UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Internships give students the opportunity to apply classroom knowledge in real-world settings while developing valuable professional skills. But the benefits extend beyond the students themselves, bringing fresh perspectives and expertise to the organizations that host them. That proved true for the Development and Alumni Relations team in Penn State’s College of Information Sciences and Technology (IST) when they hired undergraduate student Pratyush Mudgal as an artificial intelligence (AI) implementation consultant and prospect analyst intern.
Mudgal is a fourth-year Schreyer Scholar majoring in data sciences in the College of IST, minoring in economics in the College of the Liberal Arts and pursuing the Business Fundamentals Certificate from the Smeal College of Business.
“My internship title is a mouthful, but it basically means I get to be the person who asks, ‘What if AI could do this in 30 seconds instead of three weeks?’ and then actually builds it,” he said. “Missy Doherty, assistant director of college development, gave me a ton of room to experiment and a lot of opportunities to contribute.”
One of those opportunities — Mudgal called it his “summer obsession” — involved streamlining the process that matches IST alumni mentors with current students, and he also used the tools of AI to research the professional success and impact of graduates and help them to discover new connections with each other and with the college.
“We were so excited to have an IST student intern with us this summer,” Doherty said. “There were multiple projects we wanted to complete, and we wanted someone with a technology background to help improve our efficiency.”
Here, Mudgal described how he addressed database issues with the IST Alumni-Student Mentoring Program to help make it easier to pair alumni with current students.
The problem
“The Development and Alumni Relations team was dealing with a real data bottleneck,” Mudgal said.
Alumni who have volunteered to serve as mentors provide information about their experience and interests, but pairing them with the right students has been a slow process.
“A team member had to personally create these matches, which took more than three weeks every semester the program ran," Mudgal said. "That's valuable time that could have been used on other projects and ideas.”
The solution
Mudgal built “IST MatchHub,” an AI matching tool that took the alumni-to-student mentor pairing process from weeks to seconds.
“Utilizing Claude [a generative AI assistant] to help with coding, I developed a prototype inspired by conversations I had with the team about what they might want a solution to look like,” he said. “Then I created a feedback loop to continue improving the user experience and the quality of the outputs.”
The results
The project kept mentor information secure while efficiently and effectively pairing alumni with students.
“It turned out to be a good contribution as it frees up a lot of time for the team,” Mudgal said. “The Alumni-Student Mentoring Program is super useful and such a great way for students to network and learn more about career opportunities, and now the process is sped up and more efficient so the students can get in touch sooner!”
Mudgal optimized other efforts, too, including finding up-to-date career information about recent graduates on public platforms like LinkedIn and connecting attendees in real time at events based on information they supplied, creating “virtual business cards” and helping interactions to feel even more meaningful. The team will carry forward work he has started to offer customized information about giving opportunities in the college.
What's next
As Mudgal wrapped up his internship, he reflected on his experience and his hopes for the future of the work he did over the summer.
“Bigger picture, my hope is that these tools stick around long after I'm gone and become how Development makes the most of their time and resources while creating great connection points for alumni and donors!” he said. “I've always just wanted to get hands-on experience solving a real-world problem and making a contribution through that.”
Doherty said she was pleased that Mudgal made such a great impact over such a short amount of time. So was Tom Maatta, director of IST’s Office of Development and Alumni Relations, who said he believes that these projects, especially sourcing alumni achievements from LinkedIn, could be replicated in other units across the University and beyond.
“Having one of our own students bring their tech savvy to our team was a game-changer,” Maatta said. “From day one, his perspective saw new areas for improvement and the value of his skills was apparent. I'm proud to have had him as a member of our team and look forward to sharing his good work in the hope that it might open doors for our students throughout Penn State and around the world!”
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