Marie-Therese Wellington in elementary school she always had problems with math. In fact, she grew up with the intention of becoming a pediatrician. But with the help of an after-school tutor and one wonderful teacher, Wellington discovered the unique beauty of solving complex math problems—and she hasn’t thought about pediatrics since.

^{Marie-Thérèse Wellington is studying for a Bachelor’s degree in Applied and Computational Mathematics with a concentration in Scientific Computing.}

After moving permanently to the United States from her home in Trinidad and Tobago in 2022, Wellington began studying for a bachelor’s degree in applied and computational mathematics with an emphasis in scientific computing. On the New York City campus, the same math processes that once brought her deep frustration now bring her a sense of satisfaction and require an almost meditative solution.

“I enjoy learning new concepts and how they can be applied to real-life situations,” Wellington says. “I appreciate the challenges of mathematics and how the subject intersects with fields such as machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI).”

The College of Arts and Sciences student remembers her time at New York Institute of Technology fondly. During her years at the university, she made the most of her work, including serving as secretary and currently vice president of the Society of Women Engineers, where she coordinates events, creates the society’s calendar for the semester and, most importantly, maintains friendly relations with her fellow students who love mathematics.

Wellington also participated in off-campus extracurricular activities, namely Cornell Tech’s AI Breakthrough Program. The year-long virtual program taught her critical skills in technology areas such as artificial intelligence, data science and machine learning. After completing the course in March 2024, Wellington felt like a “completely changed person” as she gained real-world experience working on image classification models for the New York Botanical Garden, sorting nearly 81,000 images and using a variety of high-level techniques. methods for fine-tuning machine learning models for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

“I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself or my programming abilities at the time,” says Wellington, who nervously applied for the program on the day of the deadline. “Not only did I gain the confidence I needed, but I also discovered incredible opportunities and gained a clear understanding of how to develop and apply machine learning models. This has been an important part of my growth in this field.”

With both new and improved skills, Wellington continues to explore how mathematics, machine learning and artificial intelligence can be applied to solve real-world problems, especially in areas that can drive positive change in society. She dreams of contributing to the development of technologies that improve decision-making, optimize systems, improve healthcare and education, and make processes more efficient and accessible to people from different walks of life.

Looking to the future, Wellington remains unsure of what her career might ultimately look like, but she is confident that her time in higher education is not over. After completing her bachelor’s degree, she would like to continue her path by obtaining a master’s degree in machine learning.

“Everything you do will always be a game of trial and error,” Wellington advises. “Never let the fear of failure hold you back.”