Madeline Navea '25
Drexel’s College of Computing & Informatics (CCI) congratulates Madeline Navea, psychology '25, a junior minoring in data science, as the recipient of the prestigious 2025 Barry Goldwater Scholarship.
According to Navea, “The National Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship is a prestigious, national scholarship awarded to undergraduate researchers with the potential to make significant contributions in the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields! Out of nearly 5,000 overall applicants, 441 (8.8%) scholars have been selected for this prestigious award.”
The scholarship provides funding for the final year or two of undergraduate study.
Navea plans to dedicate her remaining time at Drexel to furthering her research in applying “mathematical and computational models to understand the dynamic nature of underlying mechanisms of self-injurious behaviors (e.g., non-suicidal self-injury and eating disorder behaviors),” she said.
“Ultimately, I hope to predict these behaviors in real-time using deep learning models, to reduce suicide rates,” Navea said.
The academic and experiential learning opportunities at Drexel have helped Navea carry out this work, building “the skills to work with complex data structures, including hierarchical data, and to independently carry out advanced computational analyses (e.g., prediction analyses, multilevel models, dynamic structural equation models),” she said.
Accordingly, Navea has taken data science classes at CCI, earning a minor to complement her research work:
“My data science classes have helped significantly in terms of learning various programs like Python and R, and for translating that knowledge into practical, real-world applications. This foundation has helped me earn awards like the Goldwater Scholarship and the Research Mini-Grant, opportunities to present at numerous research conferences and begin working on publications!” she said.
Currently, Navea is working on her senior thesis, which involves a dynamic structural equation model on self-injurious urges and behaviors, according to the Pennoni Honors College. Her innovative approach and commitment to advancing the field of data science in psychology highlight Navea’s potential as a future leader in research.
For the third consecutive year, a student from Drexel's College of Computing & Informatics has been awarded the prestigious Barry Goldwater Scholarship. In 2024, Abe Jeyapratap (BS computer science and mathematics '25) received the honor, following Stefan Wagner (BS computer science and mathematics '24), who was recognized in 2023.