My Mission:
To elevate the human experience by learning, developing, and implementing principles of design to enhance the enjoyment, efficiency, and safety of human life…
My Early Years Laying a Foundation
I trace my formation as a student, researcher, and problem solver back to Jesuit High School in Tampa, Florida. There, I learned the importance of critical thinking, cultivated a love of learning, and had the privilege of being mentored by a host of knowledgeable and dedicated faculty. They taught me to be a “Man for Others” who tirelessly works to improve the human condition—a label that I now strive to live up to every single day.
By the end of my time at Jesuit, I knew the types of problems that I wanted to solve, I knew where I could go to solve them, and I had the skills and experience under my belt that I needed to get there. I was ready to go.
Undergraduate Studies Finding My Passion
Between 2015 and 2018, I completed a Bachelor of Science in Psychology at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, FL. My coursework at UCF contained healthy doses of research methods, statistics, and psychological theory, and along the way I also picked up some applied experience working with R, SPSS, and SAS.
From 2016 through 2018, I had the opportunity to work as an undergraduate research assistant in the UCF Transportation Research Group. Our research focused on understanding and optimizing the relationships between humans and automation in aviation systems. In my final year at UCF, I was first author on a project examining how changes in system reliability influence operators’ willingness to trust and rely on autonomous systems. I left this particular line of research behind when I began grad school, but my experience with the TRG team sparked the passion for designing effective human-computer relationships that continues to drive my work.
Graduate School Pursuing My Passion
Since starting graduate school in 2018, I’ve had the opportunity to grow and challenge my skills in ways that I never thought possible. My work to-date has introduced me to several entirely new fields, including virtual reality, quantitative models of human movement performance (Fitts’ law), and the kinematic analysis of goal-directed movements.
Looking forward, I ultimately want to work as a Human Factors Practitioner or Cognitive Systems Engineer, designing displays that enable operators to make effective decisions in complex, high-demand work environments. To prepare for this work, I am currently pursuing training and coursework to improve my skills in CSE analysis and design. I am also learning the basics of HTML 5, CSS 3, and Python to give me a better understanding of what I will be asking software developers to build in my future work. Finally, I am taking classes outside my field to become familiar with other fields and technologies that will likely contribute to the future of cyber-physical systems, including machine learning, cyber defense, interactive technologies hardware, mathematical programming, and behavioral design.
