A first-year computer science student from the United Kingdom, Neha Adapala is embracing the transition to UCLA, navigating differences between American and British English to trading London’s gray skies for Los Angeles sunshine. She has also kept busy applying technical knowledge to real-world problems.
Building on projects she developed in high school at the intersection of artificial intelligence, neurotechnology and women’s health, Adapala is working on an AI-powered menstrual blood analysis system to detect polycystic ovary syndrome, or PCOS, and a brain-controlled keyboard. She leads a neurotechnology project on campus, participates in multiple technical and startup-focused organizations, and was part of a three-student team that recently won a UCLA DataX policy hackathon.
Adapala grew up in Greater London, England, in a household where education was a central priority. Her mother taught her math and English at home before those subjects were formally introduced in school, and both parents emphasized academic rigor throughout her childhood.
As a child, Adapala gravitated toward building and experimentation. She conducted science experiments inspired by educational videos, explored art forms ranging from knitting to painting and later discovered computer science as a medium that combined creativity with technical problem-solving.
She attended one of the top all-girls, STEM-focused secondary schools in the U.K. and was encouraged by her older sister to join clubs, explore extracurriculars and push herself academically. The school has a relatively small computer science program, with her A-level class having fewer than 10 students. The small class structure enabled Adapala to take initiative.
Despite having no prior experience with robotics, Adapala said she felt it was an important field for young students to learn. Near the end of 11th grade, she won a Jack Petchey Achievement Award for her work in AI literacy. The honor recognizes young individuals in the U.K. who have gone above and beyond academics to achieve something new. She used the $300 reward money and additional funding from the school’s Computer Science Department to purchase 15 robotics kits and founded her school’s robotics club. She taught herself robotics fundamentals and spent the year teaching more than 30 students. Some later went on to compete in a robotics competition.
She also founded the school’s Digital Strategy Pioneers team, a student-led initiative developed in collaboration with teachers to explore the safe use of digital tools, particularly those focused on artificial intelligence.
Those experiences shaped both her technical confidence and her interest in how technology interacts with policy, education and ethics.
When it came time for university, Adapala chose to leave the U.K. for the United States, drawn to the American education’s holistic approach, which aligned with her growing desire to learn more than just technical skills. Not surprisingly, she decided to major in computer science.
“I think understanding how computer science could be applied to help so many different problems that I cared about was one of its most attractive features,” she said. “The accessibility and strong community online also made computer science very easily approachable.” She chose UCLA for its academic breadth and flexibility, but she was also drawn by the city’s technology ecosystem, as well as its great food and amazing weather.
At UCLA, exposure to computer vision sparked her broader interest in artificial intelligence, while videos demonstrating brain-controlled systems introduced her to neurotechnology. At the same time, her research into women’s health revealed persistent gaps in both funding and public awareness.
Those threads came together in her AI-powered menstrual blood analysis project, which aimed to support PCOS detection. PCOS affects roughly one in eight women, yet many remain undiagnosed for years. With her background in AI, she saw an opportunity to apply technology to a field she felt had been overlooked.
“My biggest motivation for this project was that I used to be quite stressed and spend late nights working, and these bad lifestyle habits would reflect in my own menstrual health,” she said.
The project involved embedding a lateral flow test into a sanitary pad, where biomarkers associated with diabetes, a condition strongly linked to PCOS, would cause a color change. The test would then be analyzed using computer vision.
Her interest in neurotechnology led to a brain-controlled keyboard that utilizes EEG data. Initially conceived as an exploratory exercise, the project revealed broader applications for accessibility, including communication tools for people with paralysis or non-verbal individuals.
Balancing coursework with various projects has required adjustment. Adapala initially said yes to every opportunity before realizing that pace was unsustainable. Over time, she became more deliberate, narrowing her focus to work driven by genuine curiosity, structuring her weeks carefully and relying on collaboration with friends and peers.
The confidence to pursue opportunities traces back to her high school experience, when she approached a professional speaker and asked for a chance to work in web development after experimenting with building personal websites.
“This taught me that you can achieve the most when you seek out opportunities and make the most of the opportunities that are available to you,” she said.
At UCLA, that mindset has translated into broad engagement across campus.
Adapala is active in the student-led organization Data Science Union at UCLA. She also leads a neurotechnology project through CruX and participates in VEST, a student organization focused on startups. In October, she won the UCLA DataX “Co-Designing Care” policy hackathon in the Agentic AI and Mental Health category with her teammates, third-year computer science student Aditya Murthy and first-year cognitive science student Onyeka Idiaghe.
Looking ahead, Adapala says she hopes to continue working at the intersection of artificial intelligence, neurotechnology and health care. Her long-term goal is to apply AI to under-researched medical problems and make neurotechnology more accessible — building on a foundation shaped by curiosity, initiative and a willingness to create paths where none exist.