Christini Earns Krulcik Scholarship
Marylee WilliamsTuesday, February 10, 2026Print this page.
After Cole Christini experimented with the open-world computer game Minecraft as a kid, he went on to make his own computer games with friends. Then he built an alarm clock in a physical computing class, learned Mandarin, delved into history coursework, and did research into augmented reality for medicine at Cornell. All before he even enrolled in Carnegie Mellon University's School of Computer Science (SCS).
Now, with graduation from the Computer Science Department (CSD) on the horizon, he's earned this year's Scott Robert Krulcik Scholarship in Computer Science.
Founded in 2019 by the Krulcik family to honor their son, the merit-based Krulcik Scholarship acknowledges and rewards a current SCS undergraduate who demonstrates the core traits, attitude and approach that Scott Krulcik (SCS 2018) embodied: a leader with a positive attitude, an insightful and compassionate scholar, an innovative contributor to the SCS community, and an inspiring peer mentor.
Christini said he didn't know what to expect when he decided to apply to SCS, particularly because his high school didn't have grades and he spent a lot of time obsessed with history courses. But when he stepped foot in the Gates-Hillman Center, he knew he would attend CMU.
"SCS is obviously a good computer science program, but when I came and toured, it felt like home in a way I didn't experience at the other schools I was considering," Christini said. "Part of it, I think, is that I didn't come on an organized day for admitted students. I saw the campus as it was. I wandered into Tom Cortina's office, and we just talked and he was really welcoming."
Cortina, associate dean for undergraduate programs in SCS, went on to advise Christini, who credits Cortina for helping make his time at CMU so transformative. In fact, Christini still makes a point of stopping by Cortina's office a few times a week just to say hi. Other CSD faculty members who helped shape his time at CMU include Professor Danny Sleator; Mor Harchol-Balter, the Bruce J. Nelson Professor of Computer Science; and Assistant Teaching Professor Daniel Anderson.
Christini said when he started his freshman year in SCS, he needed to learn how to study for the rigor of exams at CMU. But he felt supported every step of the way.
"Everyone at SCS cares about your success, which I don't think is necessarily true everywhere," he said. "From your TAs to your professors to your advisers, they are invested in making sure you do well and you have the resources you need. I think one of the reasons is that SCS is not that big. My high school graduating class was only 86 people and most of my classes were only like 20, and SCS feels similar. Everyone cares about you as a person, which I think really helps, especially when you're adjusting from high school to college."
SCS also offered Christini the chance to explore his interests. He said he always liked science and math, but he didn't want to be locked into one area of study. Computer science gave him the flexibility to learn and create.
Christini initially thought he wanted to focus on computational biology, in part because his father works in that area. But over the years, his academic interests have broadened into parallel algorithms and image generation. His fascination with algorithms flourished in 15-210: Parallel and Sequential Data Structures and Algorithms, so he decided to keep learning through teaching. He's now in his fourth semester as a TA for the class, and his third as head TA. Even though he never did any teaching before CMU — beyond a short stint as a camp counselor to kindergarteners — his love for the material keeps him in the classroom.
"For me, it all came down to being passionate about the course content," he said. "So I decided to apply to be a TA, and I just committed to doing my best. My hope was that I'd get to teach, help other people understand the content and hope they can learn to enjoy it like I do."
That openness to learning and exploring helped Christini realize he wants to make models work faster. He also wants to use his interest in machine learning to improve and speed up the design of molecules for drug discovery.
"I'm interested in how we can use machine learning and computer science to discover new drugs much more efficiently," he said. "I find this a really interesting problem to solve because there are a lot of challenges to modeling biology and chemistry in a way that doesn't cost hundreds of thousands of dollars."
Christini graduates in May, when he'll move to the Bay Area to do research with startups in AI. When he found out he earned the Krulcik Scholarship, he said it was a shock.
"You know, after years of being at CMU, this scholarship feels like a culmination of my effort," he said. "But with TAing and studying, I believe the journey to get there is the reward — seeing the growth both in yourself and in the students."
Aaron Aupperlee | 412-268-9068 | aaupperlee@cmu.edu