Defense passed April 2025.

Candidacy Exam: "Learning about spaces without vision: Theory, tools, and the future." [passed Dec. 2021]

Graduated summa cum laude.

Senior Project: "ASSIST (Assistive Sensor Solutions for Independent and Safe Travel)"

Spent three weeks in the beautiful city of Tours, located on the banks of the Loire River in central France. Took an intensive five-days-a-week, three-week French language course while exploring and learning about the culture and history of the city and country.

Working in the Computer-Enabled Abilities Laboratory (CEAL).

• Leading research engineering initiatives in human-computer interaction (HCI), producing 6 first-author publications, a pending patent, and an upcoming Unreal Engine plugin for game developers.
• Implemented an AI agent-powered data pipeline using Python and LlamaIndex, extracting insights from large-scale smart city datasets for influencing urban policy.
• Engineered a metadata storage solution with MongoDB and Qdrant, optimizing vector-based similarity queries for 3,000+ datasets using text embeddings.
• Improved UX in 3D video games and accessibility tools using Unity and C#, resulting in >90% user satisfaction
• Deployed a Firebase-like backend with Docker on Ubuntu servers, ingesting 1M+ logs from remote user tests
• Analyzed and visualized data to generate insights for 50+ user tests using Jupyter, Pandas, and Matplotlib.
• Mentored 25 students in research & technical skills and ensured successful completion of 6 major projects.

Worked with the Ability team and HCAIX (Human-Centered AI & Experiences) Group at Microsoft Research in Redmond.

• Developed a Python-based system using LLMs to improve participant engagement within virtual meetings.
• Integrated system into Microsoft Teams, processing 6+ data streams in real time with <5-second latency.
• Designed a dashboard using React to manage system parameters, tracking over 100 metrics in real time.
• Brainstormed ideas for system expansion, user studies, and potential future publications with 20+ researchers.
• Authored 30+ pages of detailed technical documentation and delivered 2 key presentations with live demos.

Worked with the City College Visual Computing Laboratory (now known as the CUNY Computational Vision and Convergence Laboratory).

• Created assistive technologies to improve navigation in large transportation hubs for people with disabilities.
• Integrated wireless sensor networks with computer vision techniques to enable precise positioning across large indoor areas, achieving accuracy to within 5 inches.
• Built a client-server system with Django and PostgreSQL backend to deliver real-time, turn-by-turn navigation.
• Led team to build an Android app with voice UI, allowing users to start navigation in under 30 seconds.
• Secured follow-on grant and collaborated with 6 institutions, resulting in 5 co-authored research publications.

Worked with the Arlene R. Gordon Research Institute at Lighthouse Guild.

• Researched novel mobile- and wearable-based assistive technologies for blind and low vision (BLV) users.
• Facilitated 3 separate tests of prototypes with over 30 BLV individuals in order to gather feedback for further improvements.
• Performed over 40 one-on-one interviews with potential users for feedback and suggestions.

Based at the Command, Control, and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis, a DHS Center of Excellence at Rutgers University. Part of the DHS's Summer Research Team Program for MSIs.

• Served as the only undergraduate researcher on a project utilizing Bluetooth beacons and computer vision approaches to provide navigation support and crowd behavior analysis inside large transportation hubs.
• Experimented with various positioning SDKs and methods (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, vision, and geomagnetism) to determine the best method of indoor positioning on an Android device.
• Built and deployed a custom-made, Django-based server component with a robust API onto Heroku and a bridged virtual machine.

Worked in the Division of Liver Diseases of the Department of Medicine.

• Assisted a post-doctoral fellow with identifying biomarkers and therapeutic targets for chronic liver diseases.
• Performed computer-aided data analysis on large datasets using R, Python, and Gene Set Enrichment Analysis.

Received an award for the Surveyor project.

Gave an invited talk to the Accessibility NYC meetup group in June 2024 about my PhD work on video games.

• Listed as lead inventor on a pending patent that resulted from the NavStick project.
• In connection with this patent, an in-progress project within the CEAL Lab is converting NavStick into a plugin for the Unreal Engine. Release is expected soon.

A full list of my research publications can be found on my Google Scholar page.

• Participated in a week-long summer school on computational interaction, an emerging subfield in human-computer interaction (HCI), and took part in a 24-hour hackathon at the end.
• Created a system that backed up a text-based autocorrect system with a voice-based override in case the text-based system did not provide the correct autocorrect result. The override would correct the text and change the text model so that future corrections would be affected.
• Attempted to use Flask and Tkinter to create a prototype system that consisted of a touchscreen keyboard with voice capabilities that connected to our custom-made model.
• Won second place via an audience vote.

• Oversaw initial development of a learning management system to simplify school and classroom administration.
• Prototyped apps (web and Android mobile) and managed server (building, hardening, and maintenance).
• Selected as semifinalists into the 2016 Zahn Innovation Center's Tech Innovation Seed Prize and awarded seed funding to develop our idea while participating in a 5-month startup “bootcamp.”
• Managed work associated with venture competitions, including preparing pitches, meeting with mentors, and performing demos.
• Played vital role in major decisions, including allocating future equity among team members and suggesting shifts in focus.

• Built a search engine using Flask over the course of 20 hours to handle client queries on stock information and performance using data from disparate sources.
• Notably used regular expressions to create a pseudo-natural language processor for processing queries.

• 4 semesters: Spring 2021, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, and Spring 2024.
• Served as a TA for a seminar class that covers seminal works in human-computer interaction (HCI).
• Mentored students in giving effective research presentations and completing an original HCI research project.

• 4 semesters: Fall 2020 (Head TA), Fall 2021, Fall 2022 (Head TA), and Fall 2023.
• Served as a TA for User Interface Design — a class that covers the skills, process, and thinking necessary to make computer systems useful and usable to people.
• Mentored students in becoming more familiar with the user-centered design process.

• Led a weekly, required workshop for a total of 40 students taking General Chemistry I.
• Administered worksheets and quizzes to students, and assisted students with any issues they may have had with concepts.
• Participated in weekly sessions for workshop leaders as part of the Peer-Led Team Learning (PLTL) Program.

• Assisted four low-income high school students on improving their SAT Math scores and navigating the college application process.
• Planned all weekly lessons, maintained constant contact with students, and coordinated with Site Directors on logistics.

• CHI 2023 LBWs (★ Recognition: Outstanding Review ★)
• DIS 2023
• CSCW 2024
• CHI 2024 Papers
• CHI 2024 LBWs (★ Recognition: Outstanding Review ★)
• CHI PLAY 2024
• CHI 2025 Papers

3 semesters: Fall 2020, Fall 2021, and Fall 2023.

2 semesters: Spring 2020 and Spring 2023.