i enjoy using computer science as a tool
to showcase the
intersection between
technology and public policy.
here
are some of my projects
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) publishes its sanctions on a public server. This server contains an everchanging list individuals, groups, and entities, such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers sanctioned by the government. Currently, most companies tediously and manually track these sanctions to comply with government regulations and often miss new sanction updates. I built a simple program in python using the file transfer protocol (FTP) to track changes to the server every 5 minutes and alert the user if a new crypto or terrorist sanction was added to the list.
Given a set of satellite images of Botswana collected by DigitalGlobe's WorldView-3 and GeoEye-1 Satellites, my research project implements openCV algorithms to create a machine learning program that tracks elephant herd movement and predicts migration.The park rangers in Botswana also input the longitude and latitude coordinates of several elephant herds into a spreadsheet. This data is then analyzed and rendered into a heatmap using Tableau's software. This was the most challenging project I worked on; navigating language barriers, working with teams 9 hours ahead of me on the map, coordinating with park rangers in remote areas of Botswana without service, accessing the satellite's imagery database, learning computer vision using openCV etc.
I was selected by J.P. Morgan for their Code For Good Hackathon, a consulting project where I led my team in designing and implementing a solution for BRICS, an Emmy Award-winning public TV network that broadcasts local talent and art media. This project concluded with a demo to J.P. Morgan's tech team, engineers, and the BRIC Board of Directors. My team's solution won and I was offered an internship in J.P. Morgan's technology analyst program. Created an intuitive user interface for artists to submit their work to the BRIC database using Amazon Web Services. The biggest challenge involved using the Java Email API to create email notifications to generate higher ratings and views.
Sophomore year, I was accepted into the TAVtech fellowship program where I spent 5 weeks living in Tel Aviv, Israel receiving high-level training in machine learning, big data, and cybersecurity. I worked with world renowned Machine Learner Vladi Sandler and Cybersecurity expert Gil Levi to create a machine learning project concentrating in computer vision for identifying skin disease and reading "mean tweets". Additionally, on a weekend trip to Syria I was inspired to create a computer graphics program from space telescope images I took there. My project concluded with me pitching my machine learning program to the founders and CEOs of venture capital firms Israel Cleantech Ventures and Elevator Fund. I also had the chance to meet IDF Soldiers working in the tech and intelligence unit. Shoutout to my wonderful fellows and the friends I made in Israel and Syria!
During my fellowship in Israel, I took a weekend trip to Syria where I was inspired to create a computer graphics program that visualized the data from space telescope images I took there. There is an observatory in Khan Arnabeh, Syria, where you can view the planets and constellations and capture the images from the telescope. I wanted to take the data from this telescope and do data visualization with computer graphics. we implemented my notes from computer graphics class with Ken Perlin to implement a program that would render images of constellations, planets orbiting, and interactive games to understand the solar system. We used an OpenGL framework with Javascript and C++, vectors, matrix transformations, phong and ray shading, and cubic splines.