I’m a third-year PhD student in computer science at UC Berkeley advised by Ben Recht.
Previously, I received my Bachelor’s in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and my Master’s in human rights studies from Columbia University. I work on on interdisciplinary applications of computer science, from
astrophysics to history to politics.
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09 ARCHIVE
2013-15
Here are some of my favorite science fair projects from childhood :)
COMPUTATIONAL CARDIOLOGY (2015)
I wrote a simple signal processing algorithm to
process stethoscope sounds and accurately detect the presence and type
of a patient’s heart murmur. The project was inspired by my younger
sister Kate, who was born with a heart condition (a bicuspid aortic
valve) which causes her to have a heart murmur.
Method: The algorithm took the envelope of a pre-recorded heartbeat
and isolated the systolic and diastolic sections by finding the local
maxima of the filtered envelope. I diagnosed the heartbeat by convolving
each section with simple geometric filters that matched profiles of
common murmurs. I tested the algorithm against seventy-one prerecorded
heart sounds from public websites dedicated to ear-training medical
professionals. I identified normal heartbeats with a 100% success rate
and murmurs with a 95% success rate. I categorized both systolic and
diastolic murmurs with 70% accuracy.
This project was a great first look into the basics of signal processing for me.
SEWING SCIENCE (2014)
I loved to sew as a kid, so I decided to test what stitch type made the strongest seam (e.g. a straight stitch, zigzag stitch, sawtooth stitch, etc.) I found that the straight stitch always performed the best, which is consistent with its use in high-stress devices such as parachutes, seatbelts, and automobile airbags! I ended up winning the Broadcom MASTERS national middle school science fair with this project, and I was invited to the White House Science Fair in 2015 to present it. I wrote more about the project here.
Some fun links:
BILLIARD BOTS (2013)
This is still one of my favorites :) I tested out billiards trick shots using a robot.
For the unfamiliar -- there are a few standard ways you can hit the cue ball towards the object balls (e.g. solids/stripes) to sink balls at difficult angles. When you hit the cue ball at an angle with respect to the object
ball, you create what’s called “cut-induced throw” on the object ball, causing the
object ball to travel tangent to the impact line. When you hit the cue
ball with a clockwise or counterclockwise spin (i.e. by hitting
the cue ball off center), you create “spin-induced throw” on the object
ball, and the sliding friction propels the object ball left or
right (for clockwise or counterclockwise spin respectively).
In my
experiment, I attached a cue ball to a robot so I could hit an object
ball with cut, spin, and a combination of both. Using simple
trigonometry, I predicted the object ball’s trajectory in each shot.
The results? I got marginally better at pool.
Small child (me) collecting data on the billiard bot.