Felix Mao ’27 recently presented two original research papers at the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference 2026 (LREC 2026), an international conference focused on computational linguistics, language resources, and natural language processing. Both papers were also published in the conference proceedings through the ACL Anthology, a digital archive for research in computational linguistics.

Felix developed the projects over the past two years through the RCDS Upper School Science Research program, which gives students opportunities to pursue sustained, independent research across STEM and interdisciplinary fields.

In one paper, “A Computational Diachronic Analysis of Gen Z Mental Health Discourse: A Large-Scale Reddit Corpus Study from Pre- to Post-COVID,” Felix examined how Gen Z communicates about mental health online. Using a dataset he constructed of more than three million Reddit posts, he applied computational linguistic methods to identify patterns in online interactions, explore shifts surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, and compare communication across generations.

His second paper, “A Corpus-Based Profiling of Regional English Variants in Global Media: Insights from Olympic Journalism,” explored how English-language coverage of global events differs across regions. Combining linguistic analysis with machine learning, Felix examined patterns in vocabulary, syntax, readability, and sentiment to better understand how language can reflect regional perspectives in international media.

Felix has also shared his research at several other linguistics conferences. In March 2026, he presented his study of Gen Z mental health discourse at the 50th annual Penn Linguistics Conference. In July 2025, he presented his research on regional English variants in Olympic journalism at the 13th International Corpus Linguistics Conference in the United Kingdom. At both conferences, Felix was the only high school student presenting in the poster session.

Felix also attended the Linguistic Society of America Annual Meetings in 2024 and 2025. At the 2025 meeting in Philadelphia, he received the Best Visual Presentation Award as part of the Emerging Scholars in Linguistics High School Showcase.

Congratulations, Felix!