring a hydro energy research project that sits at the nexus of multiple domains. In future, she hopes to work as a full-time data scientist.

Don’t stop her now.