Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer (Head of R&D) at Immergo Labs, Inc. Our mission is to redefine physical rehabilitation telehealth for therapists and patients through off-the-shelf virtual reality headsets. Immergo was inspired by a multi-year research effort at University of California Santa Cruz in co-designing immersive VR games and tools for physical/occupational therapy. Now we are developing a new form of telehealth: an accessible platform with AI-enabled biomechanic tools for virtualized physical rehabilitation clinics and exercise activities in the metaverse.As principal investigator, my responsibilities are centered on driving Immergo's research vision, immersive environment development, user experience, and human-computer interaction techniques. We are an academic spin-out startup and alumni of the National Science Foundation Regional Bay Area I-CORPS and National Programs. As Co-Founder, I drove the iterative development of Immergo's platform, UX, business model, customer segments validation, and investment materials -- resulting in preseed funding of $1,506,000 for customer discovery and R&D. I currently serve as the principal investigator for our NSF Phase II SBIR Award (https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2304278)

Adjunct Professor of Computational Media at the University of California Santa Cruz Jack Baskin School of Engineering. Co-director of ASSIST Labs with research focuses on serious games around extended reality and accessibility.

As a VR Hardware User Experience Researcher at Meta Reality Labs (formerly Oculus Research), I drive a mixed-methods user-centered approach to hardware development, with a primary focus on Meta Quest Input Devices (e.g. Controllers), Input Accessories, and Hardware Accessibility for the VR Hardware User Research Team. My responsibilities and workstreams spanned both tactile and strategic aspects of the product development cycle, towards championing seamless and intuitive experiences for users across diverse segments including end users, users with disabilities, and VR developers.Key Work Includes:- Mixed-Methods Research: Deployed a range of research methodologies including usability testing, surveys, focus groups, and in-depth interviews. Conducted hardware research in-lab, in-home, and remote depending on product needs, ensuring comprehensive user feedback. Moderated both internal and external studies to gain holistic insights (often in a rapid timeline to answer critical research questions and unblock development).- End-to-End UX Product Success: Actively supported the strategic product direction for current and upcoming controllers and input accessories throughout the product development process. This included spearheading UX research plans and consolidating direction between product design, industrial design, product management, data science, and user research. Examples include defining UX requirements from user-centered research to monitoring system-level UX risks with products such as the Meta Quest 3 Touch Plus Controller.-Diverse User Segmentation: Ensured inclusivity by incorporating feedback from a broad user base, including users with disabilities and both 1st and 3rd party VR developers.-Upleveling Foundational Research: Spearheaded efforts in understanding user needs and prioritizing use-cases for current and next-generation products. Assisted in strategic reviews related to new technology innovations by identifying key user needs and use-cases.

Mixed methods researcher in the Facebook Reality Labs (FRL) VR Hardware UXR & Hardware Pathfinding Teams. Applied human-centered research towards mapping use-cases and input needs with Oculus VR products between multiple cross-functional teams (XFNs).Work Included:- Performed human-subjects research remotely between 70 participants over one month utilizing a mixture of the following methods in virtual reality: surveys, usability testing, think-aloud, semi-structured interviews, focus groups, workshops, and card sorting.- Rapidly disseminated research findings and use-case prioritizations / input needs through reports, presentations, and internal social media system within one week of study completion, resulting in updated product strategies between 5 different XFN teams (VR hardware, core software, accessories, avatars, and marketing) and research engagement across FRL (3,453 views, 68 reactions, 42 comments, and 44 shares).- Iteratively designed and influenced three research protocols including independent (1) creation of a custom Unity Game Engine world for conducting focus groups in VR with moderation tools, (2) development of qualitative analysis pipeline for thematic analysis and expedited topic discovery using Matlab Natural Language Processing, (3) application of a quantitative analysis pipeline using multivariate significance analysis in SPSS via ANOVA & ANCOVA depending on parametric results of data.- Greatly exceeded expectations and received accolades reserved only for the top 15% of my UXR intern cohort.

Taught ECE 118 Introduction to Mechatronics to a class of 45 students.Lectures focused on technologies involved in mechatronics (intelligent electro-mechanical systems) and techniques necessary to integrate these technologies into mechatronic systems. Topics include electronics (A/D, D/A converters, opamps, filters, power devices), software program design (event-driven programming, state machine-based design), DC and stepper motors, basic sensing, and basic mechanical design (machine elements and mechanical CAD), robot simulation, project management, ethics, and human-robot interaction. The lecture combines a lab component of structured assignments with a large and open-ended team project. The class ended with a public demo to celebrate the students' projects and journey into the realm of all things mechatronics! It was magically themed (#harrypotter inspired) as "Sluggy Potter and the Goblet of Slime," where from the UCSC School of Witchcraft and Wizardry’s Mechatronics course pitted their autonomous robot golems against each other in an epic competition. See here for the recorded webstream: https://youtu.be/3dCRtEuQB5Q

Researcher and Ph.D. candidate from the University of California, Santa Cruz studying Computational Media with a previous degree in Robotics and Electrical Engineering. Areas of work include human-computer interaction, immersive media, robotics, affective computing, user experience, and emerging technologies. My primary research explores virtual reality by combining immersive environments, wearable robotics, and biofeedback. I aim to augment healthcare by gamifying physical therapy to create interactive experiences that are both physically and emotionally intelligent in assisting users in rehabilitation. Additionally, I collaborate with the UCSC and Industry communities on other XR projects relating to Genomics, Mental Health, Autonomous Systems, Interactive Visualization, and more. Lab affiliations include the Assistive Sociotechnical Solutions for Individuals with Special needs using Technology (ASSIST) Lab under Professor Sri Kurniawan and the Dynamics, Autonomous Navigation, Surface Engineering and Robotics (DANSER) Lab under Professor Mircea Teodorescu.

