When Vidhi Kothari 鶹ý25 began her journey at 鶹ý, she didn鶹ýt expect to become the founder of a startup. But what she did know, was that she wanted to create meaningful value in the world. That desire鶹ýto build, to contribute, and to empower through employment鶹ýbecame the foundation for her path as an entrepreneur, innovator, and student in Pace鶹ýs BS in Computational Economics program at the Dyson College of Arts and Sciences and the Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems.
鶹ýI realized early on that the more skin I had in the game, the more driven I became,鶹ý Vidhi said. At Pace, she found the freedom to explore a wide range of interests, from cybersecurity to finance, renewables, and healthcare. This multidisciplinary experience helped her shape her understanding of what it takes to build and innovate in the real world. Now, Vidhi is building Pigeon, a tool for developers that makes it easy to deploy AI agents to automate workflows for enterprises.
Since New York is the finance capital of the world, Vidhi naturally gravitated toward the finance industry at first as she spent summers in sales, trading, and investing. "In New York, finance is everywhere," she said. "But I didn鶹ýt want to just analyze systems鶹ýI wanted to build them."
This realization as a junior at Pace led her to pivot into tech and startups, seeking out innovation in those industries and figuring out ways to bring societal impact through them. Switching majors to Computational Economics was, in Vidhi鶹ýs words, a 鶹ýgame-changer.鶹ý The program allowed her to merge two worlds鶹ýfinance and coding鶹ýgiving her the tools to tackle complex, real-world problems through a technical lens.
The program deepened my understanding of how data drives decisions and innovation in fast-moving industries. It gave me the technical chops to thrive in the startup world.
Settled into her new major, Vidhi began examining financial incentives for energy companies in the Southeastern U.S. during a Dyson Summer Research project. But the work led her somewhere she hadn鶹ýt anticipated: cybersecurity. 鶹ýI realized that securing infrastructure was just as critical as the transition to clean energy,鶹ý Vidhi said. That insight led her to a cybersecurity class taught by Professor Joe Acampora鶹ýand eventually to an internship at Copia Automation, a Series A industrial automation startup.
In that cybersecurity course, a light bulb went off. Vidhi discovered how edge computing could secure industrial systems more efficiently than traditional cloud-based models. 鶹ýWe explored how digital twins and AI agents could detect anomalies at the edge,鶹ý she said. 鶹ýIt was a whole new way of thinking about infrastructure protection鶹ýdecentralized, reliable, and secure.鶹ý
An Applied AI course was another key experience in Vidhi鶹ýs Pace journey as her machine learning-based solar forecasting project used LSTM (Long Short-Term Memory) networks and further deepened her focus on energy optimization. The project focused on reducing energy costs, and while the group didn鶹ýt meet their original goal, it gave Vidhi invaluable insights into how inefficiencies in energy management can have real financial impact.
Vidhi鶹ýs experience across industries prepared her for what came next: launching Pigeon, a startup that helps enterprises deploy AI agents more efficiently to tackle complex challenges. The inspiration came while working at different startups, where she noticed a surprising problem:
Everyone was building AI agents鶹ýbut no one was solving how to deploy them.
A conversation with a friend at Bell Labs in Munich crystalized the potential of this opportunity, leading to the birth of Pigeon. Vidhi has a very clear idea of how this startup can change the world: 鶹ýThink Jarvis from Iron Man. Pigeon is making AI agents a reality, seamlessly integrating them into industries to automate workflows and solve problems like never before.鶹ý
Vidhi鶹ýs path from finance to tech, from student researcher to startup founder, reflects not only her personal ambition but also the kind of multidisciplinary, forward-looking education that defines a Pace Go-Getter. Along this rewarding personal journey, Vidhi鶹ýs biggest breakthrough came from realizing that true innovation doesn鶹ýt just mean pushing forward, but often requires stepping back and rethinking the problem at hand, building it from a different angles. This is a mindset that she intends to carry into all of her future projects, and that she encourages in others looking to make their mark in tech. 鶹ýTake risks. The more you invest in an idea, the more meaningful your impact will be.鶹ý
The Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems hosted the annual Seidenberg Innovation Awards (SIA) at 鶹ý鶹ýs New York City campus, bringing together leaders in technology, education, and business to recognize innovation, community impact, and the next generation of tech professionals.
The Seidenberg School鶹ýs Pace Data Science Club has been driven by a deep love for hackathons鶹ýthrilling, fast-paced competitions where innovation and teamwork collide.
Lizi Imedashvili 鶹ý26 came to 鶹ý seeking opportunity鶹ýand she鶹ýs made the most of every one. From leading student orgs to managing a student-run business, the Information Systems major has embraced leadership, experiential learning, and community.