Shorya Miglani '26: Building Community, and Engineering Hope

"Computer Science interested me in the same way art did" Shorya Miglani '26 said. "Everything I need to get started and build something truly impactful is right there on my laptop. You don't need any special tools, just the drive to create."

A senior graduating from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's College of Engineering with a degree in computer science and a minor in graphic design, Miglani has spent his undergraduate career proving that technical precision and creative expression are complementary sides of the same coin. Whether developing enterprise software in industry, campus productions, rebuilding a university sports club, or engineering high impact software platforms, Miglani's path has been defined by proactive initiative.

“The more you weigh, the harder you are to kidnap. Stay safe, eat cake”

Finding computer science an unexpected door

Miglani's academic trajectory didn't follow a rigid straight line. Entering UMass Dartmouth, he initially enrolled in the Animation and Game Arts program before transitioning into Graphic Design. Yet, as his curiosity for interactive systems grew, he made the deliberate shift to Computer Science, turning graphic design into a complementary minor

Rather than abandoning his artistic background, he merged it with software engineering, approaching user interfaces, technical architectures, and problem-solving with an eye for both form and functionality.

"Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one," Miglani said. "Every pivot gave me another lens to look at problems through. No man can walk out of his own story—you take every skill and background you’ve built forward with you."

Campus Culture and Hands-On Experience

Miglani’s impact quickly spread beyond lecture halls. Seeking an active outlet outside the lab, he took on the challenge of revitalizing the university's club volleyball team. Starting with practically zero active members, Miglani recruited peers, established consistent practice schedules, and built up a dedicated roster from scratch—ultimately leading the team to compete in collegiate tournaments by his senior year.

Simultaneously, Miglani joined UMass Dartmouth Technical Services as an audio engineer, running live sound production and managing cue sequences for performances, panel discussions, and campus events.

These campus contributions ran parallel to high-stakes professional software development. Over multiple summers, Miglani interned as a software development engineer at eClinicalWorks, working directly with healthcare systems and cybersecurity infrastructure. There, he developed and tested production-grade tools, gaining firsthand experience in building secure, resilient data pipelines for complex organizations.

Engineering Solutions for Animal Rescue: The Pawhub

That problem-solving mindset took center stage during Miglani's senior capstone project. Rather than building a theoretical application inside the classroom, Miglani chose to look outward, making regular visits to animal shelters and rescue organizations near campus to learn about their daily operations firsthand.

Through those conversations, he discovered a critical gap in rescue logistics. While shelters across Massachusetts had families eager to adopt, they frequently took in dogs from overcrowded southern shelters that faced heartbreaking space shortages. Yet the dedicated volunteers moving these animals thousands of miles were coordinating long-distance journeys using chaotic group chats and tangled spreadsheets, risking errors and slowing down relocations.

"Other animals live in the present. Humans cannot, so they invented hope," Miglani said. "Seeing the challenges these volunteers were up against made it clear this wasn't just a paperwork headache—it was a logistical hurdle where technology could genuinely save lives."

Determined to make a difference, Miglani rallied his capstone team to build The PawHub, an intuitive web platform designed to streamline cross-country pet transit. Developed directly around the practical needs of the rescues he visited, the tool simplifies how shelters post animals, plan multi-leg travel routes, schedule driver handoffs, and manage logistics safely.

Today, real animal rescue organizations are actively using the platform to coordinate transport efforts and move more dogs into loving homes faster.

"Counting the things you’ve lost won’t help, count the things you have left," Miglani said. "Being able to sit down with people on the front lines of rescue, listen to what they were struggling with, and hand them a working tool that takes the stress out of their mission has been the most rewarding thing I’ve built."

Advice for new students

Miglani encourages incoming UMass Dartmouth students to lean into every opportunity:

"Explore and use as many campus resources as you can—why not, right?" he said. "You are probably going to find lots of new paths to explore that you never expected. Don’t worry about whether you can or not, do it because you want to."