Undergraduate Student Researcher for the Dynamics Autonomous Navigation Surface Engineering and Robotics (DANSER via Professor Mircea Teodorescu) Lab in conjunction with the Assistive Sociotechnical Solutions for Individuals with Special needs through Technology (ASSIST via Professor Sri Kurniawan) Lab at University of California Santa Cruz.Responsibilities Included:-Planning, organizing, and conducting independent and collaborative research.-Designing, testing, and evaluating elements for research projects.-Analyzing, summarizing and organizing collected data;-Together with the principal investigator, publishing results of investigations in professional journals. -Purchasing and/or recommending new equipment for research projects.Work Included:-Worked with a PhD student on optimizing Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM 6D) for an autonomous drone via Matlab and C++.-Independently developed a rehabilitative Virtual Reality Game, titled "Project Star Catcher", for the HTC Vive using Unity and C#. The game provided real-time data on the performance of the user and contained multiple interactive UI elements altering the game's play style and data output.-Performed formative evaluations/user testing and conducted interviews for Project Star Catcher with consenting users of mixed ability.-Created qualitative and quantitative data visualizations in Matlab, Excel, and R based on experimental data.-Collaborated with multiple Graduate students to implement a tensegrity upper torso exo-suit to be tested with Project StarCatcher.-Collaborated with multiple Graduate students to write, revise, and edit research papers.

Work Included (for the Computer Systems and Assembly Language course at UCSC):-Facilitating four 120-minute lab sessions per week.-Assisting students in targeted subject areas via individual or group tutoring.-Contributing to a friendly and productive learning environment.-Collaborating with Graduate Supervisors and Tutors to prepare lab instruction.-Grading lab, test, and homework assignments.Topics consisted of digital logic, number systems, data structures, compiling/assembly process, the basics of system software, and computer architecture.

- Participated in the NSF I-Corps, a program centered around learning from and understanding the needs of potential users in order to better translate academic research into a system for public use.- Interviewed 130+ people in the physical therapy industry during the seven-week program to understand needs of telehealth and feasibility of academic research translation for immersive virtual reality physical therapy.- Trained in the startup business model lean launchpad method by Steve Blank.

Summer Researcher at the National Institute of Advancing Translational Sciences through the NIH UGSP Fellowship. Essentially going full Antman with pym particles into the world of biomolecular data through spatial computing via Magic Leap and Unity3D. Work Included:• Developed an immersive mixed reality platform for interactive biomedical data analysis with Magic Leap One and WebGL that enabled runtime annotation and dynamic visualization of complex data.• Implemented an automated pipeline for reconstructing nuclear image stacks into dynamic 3D game objects for manipulation and collaborative viewing of voxelized tissue and cell nuclei.• Designed custom XR interaction system for transformation and control of large scale data models through leveraging multiple input modalities such as hand tracking, eye tracking, and MLO control.

Worked as a Virtual Attractions (Creative Simulation) Software Developer Intern at Walt Disney Imagineering Tech Studio. Developed and engineered new game engine utilities to automate, visualize, and optimize large scale virtual environments for creative simulation of disney attractions.Work Included:-Developed product features for virtual environments including theme-park visualizations, animatronics, ride vehicles, simulated projectors, and other dynamic show elements with Unreal Engine 4 and C++. -Assisted Art & Digital Media Production Pipeline through building rapid POC's, setting up deployment and instigating quality testing for interactive cloud visualization tools, and implementing dynamic user interfaces to enable user navigation and graphics visualization.-Optimized large scale visualizations through automated pre-processing of world geometry, and dynamic caching procedurally generated meshes. -Shadowed a UX researcher to collect qualitative observations and compile a list of product utilities through attending 10+ creative team review sessions.

Contracted by VACO to work for Google under the Google Cloud Platform Student Innovator program. Worked as a technological evangelist and applied developer using Google Cloud Platform at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Contracted by VACO to work for Google under the Daydream Student Innovator program. Worked as a technological evangelist and applied developer for Google's VR products at the University of California, Santa Cruz.Work Included:-Held 7+ events showcasing Google Daydream and Applications both on campus and at 3+ national conferences.-Showcased Google's product and interacted with 1,570 students, researchers and industry professionals.-Built Google Expedition for UC Santa Cruz as well as Google Daydream showcase video and demo.-Independently ran Google Daydream Hackathon VR for Impact Challenge and developer support for participants in UCSC's "CruzHacks 2018". Resulted in 10+ impactful VR projects from a diverse set of talented student participants.

Research and development of biometrics, machine learning, and virtual/augmented reality towards innovative applications in human-computer interaction for Warner Bros Entertainment. Work Included:-Developed an Augmented Reality iOS app with ARkit and Unity to assist movie pre-production at Warner Bros and deployed the app for internal use. The app featured real-time feedback, data capture, and cloud integration which was used for innovative product features. -Implemented custom cloud web server infrastructure and backend configuration to assist in the parsing + delivery/extraction of assets from the pre-production team for the Augmented Reality App.-Helped facilitate and run user experience study involving 11 users towards biometric capture when exposed to WB content. -Assisted towards a solution of wireless biometric eye tracking for the use of feedback in advanced narrative.-Utilized machine learning for voice synthesizing.

Work Included (for Microtech Systems/Valent Power):-Assembling and testing car charging modules and robotic optical disk equipment.-Reviewing, analyzing, and editing schematics.-Designing and documenting equipment and assembly procedures.-Working with a software team to devise test programs for electrical modules.-Assisting with production and installation.

Security guard for Superbowl 50 and related events.