My interests are: Human and Computer Vision, Data Visualization, and Behavioral Statistics. I love research, teaching, and the philosophy of science in general!
Active research:
Vision: Exploring the perception of correlation in multiclass scatterplots. In this work, I am investigating how the perception of one population of data changes in the presence of another. This work is informative for both data visualization (e.g., how to design better scatterplot displays), as well as for vision science (e.g., how feature selection works in scenes containing multi-dimensional ensembles). I firmly believe that basic science, like human perception, can be informed and inspired by studying applied stimuli and phenomena, like data visualizations! This work is conducted under the supervision of my research advisor, Dr. Ron Rensink, at the UBC Visual Cognition Lab.
Computer Science: Edge bundling and network layouts- together at last! In this work, I am investigating the utility of Low Stretch Spanning Trees (a cool, recent discovery from the math world) for the quasi-tree edge bundling and layout. In this project, we revisit the utility of quasi-tree layouts, and demonstrate how to promote edge bundling to a first class data abstraction. These features enable new types of visual displays and interaction idioms for the graph drawing/network visualization community. This work is conducted in collaboration with Dr. Tamara Munzner.
If you also find joy in applied perception research, or want to learn more, check out the initiative I co-founded here @ VisXVision.com
Other interests:
- I have over 5 years of experience working as a usability engineer. I started this professional journey at Northrop Grumman in Washington DC and Baltimore, in 2014. Since then, I have consulted in software design and usability for a variety of tech companies and non-profits from Vancouver, BC to Los Angeles, CA.
- I have TA’ed a wide variety of Psychology and Computer Science courses during my graduate career, and I currently teach a 3rd year undergradate research methods course in the Cognitive Systems program at UBC: more info here.
- In Fall 2018, I taught Psychology 102 at UBC. I also declared death to the static .pdf syllabi! See my proposed replacement, the interactive online course syllabus, here.
- I used to run a coding team of 10-20 undergraduates (at any given time) in my lab. We built a Java framework for perception experiments! It takes .xlsx, .jSON, and .XML input and makes interactive experiments that record and output participant data. We have a private GitHub repository with all of the code- if you’re interested in checking it out, you can email me for access.
- I now run a new coding team with 5 undergraduate members from both Computer Science and Cognitive Systems departments at UBC. We are converting our Java framework to a shiny new web stack :) This work is motivated by recent advances in Javascript libraries (such as node.js, d3.js, and psych.js) which are optimal for perceptual tasks. We’ve been exploring best practices for legacy code migration, as well as how to develop usable code for research groups. It turns out that most psychology scientists aren’t great computer scientists, and they have interesting/demanding user needs for interacting with and writing experimental software! Check out our new project page here.
Check out my LinkedIn for more details about my professional experience.
I am also passionate about skiing, rock climbing, and fly fishing :)