Meet Our Team
Nicole Tong | CO-PRESIDENT
Nicole is a junior concentrating in Artificial Intelligence and minoring in Math & Creative Writing. These days, she is concerned with large language models, AI policy, and the existence of knots. She enjoys doing the Sunday crossword, beefing with friends during card games, and starting excessively long walks that turn into hikes.
Divya Mehrish | co-President
Divya is a prospective SymSys and Comparative Literature double major from NYC, interested in the intersections of the sciences and humanities. She is a published writer who is passionate about creative writing, medical research, theater, and the outdoors. Outside of SymSys Society, she is involved in MINT, SWIB, Curious Cardinals, The Daily, Scholars of Finance, and SULR.
SHAN REDDY
Shan is a junior studying Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence in the Symbolic Systems program. He previously ran a pre-seed venture capital fund called Simple Ventures and now mentors young founders through FoundersXcel. Born and raised in Las Vegas, he enjoys traveling, writing, and brewing coffee with his Aeropress; he's interested in humanist approaches to AI.
Mllie Lin | MEDIA & COMMUNICATION
Millie is a MASTERS STUDENT studying symbolic systems AND Human Computer Interaction. She is interested in increasing global knowledge and cooperation through ethical technology. Millie also enjoys singing, Youtube documentaries, and rambling about her life.
MAX VANDERVELDEN | Media & Communication
Max is a Sophmore pursuing Symbolic Systems on the computational social science track. HE loves how the field approaches human involvement in and intersection with computation from many different angles. In his spare time, he enjoys running, ultimate frisbee, and obsessing over his cats.
EMILY CHIAO | MEDIA & COMMUNICATION
Emily is a senior studying human-centered artificial intelligence in the symbolic systems program. Born and raised in Phoenix, Arizona, she enjoys running, golfing, reading, watching sports, and doing anything outdoors. She is also a member of the Stanford women's soccer team.
AnnE LI | MEDIA & COMMUNICATION
Anne (she/her) is a junior in SymSys on the HCI track. She likes to take walks and naps and she wants to adopt three cats.
olivia lEE | social OUTREACH
Olivia is a SymSys major in her Junior year, concentrating in AI/Learning, and minoring in Mathematics. Outside of class, she does research in robotics and AI. She values the interdisciplinary nature of SymSys which encourages her to deepen her technical understanding of AI, but also develop a holistic perspective incorporating concepts from neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, and psychology. As a SymSys Society board member, she hopes to foster more cross-disciplinary conversations between students and faculty and strengthen the sense of community within the major.
SHREYA GUPTA | SOCIAL OUTREACH
I am a second year Masters student in SymSys program. I am passionate about research in theoretical and applied deep learning and computational cognitive neuroscience, specifically to design the next gen of neural networks using brain data and architectures. I love teaching, painting and was a professional volleyball player in my past life.
Nikita Bhardwaj | SOCIAL OUTREACH
Nikita is a sophomore studying Symbolic Systems on the human centered artificial intelligence track. She enjoys reading, yoga, and eating overnight oats.
REgina Ta | Social Outreach
Regina (she/her) is a senior studying symsys and comparative literature, with a coterm in Cs. she was born and raised in San jose, ca. in her free time, she enjoys practicing yoga and listening to podcasts.
LARA MORELLO | MAJOR EVENTS
Lara is a sophomore who plans on studying Symbolic Systems. In her free time on campus, you can find her reading, writing, playing ping-pong in the Flomo lounge, or scrolling through pictures of her dog Luna.
TROY SCHOUTEN | major events
Troy is a junior majoring in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Natural Language. Outside of school, he enjoys playing basketball, reading old books, and listening to the Beatles.
SARAH BLOOM | MAJOR EVENTS
Sarah is a junior studying SymSys with a concentration in Cognitive Science. She is interested in the intersection of emotion, faith, and cognition, and seeks to use technology to further sustainability and education. Outside of school she likes to play frisbee, make friendship bracelets, and listen to Les Miserables.
Rebecca Pizzitola | Major EVENTS
Rebecca is a sophomore studying Symbolic Systems and Italian. She is interested in neuroscience and linguistics, especially languages and language learning. In her free time, she likes to run, rewatch ATLA, and FaceTime her mom.
CARLOS Rodriguez | major events
Carlos is a [Error404] studying math, interested in mathematical/bio physics (mathematical modeling more broadly). His Symbolic Systems interests include logic/epistemology, ethics, and cognitive science, and how those fields inform mathematical models of the mind. In his free time, he enjoys producing music, true crime/horror movies, and spending time with friends.
ELIZABETH ZHU
Elizabeth is a sophomore studying Philosophy and Computer Science. She is interested in many things, but especially philosophy of mind, ethics, and developing AI that will benefit humanity. In her free time, she enjoys watching Leafs playoffs hockey, occasionally going on runs, reading books, and talking about life with friends!
MAYA CZENESZEW | ALUMNI OUTREACH
Maya is a senior studying Electrical Engineering. Outside of the classroom, she loves learning about cognitive science, as well as exploring the intersection between the arts and Symsys, reading, painting, and hiking.
Past Members
Jon Gauthier
Jon is Symbolic Systems '17, with a concentration in natural language. He worked as a researcher in the Stanford Natural Language Processing Group, advised by Christopher Manning. In his free time he likes to learn languages and ride bikes at high speeds. he initiated and organized symsys coffee chats during his time on board. Jon left us to do a phd at mit.
Meg Sano
MEG IS A senior FROM TOKYO/LONDON MAJORING IN MATHEMATICAL AND COMPUTATIONAL SCIENCE AND MINORING IN SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS. SHE DOES REINFORCEMENT LEARNING RESEARCH AT THE STANFORD NEUROSCIENCE AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE LAB. IN HER FREE TIME, SHE ENJOYS TEACHING YOGA AND LISTENING TO THE RAIN (WHICH SHE MISSES IN SUNNY CALIFORNIA).
