MISTI GTL in Wales 2025 Instructors
Anna Liu
Anna is a Chemistry student at MIT with a passion for making science accessible and exciting. Teaching chemistry is something that she is very passionate and joyful about, and Anna believes an enthusiastic teacher’s energy can be quite infectious! Anna is on the executive board of dynaMIT, where she develops hands-on chemistry curriculum and organises activities for the summer outreach programme benefiting over 70 underserved students. As a Facilitator with the Sloan Prison Education Initiative, Anna teaches entrepreneurship to local incarcerated students, guiding them in creating and pitching their own business proposals. She also mentors disadvantaged high school students in career & personal development through MIT’s Educational Studies Programme and teaches subjects like molecular orbital theory, Chinese, and Taiwan history & culture. Anna is also currently an Undergraduate Researcher at MIT’s Radosevich Lab, focusing on developing a sustainable redox-active organophosphorus photocatalyst for mediating single electron reactions. With her enthusiasm and dedication to inclusive, hands-on learning, Anna aims to inspire her students to see the real-world applications and joy of chemistry.
Brian Robinson
Brian is an Aerospace Engineering student at MIT. He is looking forward to the GTL in Wales programme as he finds that the challenge of breaking down complex concepts into relatable terms is both rewarding and intellectually stimulating. Brian recently worked as an Engineering Project Management Intern at Garmin. Brian has worked as an Undergraduate Research Assistant at two laboratories at MIT. At MIT's Gas Turbine Laboratory, he worked on a demonstrator designed to be a 22.3 kW/kg, 98% efficient 1 MW air-cooled machine as a baseline for identifying trends and further analysis of the limits of current turbo-electric machinery, exceeding NASA’s 2030 performance targets for turbo-electric propulsion. At MIT’s Aerospace Materials and Structures Laboratory, he analysed how a newly synthesised ox-EBC is impacted during take-off, boostback, entry, and landing. As a Teaching Assistant for the Design Thinking and Innovation Leadership for Engineers course, Brian guided students through user-centred design projects, including an Alexa Speech System. Brian’s team also won the 2022 RACER (Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency) competition, where he led his team in building the fastest autonomous lap-tracking vehicle. Beyond academics, Brian serves as the Candidate Training Officer for the Arnold Air Society at MIT. He is also actively involved in the MIT Tech Catholic Community.
Ella Tubbs
Ella is an MIT senior majoring in Computer Science and Neuroscience with a concentration in Linguistics. Ella explains that the experience of learning at MIT is unlike anything else in the world, and she feels obligated to try to share that experience wherever she can. Ella is currently an Undergraduate Researcher at MIT’s Media Lab, analysing ECG data to assess the efficacy of a noninvasive auditory therapy aimed to increase the duration and amplitude of deltawave activity during deep sleep for improved health. Ella’s previous research experience includes working as an Assistant Researcher at the Max Planch Institute for Brain Research, an Undergraduate Researcher at MIT Research Laboratory of Electronics, a Research and Data Engineering Intern at Pison Technology, and as an Undergraduate Researcher at MIT’s Language Acquisition Laboratory. Beyond research, Ella teaches at the MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Science, instructing students and assisting with assignments in Perception and Machine Motivated Human Vision. She is also a Senior Admissions Blogger, writing blog posts featured on MIT’s homepage for thousands of prospective students and members of the MIT community.
Haylea Brock
Haylea is a Civil and Environmental Engineering undergraduate at MIT, with a minor in Urban Studies and Planning. Teaching—and by extension, learning from—a new, diverse student group gives Haylea an opportunity to enrich students’ learning experiences. Haylea deeply loves environmental science, and hopes that can shine through in their teaching. Haylea spent summer 2024 as the Summer Support Lead for MIT’s Renewable Energy Clinic, where they led communication and research efforts with the Cape Ann Climate Coalition to explore solar energy options for nearly 30,000 residents in MA. They are also the Program Co-Lead of MIT Food Waste Fighters, an initiative with MIT’s Office of Sustainability to reduce waste in campus dorms. Haylea’s past experiences include working with MIT’s Terrascope First-Year Learning Community to develop solutions for electrical instability in Puerto Rico. As the Teaching Chair of MIT’s Debate Team, Haylea leads weekly sessions on debate techniques and recently won first place as a novice debater at the Carnegie Mellon tournament in 2024.
