I am currently a second-year Ph.D. student in Industrial Engineering at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and I am advised by Muge Capan. My research is focused on understanding health inequities that prevent vulnerable populations from timely access to healthcare and lead to certain communities experiencing a disproportionate burden of sickness or death. I develop analytical and computational models to risk-stratify disadvantaged populations for resource allocation and targeted interventions. Additionally, my current work examines how variations in patient populations and geographical factors influence diagnostic errors and resource distribution in primary care settings.

Prior to joining the University of Massachusetts Amherst, I graduated from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign with a BS and MS in Aerospace Engineering.

Here is my CV.

Journal Publications

• Analysis of Multi-level Barriers to Physical Activity Among Nursing Students Using Regularized Regression
  Muge Capan, Lily Bigelow, Yukti Kathuria, Amanda Paluch, and Joohyun Chung.
  PLOS One.

Conference Presentations and Publications

• An Order-Based Bayesian Network for analyzing Diagnostic Delays and Type 2 Diabetes related health outcomes in Primary Care
  Yukti Kathuria, Kristen Miller, Elizabeth Selden, William Gallagher, Laura Schubel, Sonita Bennett, Muge Capan.
  INFORMS Annual Conference 2025.

• Analysis of Social Determinants of Health To Risk-Stratify Type 2 Diabetes Pathways
  Yukti Kathuria, Muge Capan, Sonita Bennett, Kristen Miller, Elizabeth Selden, William Gallagher.
  INFORMS Annual Conference 2024.

• Multi-Criteria Clinic Allocation in Massachusetts to Reduce Access to Healthcare Disparities
  Yukti Kathuria, Muge Capan, Jessica Boakye and Chaitra Gopalappa.
  Proceedings of the IISE Annual Conference & Expo 2024.

Poster Presentations

• An Order-Based Bayesian Network to Analyze Diagnostic Delay and Type 2 Diabetes-Related Outcomes.
  Yukti Kathuria, Muge Capan, Kristen Miller, Elizabeth Selden, William Gallagher.
  INFORMS MIF Student Poster Competition October 28, 2025

• Analysis of Post-Diagnosis Follow-up Processes in Primary Care using Bayesian Networks.
  Yukti Kathuria, Muge Capan, Sonita Bennett, Kristen Miller, Elizabeth Selden, William Gallagher.
  UMass LIRA Workshop May 12, 2025

• Analysis of Diagnostic Error Risk Factors and Resource Needs in Primary Care Using Bayesian Networks.
  Yukti Kathuria, Muge Capan, Sonita Bennett, Kristen Miller, Elizabeth Selden, William Gallagher.
  UMass Amherst College of Engineering Graduate Research Symposium March 11, 2025

• Multi-level factors of Physical Health and Well-being in Nursing Profession.
  Muge Capan, Amanda Paluch, Joohyun Chung, Yukti Kathuria, Lily Bigelow.
  EMCNEI Symposium October 20, 2023

Academic Service

• Paper Reviewer for IISE Annual Conference (2025)
  

Fellowship and Awards

• Inaugural UMass Leadership Fellow (Fall 2025-Spring 2027)
  Selected as 1 of 24 fellows (out of 193 applicants) for the NSF-funded Leadership Fellow Program, focused on developing leadership, mentorship, and institutional change skills in academia.

• UMass Amherst Departmental Murthy Fellowship (Fall 2025-Spring 2026)
  This award, which is given to an outstanding student for academic excellence, provides financial support for your research pursuits next academic year.

• Second Place Team, IISE Data Analytics and Information Systems Division Student Analytics Competition (June 2025)
  The Data Analytics Competition is an annual student competition organized by the Data Analytics and Information Systems (DAIS) Division of the Institute of Industrial and Systems Engineers (IISE). This year's competition is Nursing Home Time-Series Data Prediction Triathlon. The main objective of the competition is to provide the students with the opportunity to learn, showcase, and enhance their data analysis and visualization skills through working on real-world problems with real-sized data sets.

• Winning Team, TAG Master Modeler Competition (2024)
  This multilevel, multidisciplinary data science competition for BOTH academics and practitioners is intended to fight addiction, fuel recovery, and encourage healthy family lives. Master Modeler Competition 2024 requires the application of the INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional framework and domains for problem solving to provide Davis Direction Foundation and other related nonprofits meaningful insights, models, and solutions to make a societal impact.

• UMass Amherst MIE Department Fellowship (Spring 2024)
  This award provided financial support for research pursuits for one semester.

Activities

• Blog Manager, UMass INFORMS Blog (2023, 2024).
  
• UMass MIE Graduate Leadership Council (2023, 2024).
  
• UMass MIE Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee (Fall 2024).