Michelle Ly
Michelle is a SEnior majoring in symbolic systems. She is interested in the intersection between neuroscience, philosophy, and computer science. She wants to explore more into the ethical implications that technology has in many aspects of our lives. In her free time she enjoys walking dogs, watching educational youtube videos, and chilling with friends.
Jenny Zhi
Jenny IS a Senior in symbolic systems and a Master’s student in CS. she is interested in exploring everything symbolic systems has to offer, especially as applied to human and user experience design. in her free time, she enjoys watching chinese period dramas, dancing, eating everything, stealthily grabbing swag from career fairs, and the color blue. She is also a SymSys Advising Fellow.
ERIC Zelikman
Eric is a senior majoring in Symbolic Systems with a concentration in Theoretical Neuroscience, especially interested in the underlying processes of language learning. He's worked on academic and industry AI projects, likes taro milk tea, and has a pet Parson Russell.
Stephanie Zhang
Stephanie IS A symbolic systems graduate and a learning, design and technology coterm. she was a research assistant in the memory lab and a teaching fellow for the psych one program. in her free time, she enjoys singing a cappella, swimming, and reading poems by t.s. Eliot.
Pratyusha Javangula
Pratyusha (tru) IS A second year master's student in symbolic systems. she is currently a research assistant in the alps lab investigating questions of experimental semantics. in her spare time, she enjoys hot yoga, swimming, and watching re-runs of bob's burgers.
Lucy Li
Lucy IS A symbolic systems alum and cs coterm with a concentration in natural language. she is interested in rose milk tea and holland lop bunnies. She manages SymSys Society’s Social presence in real life and online. She takes random scenic pictures of campus to use as banner photos for this website. additionally, she studies language and behavior using code.
HAROUN AHMED
Haroun is a second Year Master's student in the symbolic systems program. He is extremely interested in the intersection between neuroscience and computer science, including computational neuroscience and using neural mechanisms to better inform algorithms including neural networks and deep learning. Prior to Stanford, Haroun worked in industry as a Consultant and Technical PM for IBM on their Watson product, and graduated with an undergraduate degree in Cognitive Neuroscience and Finance. Haroun loves traveling and backpacking, meeting new people and exploring, basketball in every possible context, and adventures
Hope Schroeder
HOPE IS A senior in symbolic systems with an individually designed concentration. she loves natural language processing and virtual reality. She works on alumni events, like the "pathways of symsys" series. in her free time, she loves skiing, yoga, and ice skating.
George (Pakapol) Supaniratisai
george is cs '17 (Artificial intelligence) and symsys masters student. He worked on machine learning for automated vehicles in Stanford Intelligent Systems Laboratory. He spends his free time cooking and learning history of Thai and cantonese foods. george was an awesome event coordinator for symsys society.
Sydney Maples
sydney is symsys '17, with an Individually-Designed Concentration (because apparently an interdisciplinary major just isn’t interdisciplinary enough for her). She is also an advising fellow for the Symbolic Systems major, and is notorious for sending lots of symsys-related emails. In her free time she likes collecting classic rock trivia and appreciating accidental alliterations. She left us to work for anaconda, inc.
Anna Thomas
Anna IS MATH '18 (CS MINOR). she works on research in machine learning and graphics. in her spare time, she enjoys drinking tea and exploring farmer's markets. Anna LEFT US to go to the University of Cambridge.
Darian Martos
Darian is a SymSys major currently concentrating in AI. He is interested in natural language processing and deep learning, especially in contexts such as American elections. In his free time, Darian likes to read, bike to other cities, and get boba--liquid gold 50 sweet.
Cody Hergenroeder
Cody is a junior who has been waiting his whole life to be Symbolic Systems major. He’s super excited to find out what there is for us to discover out here on the foggy frontiers of consciousness. In his free time I enjoy playing videogames, doing yoga, exploring, and writing strange articles and ridiculous poetry. He feels particularly empowered to teach others what he has gathered in life experiences, through mentorship and creative expression.
Allen Nie
allen is symbolic systems M.S. '17. He focuses on machine learning and applying them to natural language. he was in the stanford artificial intelligence group, advised by andrew ng and dan jurafsky. he enjoys coffee, random chats on human cognition, and society. he did a great job hosting symposiums during his time on board. Allen Left US to be a research scientist in Biomedical Data Science.
Julia Mendelsohn
JULIA IS linguistics graduate. Her main interests include natural language virtual assistants and computational approaches to sociolinguistics. She enjoys watching gilmore girls, attempting to talk in Spanish and/or German, and drinking hot cocoa from cozy mugs.
Emma Master
EMMA is a senior with a concentration in cognitive science. she loves learning about cognition, especially self-concepts, reinforcing cycles of belief, narrative psychology, and moral decision-making. she is a research assistant in the social neuroscience lab, which studies empathy and prosocial behavior. in her free time you can find her doing anything music-related, playing soccer, reading, learning about wellness, meditation, or eating donuts.
Elissa Li
Elissa is a first year graduate student in Symbolic Systems. Her research interests lie in the intersection of computational linguistics and philosophy of language, particularly with respect to context-negotiation. In her free time she keeps up with the financial news, defends philosophy from naysayers, and enjoys kickboxing, painting, and hiking.
Xi Jia (Laura) Zhou
LAURA IS a Research Coordinator in the Social Learning Lab who graduated with a degree in cognitive neuroscience and data science and is obsessed with children and the human mind. In her spare time, she likes to stare at squirrels and guess what they're thinking. she loves symsys's open-minded, intellectual, curious and adventurous vibe.