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The (SoReMo) fellows at Illinois Tech stepped out of their comfort zone to tackle some of the most challenging social dilemmas during during the spring 2025 semester.

SoReMo offers interdisciplinary, semester-long research fellowships for students who want to apply computational, modeling, and design skills to solve a social issue. SoReMo advocates for ethical, equitable approaches in computation, modeling, and design, contributing to the common good of �������� and beyond through research and education initiatives at Illinois Tech. Students receive a stipend for their work through a grant from Illinois Tech Trustee Joel Krauss, and author technical reports published by the .

Five fellows worked on four different research projects that covered topics such as using artificial intelligence to aid in mental health, evacuating people from floods, finding common links for women to succeed in STEM careers, and optimizing the nighttime shuttle on Illinois Tech’s campus.

“What was particularly exciting to me were two things,” says Sonja Petrović, Illinois Tech professor of applied mathematics and SoReMo faculty lead. “One, we saw more than one project in which the student’s field of study was not the same as the type of project they did. And two, re-scoping of one of the projects was done after we went through a discovery phase of what is possible and what is ethical.”

The fellows for the most recent cohort of SoReMo included:

• Mohammed Sahil (M.A.S. DSC 2nd Year) and Anushka Sarath (M.A.S. DSC 2nd Year) worked on “MindBridgeAI: Culturally Intelligent Mental Health Support,” which is an innovative AI-powered mental health tool designed to provide culturally relevant emotional support for Black, Indigenous, and people of color communities and the Illinois Tech community.

• Marina Oberemok (Ph.D. CE) worked on “Charting STEM Success: Data-Driven Strategies to Empower Female Students in ��������,” which aimed to identify barriers that discourage young women from pursuing careers in engineering.

• Sanaz Kazemzadehazad (Ph.D. CE) worked on “Optimizing the Allocation of Public Safety Services for Illinois Tech Students,” which explored how to increase the performance efficiency of the university’s late-night ride service.

• Raquel Giménez Pascual (M.S. CS 2nd Year) worked on “Flood Evacuation and Resource Allocation Modeling,” which integrated agent-based modeling and advanced pathfinding algorithms to simulate the movement of individuals, emergency responders, and critical resources during flood events.

“MindBridgeAI: Culturally Intelligent Mental Health Support”

Sahil and Sarath tackled a tricky AI dilemma by developing a chatbot by using natural language processing to monitor the mental health of students with MindBridgeAI. Gathering mental health data to train the model proved difficult due to privacy constraints. They received some guidance from Candice Alder, a clinical counselor who authored the first AI guideline for Canadian psychotherapists and clinical counselors during a guest speaking event.

A brief demonstration of MindBridgeAI revealed an interface that allows users to pick one of five general moods and then type in their thoughts about how they are feeling. The chatbot responds with positive messages.

“Charting STEM Success: Data-Driven Strategies to Empower Female Students in ��������”

Oberemok interviewed women in various stages of their STEM careers to see if there are any general characteristics that help women navigate the field. She gathered data about personal traits, educational skills, career paths, institutional barriers they faced, and their personal struggles.

“It was very interesting to talk to these women to find, through their personal stories, how they accomplished and persisted through these technical fields,” Oberemok says. “This was helpful for me and my research.”

“Optimizing the Allocation of Public Safety Services for Illinois Tech Students”

Kazemzadehazad turned her attention to safety on Illinois Tech’s campus. The university’s Department of Public Safety offers late-night, off-campus escorts from central pick-up points on campus to destinations in the surrounding neighborhoods.

Kazemzadehazad examined the route and developed methods to make the service more customer friendly through route optimization.

“Flood Evacuation and Resource Allocation Modeling”

Giménez Pascual gained access to data from the Village of Franklin Park, Illinois, to develop a flood evacuation plan for town residents. She developed a plan mobilizing first-responder vehicles to evacuate residents.

She received help from fellow student Leonardo Marciaga (AMAT 2nd Year).

“This is an adaptive algorithm, which means you’re able to use it for many different things,” Giménez Pascual says. “This is about floods, but you could use it for snowstorms, fires, anywhere people need rescuing from.”

SoReMo fellows present issues, challenges, solutions, roadblocks, and innovative ideas during forums held throughout the semester. Their work receives peer review, as well as feedback from community stakeholders and subject-matter experts from industry, academia, and government. During the process, fellows gain communications training, interdisciplinary experience, and contacts across campus and the community. 

Core faculty of this initiative include Assistant Professor of Computer Science Jacek Dzikowski, Teaching Professor of Applied Mathematics Gorjana Popovic, Assistant Teaching Professor of Social Science Joseph Renow, Associate Teaching Professor of Applied Mathematics Despina Stasi, Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics Michael Pelsmajer, and Professor of Digital Humanities and Media Studies Carly Kocurek.

Image: This year’s five SoReMo fellows, (from top left to top right) Sanaz Kazemzadehazad, Mohammed Sahil, Raquel Giménez Pascual, and Marina Oberemok (bottom left) and Anushka Sarath (bottom right).