Harini Pootheri is a SCEC SOURCES intern and a Computer Information Systems major at Cal Poly Pomona, concentrating in Business Intelligence. She is expected to graduate in 2027. Her academic and professional interests lie at the intersection of data science, GIS, and environmental resilience, with a strong focus on using technology to support communities impacted by natural hazards.

At the Singelyn Center for Innovative Analytics, Harini contributed to a GIS-based legislative mapping project at Cal Poly Pomona. Her work involved spatial data analysis and visualization, helping to bridge policy insights with geographic context and equity considerations.

Through the Break Through Tech AI/ML program, Harini interned at Geothara, a research-driven startup focused on sustainable infrastructure. There, she helped develop a machine learning model to predict river cross-sections using bathymetric and topographic data, including DEMs and shapefiles. Her work contributed to flood modeling and watershed analysis, incorporating feature engineering and Random Forest modeling to improve predictive accuracy.

As part of her work with the SCEC SOURCES program, Harini is currently involved in aligning and standardizing post-earthquake reconnaissance data using Python and schema-based mapping techniques. Her contributions support the integration of field observations into usable datasets for seismic research and emergency response.

Coming from a nontraditional background and supporting herself through college, Harini brings resilience, determination, and a deep sense of purpose to her work. She plans to pursue graduate studies in geoinformatics or environmental data science to continue applying data-driven methods to real-world challenges and community-focused research.