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At Johns Hopkins Whiting School of Engineering, students don’t just take in knowledge: They create it. In classrooms and laboratories, they learn and work with faculty who are leaders in their fields, combining theory with practical hands-on experience.
From artificial intelligence to sustainable urban design, Hopkins Engineering students are pursuing their passions and making the world a better place. These students have stories to prove it.
Yutong Bai
Yutong Bai, a fourth-year computer science PhD student, was named a 2023 Apple Scholar in AI/ML (artificial intelligence and machine learning). She is one of 22 graduate students at universities worldwide to be recognised by the programme this year.
Yutong Bai
After earning her bachelor’s degree from Northwestern Polytechnical University in Xi’an, China, Bai interned at Google Brain and Meta AI before coming to Johns Hopkins.
Her research focuses on artificial computer vision systems that allow robotic systems to see, process, and respond to their environment, such as smart cars that must be able to detect traffic lanes and other vehicles.
Bai recently developed computer vision models based on self-supervised learning — a powerful method of pretraining AI models that is particularly useful for tasks that do not require labels, such as image recognition.
In traditional supervised learning, an image is paired with a label, such as “dog,” and the model is trained to recognise this association. Bai’s work focuses on training the model before using labelled data. The model may identify whether an image has been rotated or breaks an image down into jigsaw-style pieces. By completing these tasks, the model gathers fundamental knowledge that it can then apply to other tasks.
“This is similar to how young children learn about the world around them. They may not know what an apple is, but they learn that objects can be placed near the mouth. When they are taught that an apple is an edible object, they quickly understand the concept because they have already built up a foundation of knowledge,” says Bai.
Each Apple Scholar in AI/ML receives support for their research and academic travel for two years, internship opportunities, and a two-year mentorship with an Apple researcher. Bai is the second Johns Hopkins graduate student to receive this recognition.
Kristen Corlay Sanmiguel
Kristen Corlay Sanmiguel arrived at Hopkins intent on improving life in communities like her home city of Monterrey, Mexico. Now a senior majoring in civil and systems engineering, she’s made big strides toward that goal.
Kristen Corlay Sanmiguel. Source: JHU
Last June, Corlay Sanmiguel led a Whiting School undergraduate team to a top-five spot in the finals of the 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers Sustainable Solutions Competition, held at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. The team was challenged to create a sustainable city block incorporating stormwater management systems, green infrastructure, and multimodal transportation.
“I had a strong interest in how sustainability can coexist with engineering and urban design,” says Corlay Sanmiguel. Her team’s winning entry included plans for a two-story community centre with a sloped green roof and a glass curtain wall with ceramic rods to deflect heat and glare. “It was made out of mass timber, a low-carbon material.”
A year earlier, Corlay Sanmiguel’s research on resilience and earthquakes in Mexico City helped her win the Walt Disney data analytics competition and a trip to Disney’s Data & Analytics Conference.
“My dad grew up in Mexico City and I learned about the 1985 Mexico City earthquake from him and my extended family,” she says, and the competition provided her with a way to share his story. Her data analysis was informed by an earlier paper in which she examined how earthquakes affect some areas more than others based on land type, and how economic stability is related to increased risk of earthquake damage.
“I made my own code in Python to measure the seismic response spectrum, I ran geospatial data analysis, and I read building codes and policies from the last century up until 2017,” she says.
At Hopkins, Corlay Sanmiguel continues to fine-tune a web app for civic engagement in Mexico that she launched in 2020 with co-founder Valeria Colunga.
“With Cabilde, we are building a database that will make it easier for constituents to find their representatives, bills, and congress voting results,” she said.
Corlay Sanmiguel plans to pursue a master’s in urban planning and continue working on Cabilde and data transparency in Mexico.
“My goal is to have my own engineering design firm and specialise in Latin American projects relating to sustainability and accessibility in cities,” she says.
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