MIT senior Teresa Gao has been named one in every of the 12 winners of the George J. Mitchell Scholarship’s Class of 2024. After graduating next spring with a double major in computer science and engineering in addition to brain and cognitive sciences, she’s going to study augmented and virtual reality at Trinity College Dublin. Gao is the fifth MIT student to be named a Mitchell Scholar.
Mitchell Scholars are chosen on the premise of educational achievement, leadership, and dedication to public service. The scholarship is called in honor of U.S. Senator George Mitchell’s contributions to the Northern Ireland peace process. This yr, over 300 American students were endorsed to use for the celebrated fellowship, which is sponsored by the U.S.-Ireland Alliance and funds a yr of graduate studies in Ireland.
“Teresa’s excellent work on the intersections of engineering, music, and science communication make the Mitchell Scholarship in Ireland an ideal fit for her next step,” says Kim Benard, associate dean of distinguished fellowships in Profession Advising and Skilled Development. “We’re proud that she will likely be representing MIT there, as she exemplifies the mind and hand ethos of our education.”
Gao, a resident of Provo, Utah, is fascinated about artificial intelligence and the event of autonomous agents. She has conducted research in a variety of fields, including psycholinguistics within the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, social robots for mental health within the Media Lab, and machine learning architectures for biological images on the Broad Institute. Currently, she is working to ascertain cognitive benchmarks for AI with the MIT Quest for Intelligence.
Gao’s love for science is just equaled by her passion for creativity and the humanities. She hosts an academic radio show, “Psycholochat: Where Neuroscience Meets Philosophy,” on the MIT campus radio station WMBR 88.1 FM, where she investigates topics in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy.
Completely self-taught on the viola, Gao earned a highly competitive seat within the MIT Chamber Music Society. She also serves as co-president of Ribotones, a student group that plays music in service to hospital patients and nursing home residents throughout the Greater Boston community, and she or he performs with the competitive MIT Bhangra dance team.
Outside of the humanities, Gao tutors fellow MIT students through the IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society, manages logistics for the annual Battlecode programming competition fun by MIT’s computer science department, and volunteers with the peer support anonymous campus textline, Lean On Me.