Thesis proposal passed Jan. 2023.

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 with the Ability team at Microsoft Research in Redmond.

Advisor: Dr. Brian A. Smith

• Performing research on digital media accessibility for users with disabilities, particularly in the context of virtual environments (such as video games and metaverses) and static media (such as digital images).
• Investigating how blind and low vision users can explore digital images and navigate through complex 3D virtual worlds in a manner equivalent to sighted users.
• Prototyping tools within the Unity game engine, and integrating them into custom-built 3D video games to perform user tests with dozens of blind gamers.
• Implementing tools for PCs and mobile devices, and integrating them with cloud-based backends to allow for remote control, detailed analytics, and cross-platform communication.
• Working toward real-world impact through a to-be-published game engine plugin.
• Mentored 16 students, first-authored 5 research publications, and listed as lead inventor on 1 pending patent.

Advisor: Dr. William H. Seiple

• Researched novel mobile- and wearable-based assistive technologies for people with visual impairments.
• Facilitated 3 separate tests of prototypes with over 30 people with visual impairments in order to gather feedback for further improvements.
• Performed over 40 one-on-one interviews with potential users for feedback and suggestions.

Advisor: Dr. Zhigang Zhu

• Developed assistive technologies for people who have difficulties in navigating large, complex transportation hubs.
• Created a highly robust and extensible client-server system using Django + PostgreSQL as the cloud-based backend for an Android app that positions users within complex indoor environments.
• Explored and integrated numerous technologies, including Bluetooth beacons, Google Tango, and computer vision techniques, to provide indoor positioning with centimeter-level precision.
• Led a Senior Design team that created “ASSIST,” a highly robust and user-centric application that assists people with visual impairments as well as people with autism in safely and accurately navigating complex indoor environments.
• Designed and implemented a highly optimized, touch- and voice-driven user interface to initiate navigation in under 30 seconds.
• Mentored 10 students (2 CS Senior Design teams, 1 EE Senior Design team, and 1 high school student), collaborated with over 6 institutions, and co-authored 5 publications (with 3 as the first author).

Based at the Command, Control, and Interoperability Center for Advanced Data Analysis, a DHS Center of Excellence at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.

Advisor: Dr. Jie Gong

• Served as the only undergraduate team member 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.
• Subsequently awarded a follow-on grant to continue our work during the following year.

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

Advisor: Dr. Yujin Hoshida

• 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.

• Serving as a TA for a seminar class that covers seminal works in human-computer interaction (HCI).
• Mentoring students in giving effective research presentations and completing an original HCI research project.

• Served as the Head 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.
• Coordinated class logistics.
• Worked as part of a team of 6 instructional assistants in a class of 125 students.

• Served as the Head TA for User Interface Design in Fall 2020.
• Coordinated class logistics, including special platforms and procedures instituted as part of the hybrid semester.

• 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.

• 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.

• ACM CHI 2023 LBWs (★ Recognition: Highly Useful Review ★)
• ACM DIS 2023

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

• Listed as the lead inventor of 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 sometime in 2023.