Zainab Iftikhar: Helping humans use artificial intelligence to better support mental health

However, she said that AI can educate people about their mental health and offer coping strategies, like breathing exercises or journaling. And she acknowledged that one of AI's main advantages is that it can reach many more people than the current health system.

"My goal is to clearly outline what an AI can do and what human mental health professionals can do, and how they both can support each other in scalable mental health treatment," Iftikhar said.

Finding the essence of empathy at Brown

Iftikhar has experienced firsthand the power of human-to-human collaboration and empathy with faculty and peers in the Department of Computer Science at Brown and in the graduate student community.

"The computer science department is extremely collaborative," she said. "I can go to any professor's office hours and they'll point me in the right direction. And I really appreciate my colleagues' willingness to answer a Slack call for help - even at 1 a.m."

Because even the most well-supported scholars need breaks and benefit from connections to humans and nature, Iftikhar teamed up in 2023 with Andrew Hollis, associate director of graduate student activities and leadership development at Brown, on a plan to get graduate students outside.

Iftikhar completed a wilderness first aid training course and served as an inaugural trip leader for Brown's Graduate Outdoor Adventure Leader Training program. She and other organizers expected around five students for the first trip and were surprised when more than 30 showed up. They've organized hiking trips around New England and plan to expand to camping and backpacking trips this year. There are now about 20 graduate students trained to lead treks.

On campus, Iftikhar mentors students in Huang's lab, and to her delight, three of them have decided to pursue post-graduate studies.

"Showing students that research can be a fun learning experience has been very motivating and fulfilling for me," she said.

She's still interested in pursuing training in social work or psychology, but Iftikhar would eventually like to teach at the university level. This way, she said, she can conduct computer science research and, importantly, continue to advise and mentor other curious human minds.