Hi!
I'm Carolyn. I like making things, taking naps, and petting cats.
I'm interested in clean tech, human-centered design, visualizing data, learning new things, and getting better at explaining new things. I'm currently reading Human Computer Interaction (HCI) papers in preparation for my senior thesis. I've previously interned at Google, visualizing internal data on DDoS attacks to help software engineers and site reliability engineers identify issues with Google's DDoS protections much faster.
Code, data, and art
I'm currently in a class on using data and code to make art. Some of my favorite pieces:
Social Networks
I was curious to see what insights you could glean from using the "people" information of a photo in Google photos, so I exported mine as JSON files and mapped the connections between people in my life.
The Price of Revolution
This piece was inspired by my class on modern Chinese history. The sheer amount of people who were killed in 20th century China in the name of revolution was heartbreaking to me, so I wanted to make a memorial to them.
Projects
I took time off school in spring 2021 to learn how to build things. What I'm most proud of:
Meatless
A native app to help people who want to eat less meat find meatless dishes near them. It was my first time working with web scraping, natural language processing, MongoDB, Figma components, and Flutter, so I definitely learned a lot!
Empower
A hackathon project meant to enhance safety and connectivity in Asian American communities. It enables community members to report crimes, request help for everyday tasks, and see visualizations of reports and requests nationwide.
Coral Generator
A quick build inspired by Blue Planet II (voiced by David Attenborough). This website generates cute coral seascapes for use as wallpapers/Zoom backgrounds.
Pomodoer
My first-ever hack: a web-app to help students studying together remotely stay productive. Although not much got done during the hackathon itself, I was so invested in the idea that I completed it on my own afterwards.
Crafts
I'm constantly crafting! My favorite media:
Chinese Knotting
My latest pandemic obsession! I started with making little charms, and now I'm working on beaded bracelets. Maybe eventually I'll make a jacket out of knots??
Painting
Oil painting was a big part of my teens and will always hold a special place in my heart. Here are some paintings I'm most proud of!
Baking
Sweets keep me going! My favorite recipes:
Easy Strawberry Shortcakes
A super quick recipe for a refreshing and light dessert/snack. These are so tasty and easy to eat that I can eat all of the shortcakes this recipe makes in a couple hours!
Fudgy Brownies
The most decadent brownies you’ve ever tasted!! I like to make these at the beginning of the week and leave them around to snack on. What makes them so consistently good is actually the use of only cocoa powder and no chocolate. This is because without the variable fat and sugar content of chocolate, you can better control the proportions of both in the brownies.
