Impact
At the intersection of technology and education, my research has an impact on school districts nationwide. Outside of my research, I am passionate about broadening participation in computing and STEM more broadly, engaging in various national, regional, and local initivatives. My service has been recognized by the White House Initiative on Asian-American and Pacific Islanders and the University of Chicago's Bridge Builder Award and Graduate Student Leadership Award.
- Our findings of inequitable learning outcomes based on school performance have led to revisions in the curriculum used by at least four major metropolitan school districts nationwide, impacting hundreds of elementary and middle school students.
- The TIPP&SEE and Scratch Charades learning strategies have been taught in numerous classrooms, making instruction more effective for a broad spectrum of learners.
- Personalized Assessment Worksheets for Scratch (PAWS) has been used by hundreds of elementary school students across at least two school districts, allowing teachers to be equipped with better assessment tools.
Note: The the aforementioned numbers only include the school districts I am aware of. My work has also been dissemminated by the CS Teachers Association so the numbers may be larger.
- As a CRA-E Graduate Fellow from 2020 to 2021, I worked on national initiatives to promote undergraduate research, develop resources to faculty to prepare talented students for research, and encourage undergraduates to pursue research careers in CS. I also contributed to articles that spotlight rising undergraduate researchers on a national platform.
- In 2016, I was invited to attend the White House AAPI Young Leaders Briefing due to my advocacy work towards the disaggregation of data on the AAPI community to better surface the economic and educational disparities within the community.
- I was on the steering committee for the UChicago Women in STEM Symposium since 2019. Our 2020 symposium was a unique organizing experience amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, where we converted it to a virtual conference. Our 2019 symposium welcomed more than 100 attendees from a variety of STEM fields. As a co-organizer, I strengthened my leadership, communication, and grant writing skills.
- I presented my work to hundreds of visitors to Chicago's Navy Pier as part of Soapbox Science 2019. In designing this presentation, I refined my skills in communicating my science to a non-technical audience of all ages.
- I co-organized the 2018 Transcending Boundaries Research Symposium, a conference highlighting the work of minority graduate students and postdoctoral scholars. This conference attracted more than 100 presenters and attendees from the Chicagoland area, representing various scholarly fields. Through this experience, I learned how to evaluate work in fields outside STEM and organize an impactful conference.
- From 2018 to 2021, I served as the CS liaison for the UChicago Graduate Recruitment Initiative Team (GRIT), a grassroots student organization that is committed to enhancing diversity, inclusion, and equity in UChicago STEM graduate programs. I integrate GRIT's recruitment and retention practices into my department, helping them shape their NSF Broadening Participation Strategic Plan. I have also been involved in recruitment trips to diversity-oriented conferences as well as universities, targeting identity-based undergraduate student groups in STEM and minority-serving institutions.
- From 2019 to 2021, I represented my department on the UChicago Physical Sciences Division Committe on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. I developed institutional policy for equity, diversity and inclusion for the Physical Sciences Division, which encompasses CS. I also advocate for graduate students from under-represented groups in computing, disseminated diversity-related resources in my department, and organized activities that aim to foster an inclusive environment for diverse students.
- From 2018 until 2020, I founded and co-chaired my department's Graduate Women in CS (GWiCS) organization. As founder, I successfully applied for funding for events that foster a community of peer mentorship, which have been attended by 75% of the female PhD students. I also advocated for better department-wide dissemination of resources for female-identifying graduate students.
- I regularly review research papers on computing education for youth for venues such as the Communications of the ACM, Journal of Computer Science Education, and ACM Transactions of Computing Education.
- I was a member of the Online Organizing Committee for the 2020 RESPECT conference. I helped facilitate the transition of the RESPECT conference from in-person to online amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as assisted in online paper and poster presentations and discussions.
