For Diya Uthaiah, the data is in the details.
Her interest in data is what drove her to pursue computer science as a student in India. It's how she got her first professional role at an IT firm, and it's why she decided to get her master's in informatics in the U.S. 
鈥淚 was fascinated by how you can get a lot of insights from a small amount of detail,鈥 says Uthaiah. 鈥淓verything's dependent on data technology."
Uthaiah chose the master's in informatics at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. The University began offering the first graduate informatics degree in the state in 2018 and now offers the degree both 100% online and on campus.
Uthaiah reached out to informatics graduate program coordinator Dr. Michael Totaro while researching universities. Dr. Totaro gave her an overview of the program faculty and what she would be studying: data analysis and visualization, database management, cloud computing, app development, data mining and business intelligence.
That insight solidified UL Lafayette as the right choice for Uthaiah鈥檚 informatics degree. She enrolled shortly after the program began in 2018. She says she gained knowledge through her coursework and from the knowledgeable faculty.
鈥淥ne important class that I really enjoyed was data visualization with R programming,鈥 says Uthaiah. R is a popular computing language for developing software for data analysis and visualizations.
鈥淚 hadn鈥檛 done a course using R before, so that helped me a lot and is helping me in my current job.鈥
Upon completing her master鈥檚 in 2020, Uthaiah began her role as field system analyst at Cintra 鈥 a leading private-sector transportation infrastructure company based in Austin, Texas. She says her position is the culmination of her professional and academic experience.
鈥淭he M.S in Informatics helped me, has molded me, and has made me the person that I am,鈥 says Uthaiah.