Class of 2025: Michael 'Mikey' Harrigan finds purpose through innovation
The College of Engineering Outstanding Senior focused on others in his drive for success in academics, research, and athletics.
Name: Michael "Mikey" Angelo Robert Harrigan
Colleges: College of Engineering and College of Science
Majors: Computer science and cognitive and behavioral neuroscience
Hometown: Leesburg, Virginia
Plans after graduation: Taking three months to backpack and mountaineer in Asia alternating with Buddhist retreats, followed by a position as an artificial intelligence (AI) engineer focused on health care applications.
Favorite Hokie memory: Cheering like a madman as the Virginia Tech wrestling team won the 2023 ACC Championship, with Hokie Andy Smith upsetting Isaac Trumble of NC State.
It’s surprising Harrigan found time to sleep, much less hike the mountain trails he’s sad to be leaving.
This May, he’ll finish four years at Virginia Tech and two bachelor’s degrees: one in computer science and another in cognitive and behavioral neuroscience. He’ll speak at two graduation ceremonies after being named the 2025 Outstanding Senior for the College of Engineering — the second computer science student to be so named since the recognition was implemented in 2015 — and the School of Neuroscience.
Over his undergraduate career, he’s checked off a list of other achievements, including founding Hokie Club Wrestling, completing an internship at a nonprofit that runs federal research centers, submitting two scholarly articles for publication, developing a technology start-up idea, and waiting to hear about a patent application.
“I've never been good at doing just one thing,” Harrigan said.
Innovation for good
Harrigan came to Virginia Tech inspired to pursue a career that would help people struggling with medical issues, such as his grandfather's battle with dementia and the mental health challenges he’s seen others tackle.
“It became clear that health care was where I could save the most lives, and that's my measuring stick,” Harrigan said.
Combining neuroscience with computer science has given him powerful tools to pursue that goal. To help fill his toolbox, Harrigan enrolled in a graduate-level class in natural language processing (NLP) with Xuan Wang, assistant professor of computer science, to study a type of AI that uses machine learning to enable computers to understand, analyze, and communicate via human language.
“He was the only undergraduate in the class and, to my surprise, earned the highest A grade,” said Wang, whose research uses NLP to solve critical problems in health care, which has been the guiding light of Harrigan’s undergraduate career. “Mikey represents the ideal combination of technical excellence, research creativity, and practical impact that we hope to cultivate in our engineering programs.”
Similarly, his research at Virginia Tech’s Center for Applied Behavior Systems, under Alumni Distinguished Professor of Psychology Scott Geller, further demonstrates Harrigan’s commitment to transdisciplinary work for the common good.
“Mikey exemplifies a unique combination of academic success, scientific rigor, technological innovation, and a humanitarian vision,” Geller said.
Prediction and intervention
This multidisciplinary preparation came together in May 2024 during Harrigan’s internship with the nonprofit MITRE Corporation, during which he developed a system known as machine algorithm for reporting surveillance, or MARS.
MARS uses NLP to quickly detect and prioritize IT-related patient safety issues in hospitals so they can be resolved quickly, Harrigan said. To develop MARS, he drew on the knowledge he gained in Wang’s NLP class and the neural engineering course he took with School of Neuroscience Associate Professor Sujith Vijayan.
“The MARS prediction model ensures a rapid response to life-threatening situations in hospitals,” Geller said. “The system's impact has been extraordinary, securing pilot programs at 170 hospitals with a projected value in the tens of millions of dollars.”
Harrigan has written a research paper detailing the MARS project that MITRE plans to submit for publication at one of the nation’s leading medical informatics journals. And that’s not all.
“For an undergraduate to lead author a paper targeting such a prestigious journal is remarkable in itself,” Wang said. “But he’s also developing a patent application for MARS' novel crisis detection methodology – an exceptional achievement for an undergraduate and a testament to the innovation in his approach.”
Geller and Wang praised Harrigan’s other innovation, HippoFlow, an automated text monitoring app designed to predict mental health crises before they occur. It also aims to optimize therapist-patient matching to speed up treatment.
“Mikey is in the process of launching HippoFlow at Virginia Tech through cs/root, the computer science technology incubator, demonstrating his commitment to serve his home institution while developing potentially life-saving technology,” Geller said.
Wrestling with meaning
Harrigan thought he had wrestled his last match in high school.
“I figured my efforts at VT would be best spent building from a keyboard,” he said.
But he missed competition and the satisfaction of struggling to meet a goal. So he founded the club wrestling team at Virginia Tech.
“There’s something special about club wrestling and the unparalleled friendships I’ve found through it,” Harrigan said. “The team’s common love for wrestling, its shared competitive mission, and its binding fanaticism for VT’s NCAA team adds a depth to our friendships that’s unique to our community.”
By his sophomore year, the club team had grown to 30 members and won the National Collegiate Wrestling Association Mid-Atlantic Coast D2 team championship. Now it boasts two conference championships and has about 60 members.
Through volunteer days and mentorship, the team also supports VA Elite, a local youth wrestling team. Harrigan said working two summer internships with Wrestling to Beat the Streets DC inspired him. He played a key role in raising $150,000, successfully reinstating wrestling as a recognized sport by the District of Columbia Public Schools for the first time in 30 years.
Amy Jordan, academic advisor in computer science, has worked with Harrigan since 2023 and helped champion his application for college outstanding senior.
“Mikey is an exceptional student who actively builds meaningful connections to support his long-term goals,” Jordan said. “His drive and motivation reflect his commitment to making a positive impact in the world.”
