Three ԱƵ students are continuing work started this past summer on interdisciplinary research projects through the Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute (Picker ISI) Scholars Program, which pairs students with a ԱƵ faculty mentor and an outside research mentor at universities such as UCLA, Columbia, and Drexel. This first cohort of Picker ISI Scholars is part of the institute’s ongoing efforts to support collaborative research at ԱƵ that brings together expertise from across disciplines to address complex scientific problems.
Professor of Biology and Mathematics and Picker ISI Director Ahmet Ay said the program allows students to propose their own interdisciplinary projects, spend the summer immersed in the work, and continue it through the academic year under the guidance of a ԱƵ faculty mentor. “They leave with the kind of experience most students do not get until graduate school,” Ay said.
Richelle Gao ’27 is working on her research project, “Biomarker-Driven Diagnostic Modeling to Complement Urine Cytology in Urothelial Carcinoma,” under the dual mentorship of Bineyam Taye, associate professor of biology and global public and environmental health, and Professor Jian Yu Yao, vice chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at UCLA Health.
Gao’s project aims to improve the detection and understanding of urothelial carcinoma, a type of cancer that develops in the layer of cells lining the urinary system. During the first half of the summer, she worked on the biological side of the project, investigating potential biomarkers, and later developed AI models that combine textual information from patients’ clinical records with visual information from urine cytology images to make a slide-level diagnosis. Gao, a molecular biology major, plans to continue developing and validating the AI model during the academic year.
“Computational models are ultimately representations of real biological systems and human needs,” Gao said. “I have learned that I need to pay close attention to how information from a patient or doctor is translated into computational language, and to ask what might be lost or preserved in that translation.”
Le Dinh ’27, a psychological science and educational studies major, spent the summer working on a research project designed to study engagement with adults among minimally speaking and nonspeaking children with autism. Working with Ashley de Marchena, an associate research professor and program leader for the Early Detection and Intervention research program at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute, and Spencer Kelly, Hurley Family Chair, professor of psychological and brain sciences, and neuroscience, Dinh is investigating the emotional and relational quality of interactions between students with autism and adults across different interactive contexts. Dinh said she’s grateful to work with faculty who have provided guidance while allowing her to take ownership of each step of the project, including developing surveys, reaching out to participants, and recording videos at schools and families' homes. “I’m having so much autonomy over what I do,” Dinh said.
Working under the dual mentorship of W.S. Schupf Professor in Far Eastern Studies and Professor of economics Takao Kato and external mentor Professor Michael Slepian from Columbia Business School, Ray Ou ’28 is examining secrecy in the workplace. His research project, “The Hidden Costs of Strategic Secrecy,” asks whether keeping secrets affects managers’ work and their relationships with their employees, and how keeping work-related secrets differs from keeping personal secrets. As a double major in psychological science and economics, Ou says that rather than treating them as separate subjects, he keeps looking for connections and for ways they can work together.
“Economics often focuses on weighing costs and benefits, while psychology helps me ask what drives those costs and benefits in the first place — why people make the decisions they do and whether their behavior matches what rational economic models predict,” Ou said. “This project brings both perspectives together. It asks a psychological question about what secrets do to people, and in the coming year I will study its effects on productivity using tools from economics.”
Ay said he encourages students with research questions that don’t fit neatly into one department to apply, and he hopes faculty from across all divisions will also help identify and encourage students who are curious, independent, and ready to take on bigger challenges to consider the program.
“Some of our best scholars applied because a professor told them they should,” Ay said.
The Picker Interdisciplinary Science Institute’s Scholars Program financially supports rising juniors or seniors each year to pursue ambitious, faculty-mentored research that crosses disciplinary boundaries. Scholars spend the summer immersed in full-time research or an interdisciplinary internship, often working with teams at leading institutions around the world. Whether on campus, in a biomedical lab abroad, or collaborating with scientists in the field, students gain the opportunity to ask bold questions, integrate diverse perspectives, and generate new knowledge. Applications for 2027–28 are due in February, and more information about the Picker ISI Scholars program and how to apply is available on the Picker ISI website.
“The most interesting scientific questions rarely stay inside one discipline,” said Ay. “The Picker ISI Scholars program lets students follow a question wherever it leads, whether that means combining biology with machine learning or psychology with data science, and gives them the time, funding, and mentorship to do real research rather than a class project.”