Using Exploration as a Catalyst Toward Research-Definition

Andriy Mulyar, a proponent of supportive research environments, is currently  pursuing a dual degree in Computer Science and Mathematics at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU). His research journey began during his senior year in high school where he participated in a natural language processing project under Dr. Bridget McInnes through an outreach program coordinated by the… Continue reading Using Exploration as a Catalyst Toward Research-Definition

Leveraging an Inviting Undergraduate Research Community

Many graduate students do not have extensive undergraduate research experience and undergraduate students may find it difficult to identify research opportunities. Yet Eric found a welcoming community of researchers at the University of Southern California’s (USC) Viterbi School of Engineering. He recalls: “We [Faculty] worked together to select future research topics that I wanted to… Continue reading Leveraging an Inviting Undergraduate Research Community

Finding Passion in Computer Science through Research

Sheila Alemany Blanco, Florida International University, Bachelor of Science in Computer Science & Mathematics, 2019 Being a Hispanic woman in a STEM field presents different obstacles for many young women. At times, this means inability to find belonging, purpose, or passion in a discipline. In particular, this rings true within the bouts of undergraduate research.… Continue reading Finding Passion in Computer Science through Research

Achieving Self-Recognition through Image Recognition

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

From a Reading Group to a Research Group

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

Playing with Meshes

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

A Perfect Balance of Two Distinct Passions

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

Programming and Paradigms, a Lifelong Pursuit of Research

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

From Internet Searches to International Conferences

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