Author: Amy J. Ko

As a first-generation, low-income, Latino college student, Andy Rosales-Elias defies the standard image of a computer science researcher. At a two-week science and math program preceding his first year at UC Santa Barbara, Andy recalls: “I remember one night hearing a cohort member talking on the phone to his parent, who was a professor at… Continue reading Achieving Self-Recognition through Image Recognition

As a high school student, Jalex attended the Canada/USA Mathcamp, a program where mathematicians teach five weeks of math classes to high school students. After the Mathcamp, Jalex was convinced to pursue research in mathematical logic, taking graduate courses in model theory and set theory upon arrival as a first-year student at Caltech. During the… Continue reading From a Reading Group to a Research Group

Xuan Huang graduated from Bryn Mawr College with an undergraduate degree in Computer Science, and is currently a PhD student at the University of Utah studying Computer Graphics.  A summer research internship influenced her decision to attend graduate school. Studying at Bryn Mawr, a women’s college, made Xuan feel very comfortable to take up science… Continue reading Playing with Meshes

Being a curious high school student, Siddharth was part of the Robotics Team at Gunn High School, which compelled him to study Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley. However, after getting introduced to Natural Language Processing, and being an avid reader, Sidd realized that he wanted to pursue both his interests – Computer Science and Literature together,… Continue reading A Perfect Balance of Two Distinct Passions

Computing has been a part of Kalina Petrova’s life since she first took part in a 5th grade extra-curricular programming class. Fascinated by the process of solving computational problems, Kalina had immersed herself in research by the time she reached high school, presenting research projects at national conferences around her home country of Bulgaria. She… Continue reading Programming and Paradigms, a Lifelong Pursuit of Research

In academia, research often leads individuals to conferences. For Nathaniel Yazdani, it was a conference that led him to research. In the summer before transferring to the University of Washington from a local community college, Nathaniel had just learned his first functional programming language. Curious as to why someone would design “such a strange language,”… Continue reading From Internet Searches to International Conferences

The field of medicine prides itself on being evidence-based, but where does that evidence come from? With aspirations for a career in medicine, this was one of the questions that fascinated Vinyas Harish, which would eventually lead him on a path from the engineering lab to the operating room. Although Vinyas’s research career began as… Continue reading Engineering Labs and Operating Rooms

Planning for the summer after his sophomore year, Louis Jenkins had focused his efforts on securing an industry internship. However, in what he describes as “sheer coincidence,” Louis was forwarded a departmental email that would alter not only his summer plans, but his overall career trajectory. The email highlighted the NSF summer Research Experience for… Continue reading Coincidence, Concurrence, and Careers

Originally a pre-med student at Loyola University, Laurynas Kalesinskas had envisioned his undergraduate degree as a stepping-stone to attend medical school. An interest in research and a passion to create change in healthcare led him to computational research. Fascinated by the projects he worked on, Laurynas shifted his focus. Graduating with a Bioinformatics and Biology… Continue reading From Pre-med to Ph.D. in Biomedical Informatics

Yisu Remy Wang was sophomore at Tufts University when he enrolled in Professor Kathleen Fisher’s programming languages course.  In that course, Professor Fisher exposed students to some areas of current research which sparked Yisu’s interest and curiosity.  Yisu spoke with Professor Fisher and she agreed to act as his research advisor.  This was the beginning… Continue reading Proofs, Privacy, and Programming