Meet our 2025 Lora Dolores Antoniette Pallotta Memorial Graduate Scholarship recipient, Nanyu Luo!
Nanyu Luo, a second-year PhD student in APHD, is using artificial intelligence to explore a pressing question: how does exposure to online self-harm content affect the mental health and sense of belonging of immigrant and newcomer youth?
His award-winning research proposal uses AI-driven “digital twins” to simulate how immigrant adolescents may experience and respond to online environments. By testing culturally responsive interventions in a safe virtual setting, the project aims to generate new insights into how digital spaces influence well-being and inform more effective mental health supports for immigrant and newcomer youth.
For this innovative work, Nanyu has been named the recipient of the 2025 Lora Dolores Antoniette Pallotta Memorial Graduate Scholarship.
Established in 2010, the scholarship is awarded annually to an APHD graduate student based on financial need, academic merit, and engagement in innovative research related to the immigrant experience.
We spoke with Nanyu about his research, academic journey, and future goals.
Congratulations, Nanyu. Can you describe your winning research proposal?
This project will build a bank of AI-driven “digital twin” immigrant adolescents to ethically examine how online self-harm content shapes mental health and belonging. It is part of a broader framework for rigorously testing causal mechanisms in sensitive issues affecting vulnerable groups. The twins will be fine-tuned and validated to mirror diverse migration histories and psychological profiles. In simulated social media feeds, twins will be exposed to harmful versus neutral content and randomized to receive culturally tailored coping interventions, enabling robust causal inference and informing safer, culturally responsive digital supports for immigrant and newcomer youth in Canada.
Your research brings together artificial intelligence, mental health, and migration studies in a unique way. What educational experiences prepared you for this work?
I started out in applied mathematics as an undergraduate student, which taught me how to approach complex real-world problems through quantitative thinking. I then completed a Master's degree in Statistics at the University of Oxford, where I deepened my expertise in statistical modelling, data analysis, and quantitative methods. Along the way, I developed a toolkit of applied statistics, machine learning, deep learning, and AI methods, and gradually began applying those tools to questions that could make a meaningful difference in people's lives.
Why did you choose to pursue your graduate studies in APHD at the University of Toronto?
APHD offers a genuinely interdisciplinary research environment at the intersection of psychology, education, and data-driven methods. It is an ideal place to collaborate with researchers who care deeply about both rigorous science and real-world impact for children and youth.
Can you share one strategy that has helped you succeed in academia?
I try to regularly share half-baked ideas with people I trust and learn from others' strengths. It reminds me that meaningful progress often comes through collaboration.
What helps you maintain balance and well-being outside of your research?
