I spent the last week in Washington, D.C. for the IEEE International Conference on Data Mining (ICDM) 2025. Besides soaking in the keynotes, I presented our latest paper on SPOT, helped as a volunteer, and collected a long list of notes for future projects. A few highlights:

• SPOT presentation. Sharing this work with the data-mining community led to several thoughtful hallway conversations. The feedback was great motivation for the next iteration.
• NSF Student Travel Award. Huge thanks to the organizers for the support—it made the trip possible.
• Volunteering & networking. The volunteer shifts were unexpectedly fun; I met folks from NC State, GWU, University of Houston, and more. Conferences are always better when you know people in every room.
• Mini food tour of D.C. Ethiopian, French, Russian, and a handful of other cuisines all in four days. D.C. feels cleaner and more organized than most US cities I have visited, but the diversity in food might be my favorite part.

Snapshots from around the Capitol to remember the trip:

Already looking forward to the next chance to present and reconnect with this community.