Adya Daruka

​Adya is a freshman majoring in Computer Science at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, where she is a Chancellor's Scholar and a participant in the CS STARS program. She has conducted research on leveraging AI to develop climate-smart rice varieties and enhance sustainable energy solutions. As co-founder of the Hamara Prayas Foundation, Adya has raised nearly $2,000 to build a blood bank in Begusarai, India, and coordinated two local blood drives. Recently, her team won the Fan Favorite Prize at HackIllinois 2025 for developing Minti, an AI-integrated budgeting tool. ​