Sara Tandon

A token extrovert, Sara Tandon is a fiend for communication, informs in an engaging way, and brings a little joy wherever she goes. Sara's first love is traveling, having lived in 4 countries, visited more than 60 countries, and all 7 continents. Years of international volunteer work and a multi-cultural upbringing, instilled an empathetic heart and inquisitive mind in Sara.

Sara is currently working toward a PhD in Human Computer Interaction from King's College London (KCL). Always in pursuit to sharpen her communication skills, Sara focused her thesis on individual differences, education, & cognition and their impact on perception of and interaction with data visualization. While at King's, Sara enjoys assistant-teaching graduate and undergraduate modules in Visualization and Data Storytelling. Sara also holds an AKC and a MSc in Data Science from KCL, her dissertation focused on creating visual databases and storytelling for U.S. demographic, political opinion, and spiritual life time series data. Sara holds a BSc in Mathematics and Computer Science from Pepperdine University, a liberal arts univeristy in California. At Pepperdine, Sara participated in Greek life, Housing & Residence Life, tutoring, elective religion courses, Combinatorics research, and Math Education research.

Sara is passionate about communicating deep data science and mathematical concepts in an engaging way - in university and business environments. During her internships with Microsoft Sara has had the chance to do this, and is always looking for ways to empower people toward understanding data in an actionable way. In her personal life, Sara is passionate about mentoring young people and leading a spiritual and mindful life. Sara volunteers with her church and spends much of her spare time learning about theology and world religions.

Microsoft  |  PhD Research Intern

Summer 2023     Seattle, WA, USA

Conducted user studies on visualizations, explainability, and applications of LLMs and Transformer models to predict User Journeys and enhance Persona creation across products in the Business Application Platform. Case Study paper on creation, evaluation, and deployment of model system presented and published as part of CHI 2024 proceedings.

Microsoft  |  PhD Research Intern

Summer 2022     Seattle, WA, USA

Conducted user-interface data visualization research for AI Explainability across business applications in Microsoft's Design Studio. Case Study paper on three phase study for AI Explainability in enterprise presented and published as part of CHI 2023 proceedings.

Microsoft  |  PhD Data Science Intern

Summer 2019, Summer 2020, Summer 2021     Seattle, WA, USA

Evaluate and advance data visualization practices and capacity in Microsoft's Business Applications Group.

Chadwick Martin Bailey  |  Data Manager

2019     Seattle, WA, USA

Managed all phases of data handling for primary research on key accounts including LinkedIn, Netflix, and Google.

Barna Group  |  Research Analyst

Sept 2016 - Aug 2017     Atlanta, GA, USA

Consulted organizations to design market research that answers strategic questions and addresses complex organizational challenges. Designed, coded, and deployed questionnaires and tools for primary research. Analyzed client data to identify key findings through segmentation, factor, and cluster analysis.

World Vision International  |  Information & Communication Technologies for Development Intern

May 2016 - Aug 2016     Seattle, WA, USA

Evaluated mobile technology platforms for deployment in World Vision's health and financial services programs. Developed M&E toolkit for mobile health programs. Conducted Data Quality assessment for the digitization of Child Health program field records.

Pepperdine Housing & Residence Life  |  Resident Life Skills Advisor

2013-2014     Seattle, WA, USA

Fostered a healthy resident environment, counseled peers, planned and led service and engagement opportunities for residents. Created weekly written and oral reports on students of concern and housing environment.

King's College London  |  PhD, Informatics HCI

2019 - Current     London, UK

Member of the Center for Urban Science and Progress London

Assistant Teacher for Human Computer Interaction (undergraduate), Telling Stories with Data (graduate), and Simulation and Data Visualization (graduate)

CHI 2021, 2022, 2023 Student Volunteer, IEE VIS 2021, 2022, 2023 Student Volunteer, IEEE VIS 2021 Doctoral Colloquium Invitee

King's College London  |  Associateship of King's College, Distinction

2019-2022     London, UK

Original award of KCL, research-led, three-year programme of lectures that give the opportunity to explore diverse religious and cultural perspectives, alongside main programme of study

King's College London   |  MSc in Data Science, Distinction

2017-2018     London, UK

Leadership: Staff-student Liaison Committee; Data Science Social Chair

Pepperdine University  |  BSc in Mathematics, Computer Science minor

2012-2016     Malibu, CA, USA

Leadership: Pepperdine Math Club Vice President
Societies: Pi Beta Phi Leadership and Nominating Committee Chair; Panhellenic Council VP of Ethics and Morals; Pi Mu Epsilon Math Honor Society Member

Budapest Semesters in Mathematics

Spring 2015     Budapest, Hungary

Competitive international graduate school prepatory programme