Evan Dan, a junior at Solon High School who is enrolled in College Credit Plus (CCP) at ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµ University, received the “Best Paper Award” at the second (AIHealth 2025) for his research paper: “Detecting Suicide Risk and Exploring Contributing Factors: Classification and Topic Modeling of Social Media Data.”
AIHealth is an international conference that brings together professionals and researchers from academia, health care and industry to advance and integrate artificial intelligence in health care worldwide. ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµconference was held March 9-13 in Lisbon, Portugal.
Intersection of AI and Mental Health
Dan’s paper, coauthored by Ruoming Jin, Ph.D., and his doctoral student , focuses on his work using large language models (LLMs) and advanced natural language processing techniques to analyze mental health discussions in Reddit communities. This research revealed language patterns and key themes linked to suicidal ideation, as well as the complex relationship between those themes.
“Receiving the Best Paper Award at AIHealth 2025 is an incredible honor for me, and I am very grateful to have my work receive international recognition from leaders in the AI and healthcare research community,” Dan said. “This acknowledgement is especially meaningful as my approach – using computational methods to analyze large-scale online data – differs significantly from the traditional reliance on questionnaires and surveys. As a result, some local researchers expressed doubt and skepticism about the validity of this direction, questioning whether AI or social media data could even yield meaningful results. However, this award has highlighted the real value and potential of my work, strengthening my commitment to advancing research at the intersection of mental health and AI.”
Dan’s interest in mental health research was sparked by a deeply personal experience. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, my brother and I became close with an online friend who was struggling with suicidal thoughts,” he said. “That experience exposed me to how serious and even invisible these challenges can often be, but supporting the person had also taken an emotional toll on us. At the same time, I had been learning computer science, spending numerous hours on personal projects such as developing a website for music concert organizers. As I grew more comfortable with programming, I began exploring ways to apply those skills, leading me to create a simple chatbot designed to provide mental health education and access to support resources 24/7. When I saw that people were genuinely using the chatbot and reaching out for support, it made me realize how real and widespread these struggles are.”
He added, “That experience stayed with me, and when I had the opportunity to join Dr. Ruoming Jin’s research group through ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s research experience program in 2022, I was eager to begin exploring mental health with a more rigorous approach utilizing technology,” Dan said. “Since this was a relatively new direction, the unfamiliarity and complexity pushed me to learn quickly, helping me grow rapidly as a researcher.”
Research at ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµ
Dan joined Jin’s research group through ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµâ€™s Science Experience program, which allows CCP students to collaborate on research with a faculty member. Jin has mentored high school students in the past, but Dan’s achievement stands out.
“It is extremely rare – perhaps unprecedented in my experience – for a student at Evan’s level to take full ownership of a research project,” Jin said.
Jin attributed Dan’s success to his ability to lead during each stage of the research process, work independently and approach each research challenge with careful thought and meticulous attention to detail.
“Evan demonstrates the qualities of a mature and capable researcher beyond his years,” Jin said. “He is intellectually driven and remarkably self-motivated, often pursuing ideas with minimal guidance.”
Dan’s second research paper, “Exploring Suicide Factors in Online Discourse: Sentiment and Thematic Analysis of Reddit,” also coauthored by Jin and Zhu, was accepted for publication in Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Transactions on the Web.
Jin said using AI and LLMs to analyze online communities presents an opportunity to detect early warning signs of suicide, one of the leading causes of death among adolescents and young adults.
“With the widespread use of social media, many individuals express emotional distress online – creating an opportunity for early detection and intervention,” Jin said. “Using AI and the latest large language models, we show that it’s now possible to identify risk signals and contributing factors in a scalable, data-driven way.”
Early Academic Achievement and Future Plans
Dan began taking CCP courses at ľ«¶«Ó°Ňµ in the summer of 2020, while still in sixth grade. He has already completed 27 credit hours and expects to graduate high school with 36 college credits. He will be finishing his Spanish course and taking linear algebra, along with additional science experience classes, to continue his research over the summer.
“Looking ahead, I am eager to continue exploring how AI can be used to improve the mental health of millions,” he said. “Tackling this goal, though, requires more than just technical skill—it calls for a combination of multiple disciplines, which reflect the complexity of the problem. To address that, I plan to pursue advanced studies in psychology, computer science, and music, focusing on developing approaches that can support early intervention and expand access to mental health resources.”
A classically trained pianist with 12 years of experience, Dan was also a top finisher for the Marilyn Caldwell Piano Award, a national competition sponsored by the .
“As someone with 12 years of background in classical piano, I also see music as a powerful lens for understanding emotion, identity and mental well-being,” he said. “With further education, I hope to deepen my understanding of people’s struggles and create more effective tools for detection and support by combining technology with music.”
“Receiving the Best Paper Award has been a powerful encouragement for me to pursue this research path, and I hope to work in a space to bridge research with real-world impact,” Dan said.
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Media Contact:
Jim Maxwell, JMAXWEL2@kent.edu, 330-672-8028