AI Meets Human Cognition

Amani Maina-Kilaas ’23 studies human and artificial intelligence in tandem to better understand cognitive neuroscience.

A PhD student at MIT, he was recently awarded a Hertz Fellowship in applied science, engineering and mathematics by the Fannie and John Hertz Foundation.

The Award

The prestigious Hertz Fellowship is a doctoral award that includes five years of funding and entry into a network of over 1,300 worldwide fellows that includes many STEM trailblazers. Hertz Fellows are chosen for their promise in addressing current pressing challenges, including developing advanced therapeutics, enhancing spaceflight capabilities, designing safer AI systems and predicting the spread of infectious diseases.

How it started

Maina-Kilaas’ research interests began at Harvey Mudd, where he studied intention perception and theoretical machine learning with computer science professor George Montañez as part of the AMISTAD (Artificial Machine Intelligence = Search Targets Awaiting Discovery) lab. For his exemplary academic performance, ingenuity and unique aptitude for research, Maina-Kilaas received the Computing Research Association’s 2022 Outstanding Undergraduate Researcher Award and was named an Astronaut Scholar (2022–2023) by the Astronaut Scholarship Foundation.

Current focus

With additional support from a Dean of Science Fellowship, Maina-Kilaas focuses on computational psycholinguistics in MIT’s Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, where he is advised by Roger Levy. Their work furthers the understanding of the cognitive underpinning of language processing and acquisition and helps researchers design models and algorithms that will allow machines to process human language.

Why this research area?

“I’m fascinated by how AI can be used to study how the mind works and, conversely, to develop more cognitively realistic models using what we currently know about the mind.”

Hertz Legacy

Other Harvey Mudd alumni who have been named Hertz Fellows include Charlie Westbrook ’67, Sherman Chan ’76, Dana Hobson ’85, Joseph Thywissen ’94, Aaron Archer ’98, Kevin Watkins ’98, Thaddeus Ladd ’98, Joel Miller ’00, Nate Stern ’03, Kevin Esvelt ’04, Adam Pivonka ’05, Gregory Minton ’08, Peter Scherpelz ’08 and Anna Soper ’22.