Education
Started in cognitive science and computer science, then to art & computer science, then to the MIT Media Lab. I decided to do two masters instead of a Ph.D. for some mildly interesting reasons. Feel free to ask me about it sometime.
MIT Media Lab
SM Media Arts & Sciences
uilt Konbit, a free service in response to the earthquake in Haiti to help Haitians find jobs as part of the country’s reconstruction. The automated service sought to boost the Haitian economy by helping non-governmental organizations, such as Partners In Health, find local workers instead of outsourcing labor. More than 50% of the country was illiterate with no access to digital resources, so Konbit allowed unemployed Haitians to call a toll-free number to record their skills and life experiences. Messages were transcribed into an online database that NGOs can search, where original audio clips were provided for additional emotional insight.
UC Irvine
MS Computer Science & Informatics
Graduated from the Arts Computation and Engineering Interdisciplinary Program, where I focused on novel user interfaces that challenged the assumption that displays are necessary for functional interfaces. Back before iPhones, I designed, built, and showcased PersonalSoundtrack, a tiny device that detected your walking or running pace and then played music that matched your pace from MP3s stored on a flash card. I based it on the Gumstix platform and wrote a step-detection algorithm in assembly deployed in a PIC chip. I used Python on the Gumstix for general controller stuff like playing audio and choosing songs.
UC San Diego
BS Cognitive Science with specialization in computation
Honors thesis focused on understanding and addressing how people drop and pick up work state after unexpected interruptions, building software to help all parties remember the context and mental scaffolding they left off.