Elaine Zhong Awarded the 2024 Allen AI Outstanding Engineer Scholarship
Elaine Zhong, a sophomore at the UW Allen School, is AI2’s 2024 Allen AI Outstanding Engineer Scholarship recipient. This scholarship exists to encourage underrepresented groups to excel in computer science and engineering and become leaders and role models in their fields, and covers full tuition, fees, and textbooks for one academic year. It is accompanied by mentorship and a paid summer internship at the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence.
Elaine is passionate about expanding accessibility to computer literacy and education. She serves as a computer science instructor for high school students, specializing in USA Computing Olympiad topics. She is also an organizing member of DubHacks, the largest hackathon in the Pacific Northwest. Her efforts there have provided educational and early career opportunities for hundreds of collegiate participants. Elaine’s commitment extends to her involvement in the UW Women in Computing committee, where she advocates for community support for women within the Allen School.
“This year’s finalists for our 2024 Scholarship were very impressive, much like in years past,” says Dana Young, AI2’s Senior Director of People Operations and panel member for the 2024 Allen AI Outstanding Engineer Scholarship. “Elaine stood out out not only on her academic achievements, she stood out with her maturity, determination, and desire to make a real impact in the AI field (with an eye toward linguistics) once she completes her education. In terms of her summer 2024 internship at AI2, she’s already thinking about her project and is excited to get to work training LLMs. And, we couldn’t be more excited for her to get started!”
Outside of school, Elaine has worked at the UW Sensors, Energy, and Automation Laboratory as an Undergraduate Research Associate and CodeDay as a Software Engineer Intern. Recognized for her dedication and leadership in technology, Elaine has formerly received the NCWIT Aspirations in Computing award.
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