INGRID CHAN

Ingrid Chan is an aspiring young researcher and innovator who draws her inspirations from interacting with the real world to identify her areas of personal commitments in the future.

Growing up, Ingrid has always had an easy life. She was born privileged, and had everything handed to her. As Ingrid began to mature and expand her understanding of the world, she also began to recognise the importance of giving back. Growing up with a mentally atypical brother, all her life Ingrid never noticed the stigma many people have against mental health. When she was 15, Ingrid began to realize that not everyone appreciated mental health as much as she did. Through this, she learned the importance of not taking what she has for granted. She learned that it’s people like her who are in the best position to give back to the underserved. 

Currently at school, Ingrid is taking an interdisciplinary approach towards realizing her target outcomes of impact, understanding that it takes more than one area of knowledge or expertise to create systems level change. From an academic perspective, Ingrid is passionate about the sciences, with a focus on computer science. She is an avid coder and wants to use her knowledge of science to see how technology can be used to support our world without working against the environment. Through attending events such as IdeaPOP by Seed Foundation and competitions, she aspires to connect her knowledge to real world experience. Her work with Catalysing Research Institute has been featured in the Agenda: Society and Equity of the World Economic Forum. 

In terms of her leadership activities, Ingrid is the founder of a student-led organization at her school that aims to educate the underprivileged about science. As part of this initiative, she brought together a group of 7 and organized an event with a local NGO that included interactive science experiments and taught science to the Down syndrome and autistic community in Hong Kong. During her spare time, Ingrid loves to read books and go on hikes with family and friends.

When asked about her future, Ingrid sees attending a world class university not as a goal on its own, but a pathway to accumulating the resources required to create the world she wants to see. Her aim is to pursue a degree in computer science while exploring interdisciplinary fields, such as computational biology. Ingrid plans to work at a technology company, which will help her develop her programming skills. She also hopes to contribute to future breakthroughs in technology and areas of artificial intelligence.