I'm a wearables, robotics, & perception researcher. I design devices to improve health and daily life.

I completed my Ph.D. in electrical engineering at Stanford University where I collaborated with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to characterize touch perception and develop wearable sensory prostheses. My rigorous technical training and interdisciplinary research experience uniquely enable me to tackle challenging, multidisciplinary problems. I’m interested in a broad range of topics including health applications, wearable / embedded systems, public interest technology, medical devices, firmware development, hardware-software co-design, perception, human factors design, UX, assistive technology, IoT and AI-powered devices, open-source development, reconfigurable hardware, ASIC and SoC design, robotics, technology policy, STEM education, community co-design, sustainability, fashion, politics, & film.

Education

Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering

🏛 Stanford University

Advised by Professor Allison Okamura in the Collaborative Haptics and Robotics in Medicine (CHARM) Lab, I studied sensory substitution, wearables, & perception

M.S. in Electrical Engineering (Software and Hardware Systems)

🏛 Stanford University

Certificate in Critical Consciousness and Anti-oppressive Praxis via Stanford School of Medicine

B.S.E. in Electrical Engineering (Circuits and Systems)

🏛 Princeton University

Completed four minors in: (1) Robotics & Intelligent Systems, (2) Computer Science (3) Technology and Society, (4) Entrepreneurship

Research

Wearable Sensory Substitution of Proprioception via Deep Pressure Haptics

I developed a novel sensory prosthesis to assist individuals with proprioceptive deficits via haptic sensory substitution. Firmware code is open-source and can be found here.

Perception of Multiple Pressure Contacts for a Wearable Sensory Prosthesis

I led JND psychophysical studies of pressure perception to inform specifications for future prosthesis. The publication will be released soon.

Soft Robotics for Patient Transfer

I designed and built a high-voltage power system and distributed BLE network for controlling a soft robotics bed transfer system. This work is published in Science Advances.

Smartphone as Touch Deficit Diagnostic Tool

I collected perception and neuropathy data of older participants with standard medical tools and a novel haptic smartphone application to evaluate the viability of smartphones as diagnostic tools.

Brain Computer Interfaces: Artificial Retina Project

I evaluated the design space across algorithms, architectures, & biological degrees of freedom for a deeply embedded epiretinal system for vision restoration.

Monitoring Mental Health with a Multimodal Sensor System and Low-power Hardware Accelerator

I created a low-power PHQ-9 (depression score) embedded AI model based upon mobile phone sensing data.

Human Activity Recognition Using Wearables and a Low-power Deep Learning Accelerator

I developed embedded neural network model and deployed a real-time human activity recognition system with a neural network accelerator and mobile iOS application. IEEE ICCD publication can be found here.

Design and Development of a 3D Gesture-Sensing Tablet Accessory for Enhanced iPad User Interface

I interfaced novel capacitive sensors and built a 3-D gesture tool for an iPad. I created an iOS app, gesture recognition algorithms, & the capacitive sensor-iPad BLE interface.

Sensor Integration with Aerial Robots for Poaching Prevention Systems

I developed a quadcopter drone and portable thermal camera unit with a Raspberry Pi to collect thermal images of animals for poaching prevention.

Projects

Biofeedback in Performance, STEM to SHTEM

As the lead designer in a theater dept. collaboration, I designed a wearable system to measure and display biological signals of a performer in real-time to augment performance. I mentored undergrad and high school students to implement the system.

Tapeout Ready Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) Accelerator

Final Project in Stanford EE272: I utilized industry EDA tools to created mixed-signal VLSI design. High level synthesis, synthesis, place and route, and layout

Parallelized Mandelbrot Set Generation on SIMD

Final Project in Stanford EE 382a: I programmed synchronous and asynchronous generation on Kestrel, a Single Instruction Multiple Data (SIMD) parallel processor.

Optimizing Hardware Parallelism for CNN Performance

Final Project in Stanford EE292d: I evaluated the design space of architectures for CIFAR-10 convolutional neural network, synthesized designs via HLS, and evaluated performance on a FPGA.

Batman and Robin Collaborative Robots

Final Project for Princeton ELE 302: Created two collaborative micro-robots to capture colored “villain” blocks using custom-built chasses, Raspberry Pis, Pixy Camera, image processing, and vehicle-to-vehicle server communication.

WatchOut, 1st Place at HackPrinceton

Led all-women team to create an IoT protection system with wearables and smartphone for DV/SV prevention. Improved the system with machine learning model

MIPS Cycle Accurate-Accurate Simulation

Final Project for Princeton COS375: Implemented 5-stage pipeline simulation in C# of a cycle-accurate MIPS instruction set architecture with caching.

57nW Programmable Temperature Switch

Final Project for Princeton ELE462: Designed and simulated novel low power temperature switch using cascading sub-threshold MOSFETs with Cadence Virtuoso.

Electrocardiogram (ECG)

Final Project for Princeton ELE 203: Built ECG with cascading instrumentation and variable gain amplifiers, bandpass and notch filters, and visualization circuit.

DancEE

In a high school side project, I combined my interests in classic dance and electrical engineering by mapping footwork patterns (called baant) to different letters.

Get In Touch

Please reach out with any inquiries on project ideas, collaborations, job roles, and/or outreach opportunities.