Bio

About Me

Harvard Yard in the Fall



Cherry Blossom Festival, DC



Sunset at CMU Campus



Bacon Fig Dessert

I grew up in northern California and I try to visit every chance I get! In 1999, I moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts to pursue my undergraduate degree in Mechanical Engineering. As an undergraduate, I performed two years of research at Harvard University’s Occupational Biomechanics Laboratory (HOBs), which is affiliated with the Harvard School of Public Health. The focus of our project team was to model the joint activity of the human finger during tapping on a computer key. For my senior thesis, I designed and built a prototype keyswitch that incorporated horizontal force vectors within the motion, based on the hypothesis that the inclusion of horizontal forces would reduce joint torques produced by the tapping finger.

After awhile, I got too cold in Bostong so I moved south to Washington, DC. As a Research Assistant at the RAND Corporation, I worked on many interdisciplinary projects that fueled my commitment to explore the psychological and sociological implications of technology use. While at RAND, I recognized that the form of technology affects what information is captured, thereby impacting human understanding and, in this instance, implicitly influencing policy recommendations. It is this critical relationship between technology, information, and users that motivated me to become a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University’s Human Computer Interaction Institute.

Now, in Pittsburgh, I am concentrating my research on the extent to which emerging technologies can alter our capacity to communicate and share information with other individuals and systems. My advisors Professor Sara Kiesler and Professor Susan Fussell focus on complex collaboration and information sharing. Through their partnership, I have conducted laboratory studies on information sharing and have been exploring other arenas of communication. Although I miss the warm sunshine of Northern California, the brick and ivy of Harvard Yard, and the fast-paced political culture of DC, I am excited about the many oppportunities presented to me at CMU.

Interests

When I am not attached to my laptop, I love to cook (and eat), dance, paint, read, and travel. I love bacon and once made a four course bacon meal for my friends. It was scrmptious but I think the bacon dessert put me off bacon for a few weeks!