We are pleased to present our CTSP Fellows for the 2021 year:
People 2021
CTSP Fellows
V (Sarah) de la Vega
Project: Alternative Emergency Response for People Who Cannot Call 911
Sarah (who goes by V) is a UX researcher and graduate student in UC Berkeley’s Master of Information Management and Systems. Her focus is on understanding different perspectives in order to build inclusive technology, communities, and products. She has a background in accessibility, research, and management. While conducting research in UC Berkeley’s cognitive development department, she focused on how people learn; in the Haas School of Business she focused on ingroup/outgroup bias; and before that, she designed organizational systems for UC Berkeley’s Disabled Students Program.
Liza Gak
Liza is a PhD student at the UC Berkeley School of Information, advised by Dr. Niloufar Salehi. She is interested in human-computer interaction, social computing, virtual communities, and online harms. Previously, she graduated with a BA in Computer Science and Mathematics, with a minor in American Culture Studies from Washington University in St. Louis. (Website)
Jon Gillick
Project: Leveraging the communicative, social and health benefits of drumming in early childhood
Jon is a researcher and music producer/engineer currently working toward my PhD at the UC Berkeley School of Information, advised by David Bamman. He is also affiliated with CNMAT, working with Carmine-Emanuele Cella. His research interests lie at the intersection of Machine Learning, Music Technology, and Human-Computer Interaction. His current work centers around using machine learning to explore new ways of understanding and creating music and sound. His primary responsibility will be to bring his experience in researching, designing, and developing technologies for music creation to this collaboration, where he will help to guide the technical direction for the Drumball. (Website)
Jeremy Gordon
Project: Leveraging the communicative, social and health benefits of drumming in early childhood
Jeremy is a PhD student at Berkeley’s School of Information where he conducts research at the BioSENSE lab. He is a computational cognitive scientist aiming to investigate the role of embodied mental simulation, imagination, and prospection as part of decision-making processes across multiple timescales. He uses emerging technologies like virtual reality and biosensing devices to understand how people develop and use internal models of the world in support of exploration and planning. He also hopes his work may lend insight into critical ethical questions about the use and privacy implications of such technologies. Jeremy is also a full stack developer and product designer, and has extensive experience working with NGOs, social enterprises and government agencies in emerging markets. Before returning to the academic world, Jeremy was based in Nairobi where he founded Echo Mobile, a mobile messaging platform allowing businesses and organizations to communicate with and better understand the people they work with. (Website)
Darya Kaviani
Project: Solidarity, Not Charity!: Mutual Aid, Scalability, and Building Community Resilience
Darya is a second-year undergraduate at UC Berkeley majoring in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science and minoring in Ethnic Studies. Her interests lie at the intersection of technology and uplifting marginalized communities through public speaking, building, teaching, and closely integrated quantitative and qualitative research methods. In the past, Darya has leveraged a unique lens at the convergence of computer science and ethnic studies to build blockchain tools for socioeconomic mobility in the Global South, create products to facilitate powerful civic engagement, and design frameworks for the use of social media in ethnic movements.
Abby Krishnan
Projects: Examining the Landscape of Digital Security and Privacy Assistance for Racial Minority Groups
Abby is currently a senior undergraduate computer science and public policy student at the University of Texas at Austin. She regularly does research with Vijay Chidambaram at the UT Systems Lab. She is interested in systems informed tech regulation and evaluating the impact of compliance on software and system performance. She is also interested in learning how personal digital information and online privacy influences social and political processes. She is thrilled to be working with the Center for Technology, Society & Policy!
Chelsie Lui
Project: Activism Always: A Student Initiative for Data in the Social Impact Sector
Chelsie is a 4th year Communication Studies major (Chinese, Ethnic Studies, and Science and Risk Communications minors) at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. She is completing research in Digital Communications with Dr. Aubrie S. Adams at Cal Poly SLO. She is also involved in a number of leadership roles related to her field: Associate Editor for sprinkle: Undergraduate Journal of Queer and Feminist Studies; Treasurer and Program Director for Cal Poly SLO Communication Studies Club; Vice President of San Luis Obispo Chapter of Lambda Pi Eta (National Communication Studies Association, NCA).
Joanne Ma
Project: Examining the Landscape of Digital Security and Privacy Assistance for Racial Minority Groups
Joanne (she/her) is a Masters student at the UC Berkeley School of Information, where her research focuses on issues within HCI and security. Her current research includes designing values-sensitive human-AI partnerships for mental health practitioners at the CMU Co-Augmentation, Learning, and AI Lab (CoALA), building more intuitive and accessible mobile security settings for users at the margins at the Berkeley Laboratory for Usable and Experimental Security (BLUES), and understanding misinformation within diasporic online communities. She received her Bachelor’s degree from the University of California, Berkeley in Human Computer Interaction. (Website)
Moses Namara
Project: Examining the Landscape of Digital Security and Privacy Assistance for Racial Minority Groups
Moses is a Facebook Research Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in Human-Centered Computing at Clemson University. He uses interdisciplinary research methods from computer science, psychology, and the social sciences to understand the principles behind users’ adoption and use of technologies, decision-making, online privacy attitudes, and behaviors. Born and raised in Kampala, Uganda, he is excited about the opportunity of using his research experience and skills to bring attention and understanding to the privacy and security issues uniquely faced by the minority, historically under-served, and disadvantaged communities. He is also interested in contributing to the CTSP & CLTC network and community by supporting the CTSP initiatives at UC Berkeley, supporting other students and fellows, expanding outreach, and making connections to leaders outside CTSP. (Website)
Hoa Nguyen
Project: Activism Always: A Student Initiative for Data in the Social Impact Sector
Hoa received her Masters’ of Science in Business Analytics from San Francisco State University in December 2020. As a data scientist, Hoa executes strategy plans, builds data pipelines and deploys Machine Learning and natural language processing algorithms. Hoa has worked with the Advancement Project on data projects. On the team, Hoa executes strategy plans, builds data pipelines, designs product prototypes, and deploys Machine Learning and natural language processing algorithms.
