Leyla Isik, Principal Investigator
Leyla is the Clare Boothe Luce Assistant Professor of Cognitive Science at Johns Hopkins University, and holds appointments in the department of Biomedical Engineering and Kavli Neuroscience Discovery Institute. Her main research interests are in understanding the cognitive and neural basis of dynamic, social vision, and how we might implement these abilities in AI systems. Before joining JHU, Leyla was a postdoc at MIT and Harvard in the Center for Brains, Minds, and Machines, where she worked with Nancy Kanwisher and Gabriel Kreiman. She received her PhD from MIT where she was advised by Tomaso Poggio, and was an undergraduate right here at JHU.
Wenshuo Qin, Lab Manager
Wenshuo graduated from Boston College with a BS in Computer Science and a BS in Neuroscience. At BC, he worked with Prof. Joshua Hartshorne studying linguistic transfer using neural networks. He is broadly interested in computational methods for modeling human knowledge and is currently investigating neural networks in social perception.
Abdul-Rahim Deeb, Postdoctoral Fellow
website: ardeeb.com
My research combines vision science with intuitive physics, focusing on how we derive an understanding of physical laws from our sensorimotor experiences.
I completed my PhD at Brown University, where I explored how the brain internalizes concepts like gravity, mass, and momentum through everyday interactions—think of a little leaguer perfecting their pitch or a server skillfully balancing dishes. By employing methods such as computational modeling, motion tracking, psychophysics, and virtual reality, I investigate how our perceptual systems help us navigate complex physical environments and how these insights can inform both cognitive science and artificial intelligence.
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Manasi Malik, PhD Student
website: https://manasimalik.com/
Manasi is a PhD student in the Department of Cognitive Science. Prior to joining JHU, she worked at TCS Innovation Labs to develop deep learning models to improve advertising effectiveness. She did her B.Tech from IIIT Delhi and worked on multisensory perception for her bachelors' thesis at National Brain Research Center, India.
Hannah Small, PhD Student
website: hannah-small.com
Hannah is a PhD student in the Department of Cognitive Science. She is interested in the spatial organization of the brain. Before joining the lab, she worked on how the brain processes language as a research tech in Ev Fedorenko’s lab at MIT. In undergrad, she studied biology and computer science at University of Richmond, where she researched action potential modulation in an ion-channel electrophysiology lab.
Kathy Garcia, PhD student
website: https://garciakathy.github.io/
Kathy is a PhD student in the Department of Cognitive Science. Prior to joining JHU, she completed a post baccalaureate research fellowship (NU-PREP) at the Northwestern University Interdepartmental Neuroscience program. She also worked as a data consultant in Fortune 100 finance companies after completing her BS at Stanford University.
Ming Zhou, PhD student
website: https://mzhou52.github.io/
Ming is a PhD student in the Department of Cognitive Science. Prior to joining JHU, he earned his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Faculty of Psychology at Beijing Normal University, working on large-scale naturalistic neuroimaging datasets. He is broadly interested in using computational models to understand the neural representations underlying human object perception and social perception. In his free time, he enjoys playing ball sports and cooking.
Astrid Jiang, Master student
website: https://www.astridjiang.com/
Astrid graduated from the Johns Hopkins University with a B.S. and M.S. in Neuroscience (and Computer Science as a second major). Prior to joining the Department of Cognitive Science's M.A. program, she worked on cortical visual prosthesis with a focus on cortical mapping and psychophysical response from electrical stimulation in the visual cortex at the Ultra-Low Vision Lab at the Wilmer Eye Institute, JHMI, for her thesis.
Ishi Jain, Undergraduate Student
Ishi is a sophomore undergraduate student, studying Computational Neuroscience at JHU. She is interested in social and language cognition, specifically in individuals with ASD. In her free time, she enjoys crocheting and playing with her bunny.
Aydan Huang, Undergraduate Student
Aydan is a senior undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University, majoring in Computer Science and Neuroscience. He is interested in the computational basis of social cognition—specifically, how learned perception (what is seen) integrates with structured inference (what is meant) and actionable world models (what is there). His goal is to understand how these systems can move beyond automating outcomes to instead illuminate minds, interactions, and the shared world between them.