Name: Esra Bequir
Pronouns:
Institution: University of Rhode Island
Department: Data Science + Psychology
Biography:
I am a senior majoring in Data Science and psychology and will be graduating by next summer. I am very interested in the intersection between humans and computers hence why I decided on this field of study. I have been fortunate to find an opportunity to work in an Industrial Systems Lab at my school where I am able to analyze human decision-making data and help design an A.I. model that can assess problems like a human would. Since attending the SHI HPC workshop at Berkley Lab I now have a very strong understanding of large language models however, my biggest takeaway from the weeklong conference was that human data is used heavily to make decisions about sustainability and this is something I have become increasingly interested in since it seems that is a much more concrete use of data analyses. I am very interested in getting proficient in making great data visualizations to help people understand the problems at hand.
Academic Status: Undergraduate Student
Year in program: 4th
Research Area/Department: Computer Science; Data Science; Engineering; Machine Learning/AI
Other, specify:
Major/Specialty: I am a Data Science and Psychology double major
Degrees Earned or in Progress: Data Science B.A. and Psychology B.A. ~2024
What courses or academic preparation have you completed to prepare for a summer internship experience?
Programming for Data Science, Industrial systems Engineering Independent Research, Introduction to Data Science, Business Analytics, Programming with Data, Psychology of Learning, Research Methods/Design in Behavioral Science, Social Issues in Computing, The Joy of Programming, The Power of Business, Quantitative Methods in Psychology, Intro. To Web Development, etc.
Have you published any research or worked on research/technical projects? Yes
Where has your research been published or where have you conducted research/technical projects? I am working on an independent research project where we are interested in how people make decisions with their eyes (based on visual search tasks) to see if we can glean any information from the way people make decisions with their eyes, to apply this to an A.I. program that is able to solve problems like a human would.
Please describe your research/academic interests:
I am very interested in human creativity and if if can replicated by a computer, additionally I am becoming increasingly interested in making very organic data visualizations that are easy to digest for humans.
Computational and Data Science Areas:
Data Analytics and Visualization; Machine Learning and AI
Research Synergy:
My biggest reason for having an interest in AI/ machine learning and data science is because it is a world that is new and incredibly full of creative people trying to come up with new applications of AI and data science. I also am incredibly humanist with regards to AI and data concepts, and believe that DOE also has a similar philosophy where they also analyze an enormous amount of human energy consumption data for example and have to write policies that will be for the benefit of the nation.
Motivation:
My motivation for wanting to apply is because I enjoyed the idea that there are certain problems that the DOE has and they need intelligent minds to help them solve the problems, and I would love to be in an atmosphere as such.
Lightning Talk Title: Bequir E. Human Centered Data and Artificial Intelligence