Jennifer Fairhurst
Jennifer is a Computer Science and Engineering student at MIT with a minor in Economics. As a dedicated educator, Jennifer is the Head Data Science TA for MITx’s SPOC Online Teaching Programme, assisting recently displaced Palestinian university-aged students from Gaza with learning data science for social studies applications. She also works as a Lab Assistant for MIT’s Fundamentals of Programming course, supporting 550 students per semester with Python debugging and conceptual understanding. Jennifer has extensive experience teaching AI to secondary school students as an instructor with Inspirit AI, where she introduces students to AI and machine learning projects. She also taught high school students as a Machine Learning Mentor for Momentum, and was a Computer Science Instructor with M.E.E.T. in Jerusalem, where she led classes in Python and web development for over 300 bi-national students. Jennifer grows from teaching others, and feels like the next best move for that is to teach in a culture that’s very different to her own — bringing her to Wales!
Jennifer Zhang
Jennifer is studying for a double major in Mathematics and Artificial Intelligence & Decision Making at MIT. Through the GTL in Wales programme, she wants to inspire the next generation with a passion for learning and curiosity about the world. Jennifer says she had some brilliant teachers/mentors who inspired her to pursue STEM, and she wants to now pay this forward. Jennifer has a wealth of research experience. This year, she was one of 11 students selected for CMU’s Applied Maths Research Experience for Undergraduates. Moreover, she has worked as an Undergraduate Researcher at MIT’s Edgerton Center (Statistical Analysis of Stress and Drug Addiction Research), MIT’s Civil and Environmental Engineering departments (Methane Emission Data Science & Machine Learning Research), and at MIT’s Health Sciences and Technology departments (Physician Scientist Data Analysis Research). Jennifer has worked as a Machine Learning Intern at E.SUN Bank, where she spearheaded a project to build an AI question-answering chatbot powered by LLMs and augmented by external retrieval systems. Since 2021, Jennifer has been the Schedules Coordinator & Outreach Director for the Harvard MIT Math Tournament. This involves leading all logistical matters;, and serving as the central scheduling hub for 100 HMMT staff and 700 competing students.
Jessica Shoemaker
Jessica is studying for a double major in Computer Science and Music at MIT, driven by a passion for STEM and the arts. She loves to share her passion for STEM and learning with others, and is looking forward to encouraging others to love their time as a student like she has. Jessica has a wealth of GTL experience, previously completing the programme in both Italy and Israel. During the summer of 2024, Jessica interned as a Software Engineer at Citadel, where she crafted an end-to-end data pipeline that is now in production, and researched and implemented Google Cloud data storage solutions. Her previous experience includes a NASA OSTEM internship, where she worked on simulating airborne cloud sampling research, combining her interests in environmental science and software engineering. As a dedicated teaching assistant, Jessica has supported MIT students as a Computer Science Lab Assistant and a Physics TA. Beyond the classroom, Jessica has been the President and Business Manager of MIT’s Chorallaries A Capella Group since 2022. At secondary school, she founded her school’s Computer Science club, which grew to over 50 members, which ranked top ten in 40+ coding competitions in Texas. Jessica is one of ten named an Apple scholar, recognised for her achievements in computing and science.
