Three UCLA Computer Science Students Named DeepMind Scholars

Three UCLA Samueli graduate students have each received a fellowship from U.K.-based DeepMind, a leading global artificial intelligence company

DeepMind recently announced its 2020 fellowship cohort of more than 50 scholars from across the globe. The fellowships will provide funds for three UCLA computer science master’s students studying machine learning during the 2020-2022 academic years. Each recipient of the two-year fellowship is also offered support from a DeepMind mentor and has opportunities to attend leading AI academic conferences and DeepMind events.

This is the first year UCLA Samueli participated in this program and its scholarship recipients are Aishni Parab, Puja Trivedi and Nima Zaghari:

Aishni Parab‘s primary research interest is in building better models of machine intelligence and human cognition. She is motivated by inter-disciplinary research in artificial intelligence, cognitive science and neuroscience. Parab has engaged in numerous research projects that have prepared her to pursue this goal, both as an undergraduate in computer science at UC Santa Cruz and most recently as a software engineer at MIT. These experiences include the development of interfaces for telepresence robots, the use of deep learning to understand how drivers interface with advanced vehicle technologies and the application of machine-learning techniques to automatically generate knitting instructions for WholeGarment knitting machines.

Puja Trivedi recently completed her bachelor of science degree in computer science with a specialization in bioinformatics at UC San Diego. Trivedi’s passion involves leveraging machine learning to transform medicine. Trivedi pursued this area of study through multiple research experiences as an undergraduate, including an internship project at the Scripps Research Institute to build a deep-learning model that identifies pathogen-disease relationships.

Nima Zaghari recently completed a bachelor of science in computational and systems biology at UCLA. Zaghari’s career goal is to develop disease models that lead to better treatments. As an undergraduate student, Zaghari participated in multiple research projects, including the use of computational methods to understand the mechanisms that underlie common metabolic disorders and gene analysis to better understand potential factors involved in schizophrenia.

“It’s very exciting to have DeepMind’s support for these wonderful students,” said UCLA Samueli computer science professor Todd Millstein, the department’s vice chair for graduate education. “DeepMind’s scholarships provide opportunities for promising students who might not otherwise be able to pursue graduate study and who are poised to become the next generation of AI leaders.”

Established in 2017, the DeepMind scholarship program is designed to help build a stronger and more inclusive AI community, with a wider range of experiences from around the world. The scholarships are awarded to academically excellent underrepresented students who might otherwise find it difficult to pursue graduate study without financial assistance in the field of artificial intelligence and machine learning.