Microblog

2024

December                  Puerto Rico with family! Really beautiful and fun Christmas vacation

December                  Finished an escape room based advent calendar (EXIT), a gift from Chris

December                  First time Lawrenceville cookie tour

December                  Min hosts a black-tie art auction for her paintings

December                  ETC Fest! Got to try a bunch of cool tech (multi-projection screens, eyetracking, 360 room)

November                  First time in Kiawah with Jake's family, beautiful island. Rode my first recumbent bike, saw the Angel Oak tree

November                  Multicultural friendsgiving

November                  Mom visits, we go to Light Up the Night for the first time

November                  Made the world's largest blanket fort that spanned all of a living room

November                  Harry's cabin BDay, first time playing Wiffleball

November                  Demoed to the Minister of Education of Portugal

November                  Srin visits and throws a very cool black tie proposal party with great decor (including AI art of me) and Vivia trivia

November                  Attended a really cool Kamala Harris rally, got to see her speak (and John Fetterman, Katy Perry, Andra Day, Ed Gainey)

November                  Proposed my thesis and passed!

October                       Hand-y (wo)man for halloween, and I win 2nd at the SCS costume contest

October                       Beautiful wedding of Jeff and Teddy with the best wedding food I've EVER had

October                       See TEETH Off-Broadway in NYC, first time having Burmese food

October                       UIST in Pittsburgh! YiFei makes prof projection for the HCII party, conference in the Westin and Omni goes well. Huge Figlab reunion, everyone but Yang and Sven 

October                       We bike from Pittsburgh to DC. An incredible, challenging and rewarding trip with Mateo/Daph/Swap/Alex/Ben/Jake

October                       First Lake Street Dive concert with Swap

September                Watch Sammy Rae do amazing things with Abby/Mrinal/Ananya

September                Port wins our pool, gets 5th at regionals

September                I  finally make it to the First Emoji Celebration Day for a free t-shirt

September                Celebrate Mid-Autumn fest with Kung Fu Hustle

September                Friends play Whack-a-Mole at the RI picnic

September                Port wins sectionals!

August                         Port retreat, I run Port trivia which goes over well, AT faints from hot tub, lots of pool ball

August                         Raunaq defends and we have a  look like Raunaq picnic to celebrate

August                         Apple sponsor visit - we play pickeball at the spaceship

August                         First Steelers game!

August                         Beautiful wedding of Leah and Caroline ON Haverford campus! Iconic Chipotle dinner

July                                Bye Wendover, hello Darlington

July                                Fancy PPP (Port Pool Party) at the Thorne mansion

July                                First time Picklesburgh with Ben and Alex! Sampled: pickle fudge, whiskey, ketchup, sour straws, ice cream 

July                                Srin visits, we go to Ben's dad party

July                                Sunbreak Rd 2 with LA friends

July                                Tried the Muji Cafe in ShangHai

July                                Introduced Jake to my countryside family, picked fresh vegetables and rode a motorcycle

June                              Full family in ShangHai for one day

June                              Rode MagLev for the second time

June                              Climbed Mt. Emei (my second Buddhist mountain pilgrimage). Grueling and full of cruel monkeys, but beautiful. Summitted at sunrise next day

June                              First time in ChengDu for vacation! Visit Panda breeding sanctuary, play pickup and eat with locals, see Sichuan face change opear

June                              Introduced Jake to grandma, aunt and uncle in TianJin, and great aunt in Beijing

June                              First time at Shanghai Disneyland, with a great tron ride,  and Costco

June                              Off to China with Jake! (His first time in Asia!)

June                              Got the big cheez-it from Taco Bell

June                              First Thunderbirds game

June                              Learned to roll and white water kayak from Alex... Terrifying

June                              First time at the Bayernhof museum, cooler than expected

May                              Port Authority Year 2!

May                              Georgia and TJ beautiful wedding at the Omni

May                              First time scuba diving! (Maui with Jake)

May                              Kuaui with Jake! First time snorkelling with turtles + explored Na Pali coast

May                              Was a bouncer for the exclusive HCII CHI party (honestly super fun)

May                              Caught sunrise at Koko Tramway Hike with Violet and YiFei, karoake with Alex/David

May                              CHI in Hawaii! SVed and presented TOCHI paper

May                              Went Aurora chasing with friends, beautiful solar flare

May                              Mateo and Daph visit for graduation, we get 5th place at trivia

May                              Lab visited Chris @ Qeexo, then had Duo's Taqueria for lunch

May                             Second annual scavenger hunt hosted by Ananya and Sam! Incredibly well done, Pgh divided into zones with tasks in each zone

May                              Lab escape room bonding and then first nights

April                            I hosted a dodgeball tournament between HCII, RI, CIA, and Civ E

April                            I hosted a photoshoot picnic where we finally did all the weird human pyramid + Asian aunty poses

April                            First time at Art All Night with Alex/Swap/Jake

April                            Did really poorly at AMC Beer Math Year 3 (team with Rob and Jake).

