Blab Tech
Virginia Tech Engineering Education PhD Leads to Amazon Leadership in AI and Creator Economy
From lecture halls to Amazon’s advertising labs, Sreyoshi Bhaduri’s career demonstrates how Virginia Tech’s interdisciplinary engineering education can propel a professional from academia into the heart of the creator economy.
Bhaduri earned her Ph.D. in engineering education from Virginia Tech in 2018 and has since moved into a senior applied‑science role at Amazon. In 2024 she received the Society of Women Engineers Distinguished New Engineer award, and she now heads a team of scientists, economists and engineers that designs algorithms for personalized social advertising and tools that help content creators monetize their work.
Her academic path is marked by three master’s degrees—mechanical engineering (2013, 2017) and applied statistics (2018)—before completing her doctorate. Her dissertation merged machine learning, natural language processing and mixed‑methods research to examine how engineering education systems function, and the findings were published in the International Journal of Engineering Education in 2021.
Bhaduri’s interest in engineering education sparked during a Global Perspectives Program Fellowship in Europe, organized by then‑vice president and dean for graduate education Karen DePauw. While traveling from Switzerland to the U.S., she expressed a desire to investigate what it takes to be an engineer and to pursue a Ph.D. on that topic. DePauw encouraged her to apply, and Bhaduri was accepted that same year.
Virginia Tech’s engineering education program is deliberately interdisciplinary. It introduces first‑year engineering students to fundamentals and the various majors in the College of Engineering, while the Ph.D. cohort—about 50 students at a time—can tailor coursework across the university. The program’s website notes that students are encouraged to take courses outside the engineering school to broaden their research perspectives.
After earning her doctorate, Bhaduri joined McGraw Hill, a global education company with roughly 4,500 employees. There she applied her mixed‑methods training to a data‑driven initiative aimed at understanding the company’s workforce, contextualizing data within complex human and organizational dynamics.
In 2021 a recruiter from Amazon reached out to Bhaduri, prompting her move from New York City to Arlington, Virginia. Over the past five years she has worked on three different Amazon teams. Her current role blends machine learning, product development and generative AI strategy, focusing on the creator economy and performance marketing.
Bhaduri credits her Virginia Tech background for enabling the transition from education analytics to product and advertising technology. She notes that the technical depth, sensitivity to sociocultural factors and system‑design skills honed during her doctoral studies translate directly to the challenges of building products for social media and influencer marketing.
The Department of Engineering Education celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2026. While many graduates pursue academic careers, an increasing number are finding opportunities in industry, government and nonprofit sectors. Department head Ed Berger highlighted Bhaduri as an example of a graduate who brings a broad technical skill set and a sensitivity to sociocultural elements to the workplace.
Bhaduri remains active at Virginia Tech, serving on the engineering education advisory board and on Ph.D. dissertation committees. She has also been involved with the Society of Women Engineers, receiving the Distinguished New Engineer award in 2024.
As of July 2026, Bhaduri continues to lead teams that build products for Amazon’s creators and social platforms. Her trajectory illustrates how Virginia Tech’s engineering education program equips students to apply research skills to complex, real‑world systems beyond academia, underscoring a broader trend in which interdisciplinary training prepares graduates for the intersection of technology, data and human systems in industry settings.
Bhaduri earned her Ph.D. in engineering education from Virginia Tech in 2018 and has since moved into a senior applied‑science role at Amazon. In 2024 she received the Society of Women Engineers Distinguished New Engineer award, and she now heads a team of scientists, economists and engineers that designs algorithms for personalized social advertising and tools that help content creators monetize their work.
Her academic path is marked by three master’s degrees—mechanical engineering (2013, 2017) and applied statistics (2018)—before completing her doctorate. Her dissertation merged machine learning, natural language processing and mixed‑methods research to examine how engineering education systems function, and the findings were published in the International Journal of Engineering Education in 2021.
Bhaduri’s interest in engineering education sparked during a Global Perspectives Program Fellowship in Europe, organized by then‑vice president and dean for graduate education Karen DePauw. While traveling from Switzerland to the U.S., she expressed a desire to investigate what it takes to be an engineer and to pursue a Ph.D. on that topic. DePauw encouraged her to apply, and Bhaduri was accepted that same year.
Virginia Tech’s engineering education program is deliberately interdisciplinary. It introduces first‑year engineering students to fundamentals and the various majors in the College of Engineering, while the Ph.D. cohort—about 50 students at a time—can tailor coursework across the university. The program’s website notes that students are encouraged to take courses outside the engineering school to broaden their research perspectives.
After earning her doctorate, Bhaduri joined McGraw Hill, a global education company with roughly 4,500 employees. There she applied her mixed‑methods training to a data‑driven initiative aimed at understanding the company’s workforce, contextualizing data within complex human and organizational dynamics.
In 2021 a recruiter from Amazon reached out to Bhaduri, prompting her move from New York City to Arlington, Virginia. Over the past five years she has worked on three different Amazon teams. Her current role blends machine learning, product development and generative AI strategy, focusing on the creator economy and performance marketing.
Bhaduri credits her Virginia Tech background for enabling the transition from education analytics to product and advertising technology. She notes that the technical depth, sensitivity to sociocultural factors and system‑design skills honed during her doctoral studies translate directly to the challenges of building products for social media and influencer marketing.
The Department of Engineering Education celebrated its 20th anniversary in 2026. While many graduates pursue academic careers, an increasing number are finding opportunities in industry, government and nonprofit sectors. Department head Ed Berger highlighted Bhaduri as an example of a graduate who brings a broad technical skill set and a sensitivity to sociocultural elements to the workplace.
Bhaduri remains active at Virginia Tech, serving on the engineering education advisory board and on Ph.D. dissertation committees. She has also been involved with the Society of Women Engineers, receiving the Distinguished New Engineer award in 2024.
As of July 2026, Bhaduri continues to lead teams that build products for Amazon’s creators and social platforms. Her trajectory illustrates how Virginia Tech’s engineering education program equips students to apply research skills to complex, real‑world systems beyond academia, underscoring a broader trend in which interdisciplinary training prepares graduates for the intersection of technology, data and human systems in industry settings.
