Empowering Students Through AI: The Story Behind NerdXing at MIT

The academic landscape at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) offers students a veritable labyrinth of courses and disciplines. Navigating this diversity, while exciting, can also be daunting for many undergraduates faced with an abundance of choices. Addressing the challenge head-on, a group of students including senior Julianna Schneider has developed NerdXing—a new AI-powered tool designed to help students chart their academic paths with greater confidence and creativity.

NerdXing, launched under the guidance of the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing Undergraduate Advisory Group, allows students to search a class and see the variety of subsequent classes former students have chosen, often revealing unconventional but rewarding combinations. This initiative, described by Schneider as an effort to "democratize course knowledge for everyone," seeks to empower students—especially first-year undergraduates who might be undecided on their academic direction—to make informed choices by leveraging the power of intelligent data insights.

Schneider, a double major in artificial intelligence & decision-making and mathematics, brings an interdisciplinary approach to both her research and her advocacy. As a member of the Undergraduate Advisory Group, she offers input to college leadership on advancing education and research at the convergence of computing, engineering, and the arts. Her central motivation, as she expresses it, is applying technology "to make people’s lives better," a philosophy evident not just in her current MIT work but also in earlier ventures.

Her journey to MIT began in Albania, where she established herself as an accomplished classical pianist before finding a passion for robotics at age 13. Drawing a parallel between mastering the piano and programming robotic arms, Schneider quickly rose to prominence on her high school robotics team, eventually leading teams to win numerous regional and national awards. It was this blend of technical prowess and creative thinking that laid the foundation for her continued innovations.

NerdXing is far from Schneider’s first technological project. At 16, she developed VoluntYOU, a digital platform connecting English-speaking volunteers from her international school in Tirana, Albania, to local charities posting in Albanian. The platform’s reach grew rapidly, with ambassadors on four continents and measurable impacts—distributing food in the United States, supporting women’s rights legislation in Albania, and aiding in mass vaccination efforts in Italy during the Covid-19 pandemic. For Schneider, such achievements stem from a readiness to recognize communal challenges and the technical proficiency to address them.

At MIT, she has taken her aspirations further by working in Professor Sangbae Kim’s renowned Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory. There, she has co-authored research and developed controllers for next-generation robots, such as the agile, backflipping mini cheetah. Of particular note is her development of a hybrid-learning and model-based controller, tailored for robots with limited onboard computing capacity—an innovation that could extend the practical use of robotics in under-resourced settings worldwide.

Schneider is keen to underline that her focus extends beyond technological novelty. "It’s not just doing technology for technology's sake, but because it will bridge out into the world and make a positive difference," she asserts. She envisions deploying advanced robots as partners to humans in high-stakes scenarios: from remote surgery assistance to disaster response, her ambitions centre on making transformative technology accessible across borders and disciplines.

Her MIT journey also reflects the importance of community and well-being. Outside the laboratory, she participates actively in campus arts, finding creative refreshment—and friendships—through social dancing.

The development of NerdXing is emblematic of a broader shift in AI’s role in higher education, pointing to a future where data-driven insights can foster personalization without sacrificing exploratory breadth. For European and global academic communities alike, Schneider’s work offers both inspiration and a template for interdisciplinary innovation powered by artificial intelligence.

Read more at: MIT News