Avion Data Scientist Caroline Rinks is making waves in the world of artificial intelligence and distributed systems research. This year, her work was published in the 2025 Proceedings of the International Symposium on Object-Oriented Real-Time Distributed Computing (ISORC)—a global conference founded by IEEE to explore real-time object-oriented distributed technology.

With this year’s theme, “Resilient and Intelligent Real-Time Systems for a Hyperconnected World,” ISORC challenges researchers to design systems that are adaptive, secure, dependable, and sustainable. Caroline’s co-authored paper contributes directly to that vision.

“Our paper presents a model-driven tool that automates the provisioning and configuration of resources on federated cloud environments,” Caroline explained. “As distributed systems grow in size and complexity, researchers need automated tools like this to quickly design and experiment with complex network topologies. This work is helping make that possible.”

Caroline’s journey to Avion began with a strong academic foundation in computer science and artificial intelligence. She earned both her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Computer Science—first from the University of Tennessee (May 2023) and later from Vanderbilt University (Spring 2025), where she concentrated in AI. During her graduate studies, she explored algorithms for decision-making, deep learning and reinforcement learning methods, and software-defined techniques for distributed systems.

Her research career already includes multiple publications. Earlier this year, Caroline was published with the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI), presenting a novel natural language processing framework for detecting abuse.

Caroline joined Avion as an intern in May 2024, she worked on the AI Project Team in developing internal Large Language Model (LLM) web applications. She later supported the creation of a similar LLM tool for the Corpus Christi Army Depot (CCAD) to help engineers quickly retrieve maintenance data. Following her graduation, , Caroline transitioned into a full-time role as a Data Scientist in June 2025, continuing the innovative work she began as a student researcher.

She has continued pushing Avion’s AI initiatives forward—helping develop an AI-Assisted Coding tool for developers and a multi-agent system designed to process documents more efficiently.

“I enjoy developing tools that apply data-driven methods to help myself and others tackle complex and typically time-consuming tasks,” Caroline shared.

Caroline’s drive for innovation, curiosity, and collaboration reflect the spirit of Avion’s mission to deliver smarter solutions for complex challenges. We’re proud to have her on the team and can’t wait to see what she builds next.