MIT senior Teresa Gao has been named one of 12 recipients of the Class of 2024 George J. Mitchell Scholarship. After graduating next spring with a double major in computer science and engineering, as well as brain and cognitive sciences, she will study reality technology at Trinity College Dublin. Gao is the fifth MIT student to be named a Mitchell Scholar.
Mitchell Scholars are selected on the basis of academic achievement, leadership, and dedication to public service. The scholarship is named in honor of US Senator George Mitchell’s contributions to the Northern Ireland peace process. This year, more than 300 American students were supported to apply for the prestigious scholarship, which is sponsored by the US-Ireland Alliance and funds a year of graduate study in Ireland.
“Teresa’s excellent work at the intersections of engineering, music, and science communication make the Mitchell Scholarship in Ireland a perfect fit for your next step,” says Kim Benard, Associate Dean for Distinguished Scholarship in Career Advice and Career Development. “We are proud that she represents MIT there, as she exemplifies the spirit of the mind and hand of our education.”
Gao, a resident of Provo, Utah, is interested in artificial intelligence and the development of autonomous agents. He has conducted research in a variety of fields, including psycholinguistics in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, social robots for mental health in the Media Lab, and machine learning architectures for bioimaging at the Broad Institute. Currently, he is working to establish cognitive benchmarks for AI with the MIT Quest for Intelligence.
Gao’s love of science is matched only by his passion for creativity and the arts. She hosts an educational radio show, “Psycholochat: Where Neuroscience Meets Philosophy,” on MIT campus radio station WMBR 88.1 FM, where she researches topics in psychology, neuroscience, and philosophy.
Entirely self-taught on the viola, Gao landed a highly competitive position with the MIT Chamber Music Society. She also serves as co-chair of the Ribotones, a student group that performs music serving hospital patients and nursing home residents throughout the Greater Boston community, and performs with the competitive MIT Bhangra dance team.
Outside of the arts, Gao tutors other MIT students through the IEEE-Eta Kappa Nu Honor Society, manages logistics for MIT’s computer science department’s annual Battlecode programming fun competition, and volunteers as a volunteer with the anonymous campus peer support text line, Lean On Me.
