Dryft’s Post

There are people you interview. And then there are people who start solving your problem halfway through the conversation. Julianna Schneider is the second kind. And I couldn’t be happier to have her join Dryft. Like many of our team members, Julia started building early. In her teens, she competed in 𝐅𝐈𝐑𝐒𝐓 𝐑𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬, where she led a national team to place 2𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 196 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬 at the FIRST Global Challenge. Julia recently graduated early from MIT with a double major in 𝐀𝐫𝐭𝐢𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 & 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐨𝐧-𝐌𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐌𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐬. At the MIT Biomimetic Robotics Lab, she worked on the 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐂𝐡𝐞𝐞𝐭𝐚𝐡, 𝐡𝐮𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐫𝐨𝐛𝐨𝐭𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐝𝐜𝐨𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐬, developing reinforcement learning systems and hybrid learning- and model-based controllers. Before Dryft, she built AI systems across NVIDIA, Lockheed Martin, and NASA - National Aeronautics and Space Administration, working on vision-language models, autonomous navigation for helicopters, and disease forecasting. Her work earned national recognition as a 𝐔.𝐒. 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐚𝐥 𝐒𝐜𝐡𝐨𝐥𝐚𝐫 (𝐭𝐨𝐩 0.004% 𝐨𝐟 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐞𝐧𝐢𝐨𝐫𝐬), Hertz Fellowship Finalist, Astronaut Scholar, Neo Scholar finalist, and 3× AIAA Scholar. If you’re wondering whether this list could get any longer...Julia also competed 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐬 𝐚 𝐜𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐬𝐭 (she says this is her 'fun fact', but I'm not sure if we can count that ;) ) Most importantly, though, she’s a genuinely kind and thoughtful person. At Dryft, Julia joins as an AI Research Engineer, working at the intersection of agents and mathematical optimization. Welcome aboard, Julia. 🚢