This scholarship will further Wanheng Hu's research on The Algorithmic Translation of Expertise: An Ethnography of the Chinese Medical Artificial Intelligence Industry. Through the lens of Science and Technology Studies (STS), Hu hopes to explore the ramifications of AI and machine learning to expert practices as exemplified by medical diagnostics with his ethnographic case studies against China’s unique sociotechnical background.

Wanheng is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of STS and a graduate affiliate with the East Asia Program. A long-standing active member of EAP’s Graduate Student Steering Committee, he credits much of his success to the extensive support he has received from the EAP faculty, fellow grad students, and EAP funding. He was the 2020 recipient of the Hu Shih Fellowship and is currently a visiting research fellow at Harvard University. His research was also supported by the National Science Foundation and a China Anthropology Graduate Fieldwork Scholarship, among others.

Established in 1986, the China Times Cultural Foundation is committed to supporting and promoting academic research that centers Chinese culture and related studies. The Young Scholar Award is granted annually to doctoral candidates in North America whose dissertation research focuses on the study of Chinese cultures in the humanities and the social sciences. This year's award committee consists of seven prominent China scholars, including David Der-wei Wang of Harvard University and Wen-hsin Yeh of the University of California Berkeley.