Research

March 21, 2024

Carlos Valdez

Full-stack Developer

I don't really know when I first became interested in research. The idea of being able to contribute something to a university always fascinated me. It just felt like it was the "next step" to my academic career.

In Winter 2023, I had coffee with one of my professors, Dr. Paul Dourish. He made an effort to meet with students and just talk, which was amazing since I am too anxious to do something like that myself. He had asked us what our goals were for our time at the University, and I said I didn't exactly know, but that I wanted to do some kind of research. The conversation didn't go much further than that, but it was the first time I ever told someone I wanted to participate in research.

Fast forward to that summer, Oppenheimer was released. I don't know what it was about this movie that fascinated me with the idea of doing research at a university. Oppenheimer's research took place at UC Berkeley, so I guess that's where my fascination took off more than it already was. Funnily enough, I also became fascinated with emails. Emails being associated with an institution kind of gives people an identity, and I think that's interesting.

Anyways, Oppenheimer got me even more interested in research, so I decided to email one of my former professors, Dr. Mark Baldwin, and asked him if he had any research opportunities for students. To my surprise, he did. He wanted to start something called the Undergraduate Research Lab, and so asked me to submit a proposal. In Summer 2022, my grandma had passed away, so I knew I wanted to do something in honor of her. So, I wanted to come up with a device that would help hospice patients become more independent. That proposal and email exchange is what basically started the Ojos Project.

As of now, I've spent two quarters with my project and gathered a fantastic team to help me. We spoke with caregivers and healthcare professionals to try to build a useful device for hospice patients. We're still researching and gathering the requirements needed, but we're doing good progress. My hope is to have a prototype ready by the end of Spring quarter.

I can't wrap up everything I've done in this blog post, so I wrote another post at the Ojos Project website that covers more. I'm grateful to have the opportunity to fullfil my dream as a student researcher and being able to build something that would've been useful to my grandmother during her time in hospice. I can't wait to see what the future has in store.