Institutional development · Student experience, equity and outcomes · United States
Georgia Tech's BridgeUP STEM gets first scholar to return as fellow, researching AI in mental health
Ashley Ni, who joined Georgia Tech's BridgeUP STEM programme as a high school student in 2024-2025, has returned as a Helen Fellow to research AI in mental healthcare.
Why it matters: Georgia Tech's College of Computing BridgeUP STEM programme now has its first participant to have taken part as both a high school scholar and a Helen Fellow.
Georgia Tech said Ashley Ni, now a computer science student, has returned to BridgeUP STEM as a Helen Fellow to research AI in mental healthcare, the first participant to take part as both scholar and fellow.
According to the university, Ni first joined in the 2024-2025 academic year while at Global Impact Academy in Fairburn, Georgia, working with four professors for roughly two months each across different areas of computing.
Georgia Tech describes BridgeUP STEM as a College of Computing programme for first-generation and low-income students, funded by the Helen Gurley Brown Foundation, that offers early hands-on exposure to coding and computing research.
Editor’s view
Rachel Smith, Students and International Editor
For the College of Computing's BridgeUP STEM programme, Ni's return means one of its former high school scholars is now taking part as a Helen Fellow, with research on AI in mental healthcare.
