As Director of Technical Research, I lead members of the Texas Chapter of Encode Justice in conducting research on the influence of AI in society, especially on underrepresented groups, and in identifying and finding methods to eliminate biases from popular Large Language Models, such as ChatGPT and Gemini. I work closely with the national and Texas executive teams of Encode Justice and with the members of the Texas Chapter to direct these research studies and create actionable briefs for policymakers and legislators.

As a research assistant, I worked with Dr. Joshua Levy to develop Large Language Model-augmented computer vision models to perform genomic analysis on Whole Slide Images of metastatic cancer tumors and ALS patient brain matter to increase the efficacy of diagnosis for both illnesses.

As an AI and NLP Developer Intern, I worked to develop a novel Large Language Model (LLM) for the State Department to synthesize, summarize, and answer queries concerning the corpora of State Department cables, briefs, and reports, thereby increasing diplomatic expediency and simplifying US global diplomacy. The model I codeveloped is the first of its kind within the State Department, and one of only a handful within the federal government. I also worked to create a digital platform to host the State Department specific LLM, allowing for comprehensible and elegant interaction with the AI model.

At the TCU Department of Physics and Astronomy, I worked with Dr. Anton Naumov to synthesize specialized Graphene Quantum Dots (GQDs) that detected the presence of specific biomarkers, such as insulin, dopamine, and serotonin, through induced fluorescence. GQD fluorescence was continuously monitored using infrared and x-ray spectroscopy for potential in vivo and in vitro use.

At the TCU Department of Physics and Astronomy, I worked with Dr. Hana Dobrovolny to create mathematical models of Covid-19 transmission and development in the human body. Through Python libraries such as scikit-learn and NumPy, along with data that Dr. Dobrovolny and I extracted, we successfully modeled Covid-19 viral kinetics and predicted the virus’s spread. Thanks to these models, we estimated the spread of Covid-19 within the human body and determined crucial virological coefficients for the usage and creation of antiviral drugs for Covid.

As a Teen Councilor, I worked with Kimbell Art Museum Management to develop a program centered around inclusivity and modernization to attract younger people and underrepresented minorities to the museum.My responsibilities included coordinating specialized art exhibitions targeting younger audiences, hosting guest artists and lecturers, and developing an outreach strategy to retain existing patrons. I also worked with museum coordinators to curate accessible art exhibitions for those with disabilities.

Out of an applicant pool of over 5,000, I was selected to join 300 other students across the United States as a 2023 Bank of America Student Leader. The Student Leaders Program, established in 2004, offers driven high school students the opportunity to engage with their community through work at local nonprofits. As a Student Leader, I matched with a local nonprofit in DFW, the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth. Furthermore, as part of the Student Leaders Program, I attended a week-long leadership summit in Washington, D.C., with all the other Student Leaders focusing on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in government and policy-making.

As part of the Bank of America Student Leaders Program, I worked at a local non-profit organization, the Ronald McDonald House of Fort Worth. At the House, I worked in three different departments: the development department, where I cultivated donor relations, wrote grants, and planned events; the house relations department, where I managed volunteers, tracked inventory, and communicated with community partners; and the marketing and communications department, where I developed social media campaigns. Initially, I was partnered with another Bank of America Student Leader, both of us working at the House. However, the other Student Leader could not continue the program; thus, I was required to undertake the responsibilities of two interns rather than one.

I directed the Open Science team, which was charged with expanding the Actionable Fire Science Information Hub (AFSI Hub), a joint project spearheaded by NASA and the USGS, using Open Science operations. The AFSI Hub improved fire management and consolidated wildfire and forest fire data under one hub to expand interoperability and clarity. The goal of the Open Science team, which consisted of fifteen other interns, was empowering the individual citizen to get involved in fire prevention, thereby providing relevant data from the locale. In addition, the Open Science team was charged with integrating new technologies, such as AI, VR, AR, etc., to refine accuracy and intelligibility.

I was selected amongst a cohort of forty interns to join the Department of the Interior (DOI) to support the integration of emerging technologies, such as Deep Learning, into online GIS systems, such as ArcGIS Online, which is used by over thirty-five nations in the Inter-American community. My role was to expand existing projects using AI and ML. I integrated geographical data on developing countries, such as Haiti, into ArcGIS to create accurate AI models. In addition, I worked with other interns in the program to create a comprehensive database encompassing all measures of GIS, data science, and AI, technological information for future use by future DOI employees. Lastly, I provided provisioning, internal control, monthly reporting, auditing, and billing management for over thirty-five license types, two thousand asset types, and two hundred and fifty thousand processing and hosting credits valued at four hundred thousand dollars per annum.

I was accepted into the highly selective United Health Group Unified High School Internship Program, where I, among fifty other students from across the US, got to come up with complex solutions to existing problems and Optum and United Health Group and later implement said solutions by working with Optum employees. The challenge I was presented with was to revolutionize mental wellness tracking using IoT devices. To tackle this issue, I used Machine Learning to create classification algorithms that could recognize burnout and high stress in front-line medical workers through biological data. Using the data extracted from IoT devices, it was possible to get accurate mental wellness information in real-time, possibly saving lives.

At the Texas Christian University Department of Biochemistry, I worked with Dr. Eric Simanek to develop a replicable synthesis reaction to create cyclic and acyclic beta-sheet mimics. These mimics were created by reacting acetylated amino acids and acetal compounds. The mimics created can inhibit the development of breast cancer caused by a BRCA1 gene mutation. The synthesis process involved intensive laboratory work. Dr. Simanek and I started with fundamental macromolecules and used a series of synthesis reactions that spanned weeks, creating the final beta-sheet mimic product. As a Lab Research Assistant, I had to initiate and monitor the requisite synthesis reactions. During my assistantship, I tested several different amino acid compounds, ultimately finding the best compounds, helping to move forward the research of Dr. Simanek's research group.