cs + ai · drexel university · philadelphia · 🇵🇰

Ruhma Hashmi researcher. builder. artist.

Building AI that makes education better. I write research papers, build full-stack tools, and paint watercolors — sometimes all in the same week.

Ruhma Hashmi presenting AILA research at Drexel Student Showcase 2026
Published
$274K
Awarded
5+
Projects
CS'29
Drexel
scroll
01

About me

I'm a CS + AI student at Drexel University (Class of 2029), on a full-ride Global Scholars Scholarship. I came to Philadelphia from Pakistan chasing a specific kind of ambition — the kind that doesn't fit neatly in one box.

By day I'm a research developer and data AI co-op. My work lives at the intersection of knowledge graphs, large language models, and the genuinely hard question of how people learn.

By night — and on weekends — I paint, photograph, and find ways to make the world look the way it feels inside my head.

Currently
Data AI & Analytics Co-op @ True Search
Research Developer (AILA) @ Drexel CCI
Education
Honors B.S. Computer Science
Minor: Artificial Intelligence & Learning
Drexel University · June 2029
Open to
AI/ML · SWE · Research roles
2026 internships & co-ops
researcher builder painter photographer pakistani international student cs girly philly
02

Work experience

True Search Mar 2026 – Present
Philadelphia, PA
Co-op

Data, AI & Analytics Co-op

Automated recruiting intelligence tools, rebuilt BI dashboards (55 Salesforce-backed cards), and designed human-in-the-loop workflows so stakeholders could review AI-generated outputs. Built Slack → Google Sheets pipelines to transform unstructured candidate texts into structured data.

n8nDomoSnowflakeSQLGemini API
Drexel CCI May 2025 – Present
Philadelphia, PA
Research

Research Developer — AILA

Architected a full-stack AI lecturing assistant that automates high-quality assessment generation from lecture slides. Engineered a RAG pipeline that transforms raw PDFs into hierarchical Knowledge Graphs. Co-authored 3 peer-reviewed publications, including an accepted paper at SIGCSE 2026.

RAGKnowledge GraphsLlamaIndexFastAPINLP
03

Selected projects

🥈 Philly Codefest 2nd Place

GreenPrompts

Chrome extension that optimizes AI prompts for energy efficiency. Won 2nd place among 90+ competing teams at Philly Codefest 2025.

Node.jsGemini APIChrome APIs
View on Devpost →
Mental Health Tech

rInsight

Real-time Reddit mental health dashboard for Drexel counselors. NLP topic modeling + Gemini AI maps crisis signals from r/Drexel posts to campus resources.

ReactFlaskPrawGemini AIChart.js
GitHub →
Web App · Agile

8AM — Course Scheduler

Personalized timetable generator for Drexel students with real-time conflict validation, PDF exports, and calendar integration.

FlaskHTML/CSS/JSSQLitePython
GitHub →
04

Research publications

2026
SIGCSE 2026 · Accepted

"Scaling Retrieval Practice with LLMs: Improving Multiple Choice Question Quality through Knowledge Graphs"

R. Hashmi, Y. An · Outperformed raw generation across 15 quality criteria for formative assessments

2025
IEEE Big Data 2025

"Rate-Distortion Guided Knowledge Graph Construction from Lecture Notes Using Gromov-Wasserstein Optimal Transport"

R. Hashmi, Y. An, et al. · arXiv:2511.14595 · Proposed RD-theory framework for compact, information-preserving KGs

2025
arXiv · July 2025

"Enhancing Student Learning with LLM-Generated Retrieval Practice Questions"

R. Hashmi, Y. An, et al. · arXiv:2507.05629 · 16% increase in knowledge retention in 60-student study

05

Honors & awards

$264K Global Scholars · SIGCSE 2026 · WICT STEM $4K · Philly Codefest 2nd · STAR Scholar · Frances Velay Fellow · IEEE Big Data 2025 · $264K Global Scholars · SIGCSE 2026 · WICT STEM $4K · Philly Codefest 2nd · STAR Scholar · Frances Velay Fellow · IEEE Big Data 2025 ·
$264K
Drexel Global Scholars Scholarship
DREXEL UNIVERSITY · FULL RIDE
$4K
WICT Network STEM Scholarship
WICT NETWORK
$3.5K
STAR Scholar & Frances Velay Fellow
DREXEL UREP · FUNDED RESEARCH
$1K
Undergraduate Research Mini-Grant
DREXEL UREP · AILA FUNDING
🥈
Philly Codefest 2nd Place
GREENPROMPTSV· 90+ TEAMS · $500
06

The creative side

"I see the world in layers — code and color, logic and light, research papers and watercolor mornings."

Outside of CS I paint, photograph, and document life. My art explores texture, color, and the quiet beauty of everyday moments — from Lahore to Philadelphia. It's all connected: the same curiosity that drives my research drives my brushwork.

07

Tech stack

Languages
Python JavaScript Java C SQL HTML / CSS
Frameworks
React & Next.js FastAPI & Flask Node.js Tailwind CSS Express
AI / ML
Gemini API LlamaIndex RAG Pipelines Knowledge Graphs NLP & Prompt Eng.
Data & Tools
Snowflake Domo BI n8n Automation PostgreSQL / SQLite Git & GitHub

Let's connect

Let's build something
remarkable.

Open to AI/ML, SWE, and research roles. Always happy to talk about knowledge graphs, AI in education, art, or life between two continents.