Project 1

Personal Informatics systems aim to help people collect and utilize their own personal data. Situated visualizations aim to decentralize data consumption and support people in making data-driven decisions in-situ (situationally). I/O Bits are a personal tracking system I designed, developed, and deployed that explores the intersection between personal informatics and situated visualization.

Philosophically, I/O Bits leverage simple user-driven tracking to obtain a versatile personal informatics system that visualizes data in-situ. The system is task-unaware, offline, and DIY, acting more like a tool to support personal tracking rather than a coach or nagging mother.

An I/O Bit consists of 5 push buttons, a wifi-enabled board, a re-chargeable battery, and an e-paper display. It is roughly the size of two decks of cards and costs about $60 (CAD) to make at home. The data collected is comprised of button press time-stamps and is visualized in five different ways. These different visualizations each emphasize different elements of the data that people typically care about (counts, instances, ratios, etc.). This project is the primary focus of my master's research.

GitHub: https://github.com/kawannam/IO-BITS

Project 2

Our work explores the use of embroidery as a medium for personal data representation. Personal physicalization is at the intersection of personal visualization and physicalization. More precisely, personal physicalization uses tangible objects to represent data in a personal context. This unique design space inspired us to explore alternative mediums to integrate data with personal artifacts, as well as facilitate the exploration of a multi-sensory data encoding. We first developed a workflow for authoring embroidered physicalizations. Then, we used this process to create an embroidered blanket based on text message data.

More specifically, I developed a python library that allows low level control over texture when authoring visualization using a (computer numerically controlled) embroidery machine. Using the library I embroidered a comforter with a visualization of text messages exchanged between me and my partner. The blanket is covered in colourful lines, which each represent a single text message. The length of each line represents the length of the message, with my messages extending to the right and his to the left. Each line is composed of several colours representing IBM Watson's emotional analysis of the message. Finally, each conversation was tagged with key words, which were embroidered next to their respective conversations.

This project aimed to design mementos using personal data and investigate techniques for embedding our stories into the artifacts we cherish. It was presented as a poster at VIS 2019 and received an honourable mention for best poster.

Poster: http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110218
GitHub:https://github.com/kawannam/stitchcode
Award: http://ieeevis.org/year/2018/info/awards/best-poster-awards

Project 3

Situation Visualization is an emerging field that explores representations of data displayed in proximity to the physical referents (such as people, objects, and locations) to which the data is related. In collaboration with Aarhus University we report on findings from seven ideation and sketching activities to prototype new situated visualizations. In the paper, which appeared at DIS 2019, we reflect on the experience and present a set of insights and opportunities for running situated ideation activities.

Paper: https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=3322326
Workshop Materials: https://github.com/hci-au-dk/situated-vis-sketching

• Client: Start Bootstrap
• Date: April 2014
• Service: Web Development

Project 4

The bionic bird is a robotic assistant that is designed to aid travellers in unfamiliar cities. It consists of a three-jointed arm adorned with a rudimentary gripper, and is capable of retrieving the wearer’s possessions from their backpack. Along with physical assistance, the bird is capable of providing navigation and interesting facts as the wearer makes their way through the city. All interactions with the bird are performed using vocal commands. This project was a submission to the UIST Student Innovation Contest in Berlin, where it was recognized by the sponsor company, Makeblock ().

Github: https://github.com/krispybird/ShoulderParrot

Project 5

Programming competitions impose a set of challenging coding tasks to teams of up to three contestants. Solutions to these problems must meet strict time and space restrictions, and require advanced programming techniques and quick analysis. Each team must develop their solutions using a single computer without access to the internet. Over the last few years I have competed at the city, provincial, and regional levels.

- Rocky Mountain Regionals ACM-ICPC 2016: 6th
- Calgary Collegiate Programming Contest 2017: 2nd
- Calgary Collegiate Programming Contest 2018: 5nd
- Calgary Collegiate Programming Contest 2019: 2nd

Project 6

I am a strong proponent of women in STEM, and for this reason I took part in the University of Calgary's Technovation program. I was responsible for teaching Android programming workshops to the contestants (from elementary to high school students), whose programming backgrounds varied widely. It was incredibly meaningful and rewarding to watch the girls grow as their projects took form.

Website: https://technovationchallenge.org/

Update: the "Robot Unicorns", from the junior division at the University of Calgary, have advanced to the Technovation World Pitch Finals in the San Francisco Bay Area!

https://science.ucalgary.ca/news/congratulations-team-robot-unicorns-being-technovation-junior-division-finalist

Project 7

I have been a teaching assistant for an algorithm design and analysis course twice. This course is a notoriously difficult and mandatory part of an undergraduate computer science degree at the University of Calgary. I developed an active, engaging, and unique teaching style that garnered overwhelmingly positive feedback. Several of my tutorial sessions involved "games" that made the abstract and complex course material more approachable. My teaching methods helped me win a TA excellence award in the Winter 2019 semester, which is granted based on student feedback.

Website: https://science.ucalgary.ca/computer-science

Project 8

Tackled a range of projects such as a tool to test signal strength (Monkey C), optimized the public SDK release system (Java), implemented ANT on the Forerunner 645 (C/C++), and released several example bike light applications (Monkey C) for external developers.

I am particularly proud of a demo application I developed for the G-FIT. I took the lead on gathering requirements, presenting solution designs, and iteratively developing a demo application. The demo application was developed in tandem with G.FIT and is used to conceptualize and test new features. The demo received praise from top level executives for being a compelling and exciting way to showcase the new product.

Website: https://www.garmin.com/en-CA/

Project 9

I filled a technical support role at Hitachi, where I assisted IT technicians with systems installations and problems as they arose, along with several smaller internal developer tools. The role was a four month internship designed to familiarize potential employees for the Solution Architect role. Following my internship, my direct manager described me as one of the most impressive students he had ever worked with (for the full recommendation see my LinkedIn page .

Website: https://hitachi-id.com