By Michelle Tong, Office of International Programs
Dora Zhao has been awarded the Paul and Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans, a merit-based graduate school program for immigrants and children of immigrants. Zhao completed her undergraduate and master's degrees in computer science at Princeton.
Soros fellows receive funding to support their graduate studies at institutions across the country and are recognized for their achievements and their potential to make meaningful contributions to the United States across many disciplines. This year, 30 fellows were selected from over 2,600 applicants. Zhao is one of two Princeton alumni to receive the fellowship this year.
Zhao, the daughter of Chinese immigrants, majored in computer science with certificates in Asian American studies and statistics and machine learning. Zhao researched racial bias in image captioning techniques and helped develop a globally sourced object recognition dataset. This experience inspired her to explore broader challenges in dataset collection, such as improving dataset reliability and validity. The grant will fund her as she pursues a Ph.D. in computer science at Stanford University.