April                            Tried and FAILED to make soba noodles to celebrate Ravi's proposal

April                            Jake moves back to PGH <3

April                            Microwaves get 3rd at CMU dodgeball tournament

April                            Pushed Buggy for CIA A and won the whole thing B)

April                            Bill Nye live at CMU! He seemed genuinely passionate about the environment

April                            Drove to Ohio for a total eclipse picnic

March                        Big Brain Conference in Denver, hosted by Jesse and Tom. 

March                        Finished armor project - leather belt w/ gussetts and a chainmail tasset with lasercut fire scales

February                  Emory Cadaver ball with Srinidhi! Touristed Atlanta Aquarium + World of Coca Cola 

February                  Frostburn with Raunaq and Alex. Lots of Burning Man spirit, but extremely cold...

February                  Murder Mystery - Space Pirate written by Ananya, extremely fun

February                  Finally opened Chris' lab safe! Nothing inside...

February                  Attended OceanGate (Titanic submersible) talk from someone who has ridden it (1 year before explosion)

February                  Ravi, Alex, and I display our art at First Fridays, my first time exhibiting art

February                  Jake surprises me in Pittsburgh for our 2 year anniversary. I cried because I thought I was hallucinating

Spring                        Learned Flameworking at PGH Glass Center. Love the torches and making tiny glass things

Spring                        Took Armor Costume Creation in Drama. Learned a lot about chainmail and armor pieces

January                    HCII welcome back party in 407, with projections and fog. Chris set off the fire alarm

January                    Tried Georgian food for the first time at Skalka (pretty good!)

January                    Visited Jake in Seattle, toured the UbiComp lab

January                    Home in the Bay for a few days

January                    Rode a Paternoster (continuous elevator) in Frankfurt on a layover

2023

December               Hangout with Candy in ShangHai (M79 art village, MOCA, HaiDiLao). Visit dad's company

December               China trip, first time in 3 years! See my Tianjin grandma again.

December               Seattle Xmas trip with Priya/Erica/Steph. HaiDiLao for first time

December               Visited one of the last waterbed stores in America

December               Won IM frisbee with Microwaves (Round 3)

December               Got best project at the IXR finals and won a Quest 3

December               Built working ionic thrusters out of aluminum foil! (After lots of arcing + electroplating failure...)

December               Attended a small group interview with Palmer Luckey, (controversial) founder of Oculus

December               Went to Roanoke Virginia with Srin for Erin's wedding

November               Casa Batllo was beautiful

November               Stained glass in La Sagrada Familia blew my mind

November               Museums of torture, catapults, and witchcraft in Toledo

November               Secret nun cookies in Madrid

November               Spain for Thanksgiving with Jake! Madrid -> Toledo -> Valencia -> Barcelona

November               Caught bugs with our bug robots class

November               Went to Salsa class with Alex

November               Spent Diwali at Swap's house with Ben/Alex/Raunaq, lit fireworks on driveway

November               Beta demo of the AVP 

November               Won double Honorable Mention for People's Choice and Jury's Best demo

October                    Dressed as a cat and mouse for Halloween - a giant, working computer mouse I built

October                    Presented Fluid Reality @ UIST 2024 in SF!

October                    Depths of Wikipedia live show

October                    Rohan's beautiful wedding. Choreography @ Sangeet and lots of food and dancing

October                    Lancaster Renaissance Faire w/ Abby/Ravi/Ananya - way bigger and cooler, FIRE WHIPS

October                    Combustion Festival at Carrie Furnace w/ Anthony

September              Port gets 5th at Mid-Atlantic Regionals

September              Put up bathroom stall usage surveys

August                       Last day in Seattle at PAX West

August                       Saw The Adventure Zone live

August                       Watched live Lucha Libre fights

August                       Ate at Pujol - 16th best restaurant in the world

August                       Rohan's bachelor party in Mexico City

August                       Won Seattle summer C league with chilly chili chilly

August                       Camped and hiked Mt. Rainier NP with Charlie/Rob/Jake

August                       Saw Mountain Goats live at Woodland Park Zoo

August                       Met Founder of Salt & Straw and was very motivated by his talk

August                       Visit the Seattle Renaissance Fair: Pirate Steampunk. Bird of Prey + Jousting + Horse Acrobatics

July                              Pittsburgh friends visit for my birthday

July                              Free tickets to the Seattle Art Fair

July                              Visited the Quietest Room on Earth at Microsoft

July                              Vancouver for a weekend

July                              Fluid Reality accepted to UIST - first UIST paper

