Izzy Wagenvoord
Kempner Post-bac Scholar
Contact Information
Areas I Research:
About
Izzy is a post-bac scholar at the Kempner Institute researching machine learning and robotics. She grew up in LA, and earned her B.A. in Computer Science from Colorado College with a minor in mathematics. Prior to joining the Kempner, she completed internships at four organizations in AI research and software development roles, including the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and Michigan State University. After graduating in 2025, she spent a year working at the Mathematics & Computer Science department of her alma mater assisting all CS faculty with TA and admin responsibilities. Outside of research and coding, she enjoys reading, singing, makeup, and cooking.
Research Focus
Izzy’s research interests are in machine learning and robotics– specifically, how can models better perceive and act on data given everyday, real-world constraints? Many critical problems are fundamentally shaped by resource constraints; recording and interpreting real-world measurements can be expensive and time-consuming, and availability is impacted by ethical and systemic factors. To address this, she is interested in understanding how models learn, and approaches that perform well without an abundance of labeled data available. At the Kempner, she hopes to learn from interdisciplinary perspectives to guide her development as a researcher.