Kat Dou
Kat is studying a double major in Mathematics and Computer Science at MIT, with a mission to empower all youth, especially those from marginalised or disadvantaged communities, to find their confidence in their passions. An International 2x Silver Medalist at the European Girls’ Mathematics Olympiad (EGMO), Kat channels her passion for maths into teaching and outreach. She is the Deputy Leader for the Canadian Girls’ Olympiad Team with the Canadian Mathematical Society, coaching students at the Canadian IMO Training Camp, delivering lectures on advanced mathematics, and coordinating selection and training for the Canadian Girls’ team, who achieved a Canadian record at EGMO 2024. As a Teaching Assistant for MIT’s Electricity & Magnetism course, she provides individual support and designs problems to challenge students’ understanding. Kat also founded Outspire, a nonprofit that has delivered hands-on summer maths programmes to over 100 young girls, refugee children, and economically disadvantaged students.
Katherine Zhou
Katherine is a Sophomore at MIT, studying Mechanical Engineering and Business Analytics. Growing up, it was the classes and teachers at school that motivated her to pursue her interests in STEM. Through GTL in Wales, Katherine hopes to give back by inspiring younger students and instilling confidence and curiosity within them to explore their interests. Katherine has a wealth of teaching experience. This year, she worked as an Undergraduate Teaching Assistant for MIT’s Physics II course. Katherine also founded, developed a curriculum for, and led an after school science club in her local primary school to teach and expose younger students to new STEM subjects. She is also the Club Founder and Event Leader at GLHS Women in STEM Club. Katherine has also worked as an Undergraduate Researcher at MIT’s Center for Energy and Environmental Research. Here, she conducted economic policy research regarding Ontario’s hydroelectric energy resources and technologies to identify strategies to improve renewable energy investment efficiency.
Liliana Arias
Lily is a Nuclear Science and Engineering senior at MIT, excited to join the GTL in Wales programme to help students master and enjoy STEM learning. Lily previously participated in the GTL programme in Italy in January 2024, where she taught physics, biology, and calculus to high school students, designing hands-on lessons to foster engagement. Since August 2022, she has worked as an Associate Advisor at MIT, guiding first-year students on academics, extracurriculars, and life at MIT. Lily’s technical experience includes her role as a Radiation Physics Intern at Rapiscan Systems in 2024, where she developed Python functions for dual-energy cargo radiography. She also conducts research with the H.M. Wainwright Group on a gamma-ray soil moisture sensor network for radiation monitoring near nuclear reactors. An active member of MIT’s Sport Taekwondo Club, she holds a Double Black Stripe rank and volunteers at tournaments. In 2023, she competed in the NASA RASC-AL Competition as part of MIT’s Homesteading Mars Project team, where she contributed to the first-place-winning design of an energy grid for a Martian homestead.
Shealy Callahan
Shealy is a Mechanical Engineering student at MIT with a passion for hands-on learning and sustainability. Shealy participated in the GTL programme in Mexico in January 2024, where she led secondary school students through engaging engineering projects like building model catapults and rockets, incorporating maths and physics concepts to inspire student curiosity. Shealy spent summer 2023 as a MISTI Summer intern in Namibia, researching processes to repurpose an invasive species of bush from the environment. Most recently, Shealy interned with John Deere’s Global Paint Team, where she conducted experiments to optimise paint coverage and energy efficiency. A coach for the MIT Little Beavers Running Club, Shealy works one-on-one with children with autism, using her experience as a student-athlete to promote confidence and resilience. Shealy also plays on MIT’s Varsity Field Hockey team.
Vicky Chen
Vicky is a Computer Science and Neuroscience student at MIT, excited about the opportunity to connect with students and foster adaptable, comfortable learning environments that connect with every student. Currently a Machine Learning Engineer Intern at Raytheon BBN Technologies, she has developed a model for identifying machine-generated text, surpassing latest published benchmarks. Vicky also currently lectures on advanced poker theory at MIT’s Sloan School, where she creates and leads curriculum for 100+ students. Previously, Vicky conducted computational neuroscience research at Harvard Medical School, using and developing machine learning pipelines to model and predict instances of certain neurological conditions and diseases. An active co-president of MIT’s Poker Club, Vicky organises club and nationwide events, and has ran club-wide poker education sessions with 1000+ members. She also serves on HackMIT’s organising committee and the MIT Ring Committee, where she helped design the 2026 Brass Rat (Class Ring).