Hannah Qi

Hannah is from Forest, Virginia, where she graduated from the Central Virginia Governor’s School for Science and Technology (CVGS) and Jefferson Forest High School. At Columbia, she plans on majoring in computer science with a possible minor in applied mathematics.

Hannah took her first computer science course in her sophomore year of high school, and quickly became interested in software development and artificial intelligence. While attending CVGS, she engaged in independent research regarding the diagnosis of melanoma skin cancer using convolutional neural networks. Her work resulted in a program with >85% accuracy. Hannah proceeded to present her research at two science fairs, where she placed 1st in “Computer Science” and 2nd in “Overall Physical Sciences” at the Central Virginia Regional Science Fair and 2nd in “Robotics and Intelligent Machines” at the Virginia State Science and Engineering Fair. Her research was also published in Volume 61 of the Virginia Junior Academy of Science proceedings.

This research experience inspired Hannah to continue exploring the intersection of computer science and biology, and she began working as a data science researcher at Virginia Tech under the direction of Dr. Lenwood Heath. In his lab, she applied data science functions to compare outputs from two gene analysis tools in order to determine the major genes responsible for sea urchin ectoderm and endomesoderm development.

Outside of research, Hannah served as the Vice President of the Virginia Junior Academy of Science (VJAS) and the Lieutenant Governor of Division 15A for Key Club International. As Vice President of the VJAS, she played a key role in the organization of the 83rd annual Virginia STEM research symposium, where about 400 presenters attended, hosted STEM seminars detailing the research process, and contributed to the VJAS Voice paper. This allowed her to make research more accessible to students across Virginia by sharing more opportunities and demystifying the research process through seminars. As a Lieutenant Governor for Key Club, Hannah was able to give back to her community. She oversaw the club activities for the four high schools in her division, established a diversity initiative in VA, West VA, MD, DE, and Washington D.C., and organized and hosted two district conventions (300-500 attendees) as a member of the events committee.

Hannah held an internship position at Framatome Inc. during her junior year, and she explored 3D models and simulations regarding the tensile strength of different materials, conducted material plasticity testing, and toured mock nuclear facilities. During the summer of junior year, Hannah was invited to attend the Virginia Aerospace Science and Technology Scholars’ Summer Academy program at the NASA Langley Research center. She was chosen as one of the 180 scholars out of 450+ total students that participated in the program. During this summer academy, Hannah worked with the other scholars to design a successful mock mission to Mars and networked with current NASA employees at the Langley Research Center. These two experiences further solidified Hannah’s passion for STEM and the application of software development for various industry fields.

In her free time, Hannah enjoys swimming for her high school and her club team, and she specializes in breaststroke. She also plays the piano, draws, collects stationery, and is currently trying to pick up the ukulele.