Tonya Nguyen
Project: Solidarity, Not Charity!: Mutual Aid, Scalability, and Building Community Resilience
Tonya is a Ph.D. student at the UC Berkeley School of Information. Her work centers on human-computer interaction (HCI), social computing, and human-centered AI. She builds computational social systems by collaborating with communities, using ethnography, and conducting controlled experiments. In the past, she worked on digital fabrication projects, built CSCW tools for online collaboration, and built online experiments to study team viability and fracture, at Berkeley BiD and Stanford HCI. She received her BA in Interdisciplinary Studies (Computer Science, Design Innovation, and Critical Theory) from UC Berkeley. (Website)
Mikayla O’Reggio
Project: Activism Always: A Student Initiative for Data in the Social Impact Sector
Mikayla is a senior Environmental Economics and Policy major with a minor in Human Rights at UC Berkeley. Mikayla has worked in Strategy & Operations for two startups: 81cents, a startup aimed at closing the wage gap and Popcorn, a Berkeley Skydeck startup. Mikayla also has extensive NPO experience with local and global organizations. Mikayla also has consulting experience with non-profits such as Pencils of Promise and Corporate Social Responsibility strategy for mission driven organizations such as Uber Freight. Mikayla uses her passion for the social impact and activism sectors to drive the company’s mission.
Seyi Olojo
Seyi is PhD student at the UC Berkeley School of Information where she is advised by Dr. Jenna Burrell. Her research explores the visibility politics of information, specifically the differential representation of marginalized identities within demographic categories and datasets. Prior to joining the I School, she worked as a data analyst at an advertising technology company in New York City. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Environmental Policy at Barnard College.
Jin Pu
Project: Activism Always: A Student Initiative for Data in the Social Impact Sector
Jin graduated from Columbia University with a Masters’ of Science in Business Analytics in December 2020. Jin is responsible for social media analysis and natural language processing. Jin has expertise in machine learning, natural language processing, and data storytelling, with rich internship experiences in Accenture and tech giants in China. She is also the champion of the Morgan Stanley Analytics Challenge Competition, leveraging Twitter social media footprints to draw insights into the long-term strategy for Morgan Stanley. Jin ensures the transparency, quality, and accuracy (robust machine learning algorithms) of the team’s data analysis.
Nikita Samarin
Project: Examining the Landscape of Digital Security and Privacy Assistance for Racial Minority Groups
Nikita is a doctoral student in Computer Science in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences (EECS) at the University of California, Berkeley advised by Serge Egelman and David Wagner. His research focuses on computer security and privacy from an interdisciplinary perspective, combining approaches from human-computer interaction, behavioral sciences, law and policy. Samarin is a RSAC Security Scholar and the recipient of the Scottish Young Software Engineer of the Year Award. Before coming to Berkeley, Samarin has previously worked as a research assistant at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the University of California, Irvine (UCI), and as a teaching assistant at the University of Edinburgh. He holds a BSc with Honors in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh. (Website)
Pierre Tchetgen
Project: Leveraging the communicative, social and health benefits of drumming in early childhood
Pierre recently completed his Ph.D. in Education at UC Berkeley under the mentorship of Professor Jabari Mahiri, and received his degree in December 2020. Prior to joining the doctoral program at the Graduate School of Education, he attended the School of Information for two years and received my Masters in Information Management and Systems (2009). He holds a Masters in Humanities from the University of Chicago (2003) and is also a poet, musician, producer and DJ, performing and releasing music as Akwerius and Music Is Healing. His goal in pursuing this fellowship is to deepen his practice as a designer. (Website)
Gabriella Wong
Project: Alternative Emergency Response for People Who Cannot Call 911
Gabriella is Executive Director and Founder AccesSOS, a tech nonprofit fighting to make emergency help accessible to everyone. For any emergency, 911 is the go to phone call for all of us, except for the 37 million Americans who can’t hear or speak out loud. AccesSOS’s free mobile web app instantly translates text to a 911 phone call with the relevant information, in real time, at scale, in multiple languages. Some of AccesSOS’s funders include Fast Forward, BlackRock, Google.org, PagerDuty.org and Github. She received her Masters in Public Health from Columbia University. She has managed projects advocating for equal access to education, technology, and healthcare for people with disabilities. She is Co-Chair of NENA’s (National Emergency Number Association) Communication Modalities Committee, and part of working groups that focus on accessibility and emergency notification for persons with disabilities. She is fluent in American Sign Language.