Team:Wellesley TheTech/Team/Members

BAC PACK

• TEAM
  • Members
  • Notebooks
  • Acknowledgements
• PROJECT
  • Overview
  • Digital Component
  • Wetlab Component
  • Background
  • Hardware
• HUMAN PRACTICES
  • Practices
  • Methodology
  • Collaboration
• MEDAL FULFILLMENT

TEAM MEMBERS

students | interns | advisors | instructors

Students

Vivien Chen

Vivien Chen is a rising sophomore prospective CS major and psychology minor. This is her first year in the HCI lab, and she is excited to be working on the iGEM team. This coming year, Vivien is looking forward to singing with the Wellesley Widows, interning at the CWS, and reading in the greenhouse.

Jasmine Davis

Jasmine is a rising Junior at Wellesley College (Class of 2017) working for a second year in Wellesley's Human-Computer Interaction Lab. She is majoring in Media Arts and Sciences with a concentration in Computer Science. Jasmine has prior experience working with iGem teams, but this is her first official iGem project. In her spare time she enjoys reading, exploring Boston, horseback riding, and fencing.

Rachel Kwon

Rachel is a rising junior at Wellesley majoring in Cognitive and Linguistic Science. This is her first summer working in the HCI lab and is super excited to collaborate with other students, faculty, and people from all over the country! She is looking forward to collaborate and explore how the interdepartmental and diverse aspects of human computer interaction. In her free time, she enjoys netflixing Criminal Minds, hiking, and exploring!

Sam Mincheva

Sam is a rising junior majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Japanese. This is Sam's first year in the lab, and they are excited to explore interdisciplinary approaches to tackling scientific issues and presenting information in an accessible way. Outside of the lab, Sam can be found talking about cats, playing tetris, and starting and abandoning various projects.

Christina Pollalis

Christina is a rising senior at Wellesley College studying Political Science and Computer Science. This is her first time working in the HCI lab and also her first time working on an iGEM team. Outside of the lab, she enjoys reading books, watching movies, and cooking.

Lily Westort

Lily is a rising sophomore studying Computer Science with an interest in discovering new ways to integrate technology to improve and enhance everyday life. Working in the HCI lab and on the iGEM team has also facilitated her interest in the interdisciplinary relationship between Biology and Computer Science. Outside of the lab she enjoys reading, lemonade, hip-hop music and dancing.

Interns

Melissa Foley

Melissa is a sophomore in high school. Besides the computer sciences, she enjoys being involved in student council and playing sports for her school (which include field hockey, swimming, and softball). In the future she hopes to learn as much as she can about different programming languages.

Nicole Nieves

Nicole Nieves is a rising senior at Framingham High School who interned in the Wellesley HCI this summer. She enjoys programming, math, and design, and is excited to learn more about computer science as a career. Outside of the lab, Nicole enjoys playing with her dog, playing games, and boxing.

Priyanka Roy

Priyanka is a rising senior at Framingham High School. This was her first summer interning in the HCI lab, where she helped with the BacPack for New Frontiers project and enjoyed learning JavaScript along the way. Outside the lab, she likes to read and dance.

Advisors

Johanna Okerlund

Johanna is a 2014 graduate of Wellesley and working as lab manager. She was a computer science major and a music minor. She is interested in developing new interaction techniques and is especially excited about interfaces that use tangibles. In her spare time, she plays the pipe organ and ultimate frisbee.

Evan Segreto

Evan graduated from Wellesley College in 2015 with a major in Computer Science and a minor in Philosophy. They also worked at the lab from 2013 - 2015 as a student, and they are particularly interested in researching accessible and intuitive user experiences. When not programming or fiddling with hardware, you can often find Evan playing Ultimate Frisbee, curled up with a good book, or hanging out with their puppy, Hamlet.

Lauren Westendorf

Lauren graduated from Wellesley College in 2015 with a major in psychology and a minor in computer science. She completed her honors thesis on gender identification and stereotype threat, focusing on gender diverse populations within women's colleges. She is interested in working with next generation user interfaces and tangibles. Much of her free time is spent cooking and singing, often in tandem.

Instructors

Romie Littrell

Romie is the Project Director for health and biotech exhibitions at The Tech Museum of Innovation. He's been making tools and designing spaces for biology for 15 years and is currently developing a large scale, permanent exhibition around synthetic biology and biodesign. His main goals are to inspire future problem solvers to think creatively with biology and to grow the most amazing garden of all time.

Anja Scholze

Anja is the Biotech Experience Designer at the Tech Museum of Innovation. She researches, prototypes, and develops interactive exhibits and hands-on programing to engage visitors in the exciting worlds of biology and biotechnology. Prior to transitioning into informal education, Anja spent a decade conducting academic research focused on understanding cellular and molecular brain development. She has a BA in Neuroscience from Pomona College and a Ph.D. in Developmental Biology from Stanford University.

Orit Shaer

Orit Shaer is an Associate Professor of Computer Science and Media Arts and Sciences at Wellesley College. She directs the Wellesley College HCI Lab. Her research focuses on the application of tangible and embodied interaction to scientific discovery and collaborative learning. This is her fourth iGEM experience as an instructor. oshaer@wellesley.edu