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Recursive fractal algorithms may not sound romantic, but they launched the love story of Jade Kandel and Angelos Angelopoulos, doctoral students in the UNC College of Arts and Sciences鈥� computer science department.

The two met at Kandel鈥檚 orientation in August 2022. Angelopoulos had accompanied his newly admitted friend Spiros Tsalikis to the event and wound up talking to other new students, including Kandel.

When Kandel mentioned her love for using a recursive fractal algorithm to draw tree silhouettes, Angelopoulos described how he used the algorithm and his creations.

鈥淲e share so much enthusiasm, energy and passion about computer science that chatting about those things made us click,鈥� Kandel said.

Angelopoulos immediately hatched a plan to advance the relationship. The next day, he had his roommate Akshay Paruchuri invite Kandel to a game night at their apartment.

鈥淭hat game night was a complete set-up organized with Spiros,鈥� Angelopoulos said. 鈥淚 told Spiros, 鈥榃e鈥檙e hosting board games and inviting a bunch of people,鈥� but the actual person of interest was Jade.鈥�

The two conspired to always put Kandel and Angelopoulos on the same team. For one card game, Kemps, Angelopoulos said, 鈥淪piros wingmanned us to be teammates. You needed a secret code to indicate to your partner when you had four in a row.鈥�

Kandel caught on quickly. 鈥淪piros says, 鈥楢ngelos, move across the table to be teammates with Jade.鈥� I thought, 鈥楾hat seems a little inconvenient, but I鈥檓 happy to work with Angelos.鈥� We did and it was fun.鈥�

Soon the two were spending as much time together as possible.

Kandel, in her third year of the doctoral program, focuses on developing data visualization and augmented reality systems to enhance healthcare. She created PD-Insighter, a system combining desktop and augmented reality. It enables clinicians to analyze Parkinson鈥檚 disease patients鈥� in-home movement patterns over time and help with decision making. She hopes to teach at a university after graduation.

鈥淭he interdisciplinary nature is a big reason why I love research. I鈥檓 collaborating with medical experts. I鈥檓 bringing in my artistic experience, but I鈥檓 also learning from computer visualization and graphics professors and working on the technical side,鈥� Kandel said.

Angelopoulos, a fourth-year doctoral student, studies how to use automation, robots and AI to accelerate processes in science laboratories with the goal of building laboratories that perform research autonomously.鈥疉fter graduation, Angelopoulos hopes to work in the autonomous-vehicle industry.

While the two haven鈥檛 formally collaborated on research, they often brainstorm and contribute expertise to each other鈥檚 work. Angelopoulos, who has coded since age 11, provides technical help. Kandel makes editorial suggestions on his work, such as a paper recently accepted for publication.

The two met at Kandel鈥檚 orientation in August 2022. A game night planned by Angelopoulos brought them closer. (Jon Gardiner/UNC-Chapel Hill)

But they share more than expertise.

鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to have someone to share a passion and excitement with, who wants to listen and gets excited with you,鈥� Kandel said. 鈥淢any aspects of us both being in the program have made the relationship much stronger.鈥�

Angelopoulos concurs: 鈥淛ade鈥檚 fantastic, and she鈥檚 brought the most joy into my life. A Ph.D. program can be long, tough work and isolating sometimes. Fortunately, I met Jade, and it was awesome.鈥�

In May 2024, Kandel asked Angelopoulos to accompany her to Hawaii, where she was presenting findings from her first research paper at a conference. They arrived in Honolulu two days early to celebrate her birthday. Waking before sunrise, they went to the beach before the others arrived. There, Angelopoulos produced a ring and proposed.

鈥淚t was beautiful and romantic. It鈥檚 my birthday, I鈥檓 celebrating having a paper accepted and getting engaged,鈥� Kandel said.

The two will marry June 6 in Athens, Greece. (Wingman Spiros will be best man.)