Mary Beatrice Dias is a Ph.D. student in the Engineering and Public Policy Department at Carnegie Mellon University. She was born and raised in Sri Lanka and went on to earn her undergraduate degree from Hamilton College in Clinton, New York, with concentrations in Mathematics and Physics. Following college, she worked as an actuarial analyst with CIGNA Insurance in Philadelphia before moving to Pittsburgh for graduate school. Her initial graduate research work involved measuring the effects of the USAPATRIOT Act and the Bioterrorism Preparedness Act on select agent research in the U.S. Ms. Dias is currently conducting research in the field of Information Communication Technology for Development in collaboration with TechBridgeWorld, a research group based out of CMU. She also volunteers as a student representative on TechBridgeWorld’s Executive Board. Her research focus is on evaluating how technology affects underserved communities in different parts of the world.