Austin Kirwin

Austin Kirwin is a junior majoring in Statistics at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. He has a strong interest in data andtechnology, having spent two semesters as an AI Exploration Intern in the ATLAS Internship Program. He has been diving deep intothe evolving world of artificial intelligence. Austin first heard about the ATLAS Internship Program through departmental emails andnewsletters. Drawn by the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and develop transferrable skills, he joined the program eager toexplore how AI can shape education and research. In his role, Austin has been responsible for researching educational largelanguage models (LLMs), developing a catalog of AI engines and their use-cases, and analyzing the broader impacts of AI onlearning and productivity.Through his internship, Austin has sharpened his research abilities, while also strengthening essential soft skills such as concisecommunication and time management. One of his biggest takeaways from the experience is the importance of staying organized andtracking deadlines to maintain productivity and balance multiple projects.Looking ahead, Austin plans to pursue a career in data analytics or supply chain analysis, and he’s considering earning a Master’sdegree to deepen his expertise. A fun fact about Austin is that his favorite class right now is CS 307, a machine learning coursetaught in Python, which perfectly aligns with his growing passion for data and AI innovation.