Name: Maarten Lopes
Pronouns:
Institution: Boston University
Department: College of Arts and Sciences
Biography:
My name is Maarten Lopes and I am a second-year computer science major at Boston University. I am originally from Rhode Island but my parents and majority of my family are from Cape Verde. I am also a member of UMOJA, my school’s black student union. As well as a member of the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE). Aside from being a full-time student, I am also a part-time worker at a local supermarket. I enjoy hanging out with friends on a daily and I also have a passion for recording podcasts and am currently pursuing that.
Academic Status: Undergraduate Student
Year in program: 2nd
Research Area/Department: Computer Science
Other, specify:
Major/Specialty: Computer Science
Degrees Earned or in Progress: Bachelors Degree
What courses or academic preparation have you completed to prepare for a summer internship experience?
Algorithms and Data Structures Combinatoric Structures Linear Algebra
Have you published any research or worked on research/technical projects? No
Where has your research been published or where have you conducted research/technical projects?
Please describe your research/academic interests:
As a computer science major, I have an interest in all things Software Engineering related. But to be more specific I have an interest in app development. I’d love to create my app one day so iOS and Android app development has always intrigued me. But not just the technical side, but also the business side that comes with running and promoting an app. I also have an interest in the legal side, perhaps the legal precautions needed to protect yourself and your product. On the research side, I find AI and the powers of AI quite interesting. I’ve done a little bit of research on its capabilities and have learned that although AI isn’t necessarily “”intelligent”” it can simply store a lot more information and sift through it a lot faster than a human could. Which makes it such an incredible tool.
Computational and Data Science Areas:
Computer Science; High-Performance Computing; Machine Learning and AI
Research Synergy:
I attended the 2023 HPC Bootcamp at Lawrence Berkeley DOE lab this past summer. During my time there six other attendees were assigned a project to work on throughout the week that we were there. My project had to do with machine learning and AI. Our goal was to feed an AI chatbot information so it could answer questions about energy justice. This was such an intriguing experience for me. It should be the capabilities of AI. My past impression was that it was just something people used for cheating. But now I see that it is the future of education. Just as humans went from using drawings to scrolls to books to internet information, to now AI. Its limits are only as far as we allow it to be. During my time at the lab, I learned how the Lawrence lab specifically along with the other DOE labs use computational, AI/machine learning, and data sciences to help improve the efficiency of their labs and hardware. Hardware that hundreds use to solve problems in the world.
Motivation:
My time at the HPC Bootcamp and Lawrence Berkeley lab was like no other. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for me, something I thought only happened to others. The amount of valuable knowledge that I gained and the connections that I built were unmeasurable. Learning about the rich history of Lawrence Berkeley lab, along with their climate initiatives and the star of the show, their spectacular supercomputers. I got a chance to see them in person and stand right in front of it. There were so many questions I still had such as the limits of these computers and how you go about expanding those limits. I would love the chance to be a part of the answer to these questions and participate in the program. It would be just a fulfilling and informative experience to help further my professional career.
Lightning Talk Title: The Breakthrough World of AI