Ashley M.

Ashley is a senior at Greenwich High School in Connecticut. She conducts original research at the intersection of artificial intelligence and neuroscience. Her projects include using machine learning to find new ways for medicines to cross the blood-brain barrier, creating an objective machine learning diagnostic for concussions, and developing a machine learning system to find new treatments for neurological disorders. Her research has won multiple Grand Awards at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF) in Translational Medicine and First Place in Computer Science at the Connecticut Science and Engineering Fair. Ashley is a 2024 Research Science Institute (RSI) Scholar and a 2024 Davidson Fellow. She presented her research at the 2023 World Congress of Neuroscience in Granada, Spain, and her research abstract was published in IBRO Neuroscience Reports. Ashley spent the past two summers conducting computational neurolinguistics research at the MIT McGovern Institute for Brain Research at EvLab, first as a research intern and then as an RSI Scholar, where she used machine learning to study language processing in the brain. She is also a Research Assistant at the Harvard Center for Bioethics/UMN at the Shen Lab: Law, Ethics, Neuroscience & Artificial Intelligence. Ashley is passionate about the ethical development of technology, and her writing and speaking on this topic has been honored nationally and internationally by the NIH, Harvard International Review, and Simply Neuroscience. An avid coder, Ashley has studied deep learning system design, cryptography, complex systems, quantum computing, neurotechnology and computational bioinformatics. She is the founder of ScienceGirls!, a free STEM mentoring program for elementary school girls, and has designed and led interactive workshops on topics including computer science, neuroscience, linguistics, engineering, chemistry and physics for over 250 girls. Ashley was honored with a 2023 NCWIT AspireIT Impact Award for her work with ScienceGirls! She was also named the 2023 Women in Science Leadership youth honoree from the Petit Family Foundation. In addition to STEM, Ashley loves writing poetry and prose, and she has been nationally and internationally honored for her writing. She studied creative writing at the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio, and her work appears or is forthcoming in several literary journals. At school, Ashley is Co-Captain of the Debate Team, President of the Economics Club and on the Greenwich Squash Team. In college, Ashley plans to study computer science and neuroscience with a goal of developing cutting-edge technology to understand and combat neurological disorders.