April 9, 2025
UW undergraduate with interdisciplinary AI focus earns fellowship of up to $90,000 for graduate study
University of Washington Honors student Andre Ye, pursuing bachelors’ degrees in philosophy and computer science with minors in math and history, has been selected for the esteemed Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans.
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans is a merit-based fellowship supporting immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing graduate education in the U.S. This year, 30 Fellows were selected out of more than 2,600 applicants for their past achievements and future promise to make significant contributions to American society. Fellows will receive up to $90,000 to fund graduate studies for two years.
Ye will graduate this June and then pursue a Ph.D. in computer science at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this autumn.
UW undergraduate Andre Ye recently earned a 2025 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Ye is eager to immerse himself in his studies at MIT, where he plans to develop AI tools for disciplines like philosophy, history and literature, collaborating with academics from various fields across campus.Photo by Jayden Becles
The child of two graduate students from China, Ye was born in West Virginia and raised in Redmond, Washington. He grew up immersed not only in his Chinese heritage and traditions but also became closely acquainted with those of his classmates, many of whom came from immigrant backgrounds.
Growing up in Redmond’s atmosphere of technological innovation, Ye was inspired by his father’s graduate work in neural networks. Ye delved deeply into the subject, eventually authoring two books on the topic with Apress, a division of Springer Nature.
Ye enrolled in the University of Washington at age 15 through the Robinson Center’s Early Entrance Program. Learning from a diverse array of professors and classmates, Andre’s intellectual interests greatly diversified.
“I grew up feeling that children of East and South Asian immigrants were supposed to make a very specific kind of technical or engineering contribution in science and technology. I didn’t think of fields like philosophy, history or literature as places where I was poised to contribute. This impression, of course, was deeply changed by the wonderful experiences I’ve had in these disciplines at UW,” Ye shared.
As an undergraduate, Ye has published research articles spanning a range of topics in computer science, philosophy and literature. He has written about probing moral concepts in large language models; understanding AI as an intellectual tool for philosophers; and a new method for clinical image annotation, which won an honorable mention for best paper at AAAI Human Computation.
In addition to receiving this Fellowship, Ye’s undergraduate accomplishments include becoming a member of the national Phi Beta Kappa honor society; receiving the Philosophy Department’s annual outstanding undergraduate scholar recognition; and being named a Mary Gates Research Scholar and an Honors scholar. He was a national finalist for the Computing Research Association’s outstanding undergraduate researcher award.
Ye is grateful to faculty members Amy X. Zhang, Ranjay Krishna and Rose Novick for their time and effort in deepening his learning and supporting his interdisciplinary vision.
About the Paul & Daisy Fellowship for New Americans
The Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans provides merit-based funding for New Americans, immigrants and children of immigrants, who are poised to make significant contributions to US culture, society and academia.
Learn about scholarship opportunities at the UW
Scholarship and fellowship application processes like these are supported by the Office of Merit Scholarships, Fellowships and Awards (OMSFA), a UAA program. OMSFA works with students, faculty and staff to identify and support undergraduate students and alumni in developing the skills and personal insights necessary to become strong candidates for scholarships.