The Class of 2025 graduates into a moment of change and opportunity 

Photos by Ruby Wallau.

On May 18, 2025, a crowd of over 800 gathered in the California Theater in downtown San Jose, CA. Of the 363 students who graduated from the Silicon Valley campus in the 2024–2025 academic year, nearly two thirds appeared in person to celebrate together. Arriving with them under the historic marquee were spouses, parents and grandparents, young children, and friends from all over the world.  

The venue, just a short walk from campus, is an homage to the first wave of technology that California rode to international prominence. Built in 1927 — the same year as the release of the first “talkie” movie — the former cinema “palace” has soaring ceilings and is filled with ornate details. In recent years it has been restored and expanded as the home of the San Jose Opera and San Jose Symphony.  

It was a perfect setting to celebrate the achievements of the class, whose graduate school experience has overlapped with the beginning of another new technology boom. With newly earned degrees in computer science, data science, information systems, analytics, and project management, the Class of 2025 is poised to jump into a moment of change and opportunity. 

“You’re entering a world that’s moving at astonishing speed.” 

The crowd was addressed by keynote speaker Rama Akkiraju, a visionary in the field of artificial intelligence. She is currently the Vice President of AI & Automation, IT at NVIDIA. During more than 20 years of leadership at IBM prior to joining NVIDIA, she was most recently CTO for IBM Watson AIOps and was recognized as an IBM Fellow, Master Inventor, and IBM Academy Member. She has co-authored over 100 technical papers and over 50 patents, and has been named to Forbes’ “Top 20 Women in AI Research” and Fortune Magazine’s “A-Team in AI,” amongst others. 

And yet, she reminded the audience, when she first began working at IBM Research, she found her daily walk by the IBM Fellows portrait wall “awe-inspiring — and slightly terrifying.” Populated by inventors, computing innovators, and even Nobel Prize winners, the “Wall of Fame” was a catalogue of lofty achievements.  

Rama Akkiraju delivering her remarks

Although she did not yet know that she would one day be featured on that same wall, she did know that she could choose to be intimidated or to rise up. “Their work lit a fire in me,” she said. “It made me want to go beyond my own expectations… The people I surrounded myself with, the excellence I witnessed up close, pulled me toward a version of myself I hadn’t yet envisioned.” 

Akkiraju encouraged the class to make the same choice: to be inspired, not daunted. And she offered three concrete principles to follow: 

“Find your inspiration.”

She told the audience to deliberately surround themselves with people who challenge them and push them to raise their standards, whether “mentors, colleagues, leaders, even peers.” Each person follows those that inspire them, and in turn becomes an inspiration for someone else. 

“Stay curious, learn continuously.”

Reflecting on her decades of work in artificial intelligence, Akkiraju noted that even as an expert, the changes in her field over the past ten years were beyond what anyone could have predicted. It is the “ability to adapt, to stay curious, to keep evolving” that allows a person to continue participating in progress.  

To that end, she advised, “Make learning a daily habit. Read broadly. Explore fearlessly. Lean into topics that stretch your thinking, especially those outside your comfort zone. Because innovation so often happens at the intersection of disciplines. And in today’s world, relevance isn’t earned once – it’s renewed, again and again.” 

“Be your authentic self — and be human.”

Akkiraju’s work has made significant contributions to the advancement of AI in areas that span the human-computer relationship: personality insights, speech recognition, natural language processing, decision support systems, and many more. Better than most, she understands the ways in which new technologies may integrate into previously human processes.  

But she emphasized that a unique point of view is something that cannot be replaced. “Machines can optimize. But they cannot care. They cannot empathize. They cannot uphold values or demonstrate integrity in the same way we can. Your authenticity, your lived experience, your ethical compass, your ability to collaborate, to uplift others, to stay humble in success and gracious in failure — that is your differentiator. “ 

“The world doesn’t need another imitation.” 

Student speaker Purvish Thakkar also used his time at the podium to celebrate the value of the many individual journeys that brought the class together. “That’s the magic of a truly global community—when diverse perspectives collide, we spark new ideas, learn from one another, and push ourselves in ways we never thought possible.” 

He shared his own experience of pursuing engineering as an undergraduate as a “safe choice,” but feeling disconnected, as though building “a future someone else had designed.” With a pivot to architecture and then building on that with an MS in Project Management, he found a career path that felt like it belonged truly to himself. 

Student speaker Purvish Thakkar addresses his classmates

“Life isn’t about avoiding unexpected turns—it’s about understanding their hidden potential,” Thakkar shared with his fellow graduates. “It’s in these unplanned detours that we often discover who we truly are, what we genuinely value, and how we can uniquely contribute to the world.” 

He encouraged the class to embrace their own authentic paths, and to “cultivate genuine community wherever you go.” And he shared a moment of recognition for their support networks, the “parents, siblings, friends, partners who stuck by us when our vision was shaky, but our dreams were loud.” 

The platform party gathering for a photo before the ceremony

Conferring of honors 

Three students were inducted into the Laurel and Scroll 100, a Society of Distinction for selected graduate students. Inductees are chosen for their achievements across the spheres of academic accomplishment, campus impact, community service, entrepreneurship and innovation, and leadership.  

Student speaker Purvish Thakkar was selected from the College of Professional Studies; he was joined by Yang Jiang, who earned her MS in Information Systems from the College of Engineering, and Harshika Santoshi, who earned her MS in Data Science from the Khoury College of Computer Sciences.  

The honorees were presented with a symbolic red stole and society pin by Vice Provost for Graduate Education Waleed Meleis. The Vice Provost also commemorated Rama Akkiraju’s keynote speech with an official citation from Northeastern President Joseph E. Aoun. 

Regional Dean Caroline Simard with Harshika Santoshi, Purvish Thakkar, and Yang Jiang, Laurel and Scroll 100 honorees

“Don’t wait for the ‘perfect’ plan.” 

The graduates were each invited to the stage to be formally recognized for their achievements. Senior Vice President of Global Network and Strategic Initiatives Mary Ludden, Vice Provost Meleis, Regional Dean Caroline Simard, Associate Dean Dawn Girardelli, Associate Dean of the Global Engineering Campus (College of Engineering) Stefano Basagni, Senior Associate Dean of the Khoury College of Computer Sciences Alan Mislove, and Associate Dean of the College of Professional Studies Uwe Hohgrawe participated in the conferral of degrees. 

Alumna Isha Thakkar welcomes the graduates to the alumni community

And to welcome the new class into the global alumni community, Isha Thakkar took the stage. A Laurel and Scroll honoree from the Silicon Valley Class of 2024, she shared the last piece of advice for the day. 

In a reflection that also aligned with Akkiraju’s earlier guidance, Thakkar encouraged the graduates not to let their ambition weigh them down under indecision. 

“Start where you are, with what you have, and trust that you’ll figure out the rest along the way,” she told the audience. “You will keep evolving—and that’s a good thing.”