by Stefanie Koperniak
The SDM program brought Chen Li ’25 to Cambridge, and also far beyond. Her international research efforts as an MIT graduate student ultimately inspired her to apply for a Fulbright grant, and—as one of 17 2026 Fulbright award winners from MIT—she is now in the early phases of her proposed research project in Iceland.
After completing graduate studies in computer science at the University of Southern California, Li worked at the Palo Alto-based software company VMware for six years. She started off as a technical program manager, later shifting into the role of release management, and then working in business operations. In supporting a new cloud release, she engaged with a lot of customer escalation data and automation—becoming increasingly interested in data science. She took courses in data science and Python, eventually deciding to apply to graduate school to learn more and to pursue new opportunities.
“I knew that I wanted to do a career pivot,” says Li. “I wanted to explore more of the world, as well.”
Li says she found the core curriculum at SDM very valuable and really appreciated the experience of the integrated team project. Her project was developing system design options for an organization (founded by an MIT alum) providing ambulance services for pregnant women in rural Africa to pivot from a nonprofit organization into a social enterprise.
While at SDM, Li sought out opportunities for international research projects through MIT International Science and Technology Initiatives (MISTI). She wanted to do some research in healthcare, and worked for Universidad Panamericana in Mexico City on a project using data from wearable sensors to help predict the chance of falling for patients with Parkinson’s disease. Li then pursued more healthcare research in Denmark, specifically working on the Patient Voice Hub project for Novo Nordisk. She helped create a meta database of information from interviews with patients with a rare disease, using AI to help researchers draft reports and analyze data—all with the goal of supporting the next round of drug development.
Although she greatly valued these international experiences, Li says she may have benefited the most from the experience of writing her thesis. She worked with Bryan Moser, SDM academic director and senior lecturer, and director of the MIT Global Teamwork Lab (GTL). She worked as a research assistant in GTL, and her thesis used large language models and statistical methods to build a 3D urban design platform studying teamwork behavior. She also appreciated the teaching opportunities she had while at MIT, serving as a teaching assistant for data mining courses at MIT Sloan School of Management and the MITx MicroMasters program.
She says her inspiration for the Fulbright proposal stemmed from some interesting statistics she had seen about Iceland. The Nordic country is often known for its high ranking in happiness—often recognized as one of the happiest countries in the world. At the same time, it often ranks highly for depression in the form of Seasonal Affective Disorder. In addition, the country has previously grappled with high rates of adolescent substance use that it was able to decrease dramatically by applying a strategic prevention model.
“I want to use AI and systems thinking to better understand how to reconcile the high rates of depression and also the very high rate of happiness,” says Li. “I wondered what might explain this paradox. I think community resilience, strong social bonding, and a successful substance use prevention model could all be factors. Data can help us explore a fuller picture of what is happening.”
Li arrived in Iceland in September and is in the early phases of getting her proposal approved by the National Bioethics Committee of Iceland, after which she can start getting access to data and reaching out to participants. After her Fulbright research she plans to pursue a PhD in information and systems science. She considers her SDM experience foundational to her future endeavors.
“Not only did I learn a system design approach,” says Li, “but my experiences also broadened my horizons and made me think more about what I really wanted to do after SDM.”
