Two rising second-year PhD candidates have been selected by the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) at MIT to receive Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellowships, which will support their work for two years.

Aziza Almanakly works in quantum computing and has not only been awarded the P.D. Soros Fellowship for New Americans, but also dedicates some of her time to mentoring and encouraging others by teaching the fundamentals of quantum computing to underrepresented high school students.

Belinda Li studies language models and natural language processing. After working as part of Facebook’s AI Applied Research group on automating hate speech and misinformation detectors, Li is interested in understanding the relationship between language/language technologies and society.

“Our dedication to supporting women in STEM extends far beyond attracting top candidates to our program,” said Professor Asu Ozdaglar, head of EECS. “We are committed to providing continued, concrete support to their research careers once they arrive at MIT.”

MIT PhD students Aziza Almanakly and Belinda Li have been selected as the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) recipients of the multi-year Clare Boothe Luce Graduate Fellowship for Women, an honor designed to encourage and support graduate women in STEM. The rigorous selection process for this prestigious fellowship took into account the two students’ outstanding track record of scientific achievement and inquiry, as well as their contributions to the STEM community.

Importantly, the fellowships represent the culmination of an intensive effort on the part of both the Institute and the EECS department. Upon MIT’s selection by the Clare Boothe Luce Program for Women in STEM to submit a full proposal, EECS entered the MIT internal competition and was selected to submit a full application on behalf of the Institute to the national competition held by the Henry Luce Foundation. Funds from the Luce Foundation, combined with cost-sharing funds from EECS, will provide full financial support for a period of two years for Almanakly and Li.

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