Post by Ulliana Savitskaya

I am delighted to share that I have officially graduated from UCL with First Class Honours in Neuroscience! I’m even more honoured to have received the Burnstock Prize for my laboratory project and to have been nominated for the Dean’s List. These recognitions mean a great deal to me after a year of hard work and dedication - but above all, what I feel most is gratitude. I’m grateful to the incredible people who made this journey so rewarding. A heartfelt thank you to Professor Fred Dick, Isma Zulfiqar, and Letitia Schneider, as well as everyone in Alpha Lab, for fostering a supportive, engaging, and collaborative environment - and for making every day in the lab a joy. Beyond my dissertation, I owe much to the professors whose life’s work I had the privilege to study. Their dedication not only deepened my understanding of neuroscience but also reshaped how I think about the brain, the mind, and learning itself. Most of all, I’m grateful for my friends and family - the ones who stood beside me through challenges and triumphs alike, celebrating the highs and grounding me through the lows. Your encouragement made this achievement possible. This past year, working towards my integrated BSc, my studies spanned topics from the neurobiology of brain injury to the mechanisms of memory formation, as well as backpropagation and neural networks. Exploring the fundamentals of neural learning algorithms was especially fascinating in this era, where large language models are transforming how we think about intelligence. It was the most challenging module I took, yet also the most inspiring. It has sparked a deep desire to continue exploring the intersection between neuroscience, learning, and artificial intelligence as I move forward in my medical education.