Nicole Coates
Nicole Coates received her BA in Cognitive Neuroscience from UC Davis and her MS in Psychology and Philosophy from San Jose State University. She is broadly interested in how children learn. More specifically, she is interested in the development of exploration, curiosity, problem-solving, and play. She hopes to integrate findings from learning in early childhood to inform AI.
Shengyi Wu
Shengyi Wu is a PhD student in the Early Childhood Cognition Lab at MIT. She graduated from University of California, Berkeley in May 2020, where she studied Psychology and Data Science. Prior to joining MIT, Shengyi worked as a project manager in the Computation and Language lab and the Kidd lab at UC Berkeley. Shengyi is broadly interested in using behavioral and computational approaches to study children’s social learning and attention.
Izabelė Jonušaitė
Izabelė Jonušaitė is a PhD student at the Early Childhood Cognition Lab (PI: Laura Schulz) and the Computation Cognitive Science group (PI: Josh Tenenbaum). She is interested in combining computational and experimental approaches to study causal reasoning in naturalistic settings and how this capacity develops in children.
Prior to MIT, Izabelė was a Postgraduate Research Fellow at the Computation, Cognition and Development Lab at Harvard University (PI: Tomer Ullman) where she investigated people’s intuitive explanations in the domain of intuitive sociology. She received an MSc in Cognitive Science from the University of Amsterdam (Netherlands), and a BA in Philosophy from the University of York (United Kingdom).
Kiera Parece
Kiera Parece is a graduate student in the ECCL at MIT. She was previously a post-baccalaureate Research Assistant working concurrently in the ECCL and the Computational Cognitive Development Lab at Harvard with Dr. Tomer Ullman. Kiera graduated from Wellesley College with a degree in Psychology and Political Science. Prior to joining the ECCL, Kiera worked as a lab manager at Swarthmore College and as a preschool teacher and museum educator. Kiera is broadly interested in children’s social cognition and the role social influences play in children’s learning.