July                              Steph's beautiful wedding with incredible food & dancing

July                              Sunbreak with LA friends 

June                            Listened to Jaron Lanier speak and demoed at HCAIX MSR day

June                            Visited Olympic NP and Hoh Rainforest

June                            FORKS! Twilight photo ops and visited the twilight museum

June                            Candy visits, and we drive the Olympic Loop over a few days

June                            Appeared in a Tony's commercial for CMU for 300ms

June                            Surprised Srin in Atlanta for her karoake birthday

June                            Jake teaches me to sail

Summer                    Intern with the EPIC team at Microsoft Research

May                             Visited Glacier NP (and did freezing hikes)

May                             Spent the ENTIRE day at Meow Wolf Convergence Station Denver

May                             Visited World's Largest Truck Stop in Iowa

May                             Cross country road trip with Swap and Alex: Pgh -> Chicago -> Iowa -> Nebraska -> Denver -> Glacier -> Spokane -> Seattle

May                             Steph's bachelorette in Cancun - super fun

May                             Lilian's graduation @ UIUC

May                             Parents visited me in Pittsburgh for first time

May                             Synjets accepted to TOCHI journal - first journal paper

May                             Got 2nd at Mario's Southside trivia B)

April                            Beta tested an immersive AR art exhibit for the Shed

April                            Friends hosted a super fun cross Pittsburgh, all day scavenger hunt

April                            Went up the Airport Control Tower of Allegheny airport

April                            Acted in the SCS Musical - Thomas Jefferson in Cabinet Battle #1

April                           Watched Melissa Villasenor live at CMU

April                            Hosted AMC Beer Math Round 2 - got 2nd place this time

Spring                         Learned woodworking. Made a laptop stand, phone stand, crate, and folding stool

February                  Interviewed for several Cut Keep it 100 videos

January                    Maggie wrote/hosted a murder mystery dinner, where I got away with murder

January                    Rabbit hole symposium - 5 minute presentations on random topics. I presented body modifications.

January                    Rode the Duquesne incline for the first time

January                    LeiOut with Columbia friends

2022

December               Hawaii trip with family (Everyone got sick by the 3rd day :( )

December               Tahoe trip with Mrinal, Abby, Jake, and Blaine.

December               Flew to Tampa to stay on a resort and attend Jake's cousin's wedding

November               ICMI in Bangalore, first time in India! Street markets, brain museum (touched real organs), incredible food

October                    UIST in Bend, Oregon. Great keynote by Ted Chiang, and a beautiful hike at Smith Rock.

October                    Went to my first ever wedding - Jake & Paige

October                    Acadia fall break trip with Daphne, Mateo, Swapnil, and Rohan

October                    First ever RI PhD retreat at Seven Springs

October                    Ravi hosts Dall-E game night where we guess the Dall-E prompt

October                    Published an article in XRDS (Designing for Haptics)

September              Hosted a ramen tasting / ranking party with 11 random brands, then statistically ranked them

September             Went to THE Angry Orchard (with Funk)

August                      Bridesmaid dress shopping with Steph in Seattle

August                      Spelunked at Craters of the Moon NP

August                      Toured the world's first nuclear power plant, EBR-I

August                      Drove through Yellowstone in the dark - saw some geysers

August                      Visited Grand Teton NP

August                      Saw Mt. Rushmore

August                      Visited Badlands NP and Wall Drug

August                      Stopped in Vivian, South Dakota

August                      Went in the world's largest Corn Palace

August                      Toured the Mall of America and House of Balls in Minneapolis

August                      Drove cross country Pittsburgh → Seattle. Illinois -> Wisconsin -> South Dakota -> Wyoming -> Idaho ->Washington

August                      Visit Grounds for Sculpture and cool Ringing Rocks park

July                             Pittsburgh friends visit for my birthday

July                             Wildwood with NYC friends

July                             Pull Gestures accepted to ICMI

July                             NBC vid on Today Show

July                             NBC vid on Nightly News w/ Lester Holt. He says "wow"!

July                             NBC came to film our lab because of MouthHaptics

July                             Made a “Birds Aren’t Real” poster on a Risograph machine

Summer                   Lived in NYC, working at Meta Reality Labs

April                           First ever in person conference, CHI 2022 in New Orleans

April                           Get interviewed by many news sources about MouthHaptics

April                           I got honorable mention for NSF GRFP

March                       Saw Sammy Rae live at Mr. Smalls Funhouse

March                       MouthHaptics wins Best Paper at CHI!

March                       Visited the Mapparium in Boston

March                       Spring break Boston trip with Mateo and Jake

March                       Biked circles in the Point State Park fountain, and climbed in center

February                 Hosted a “drinking & AMC” competition, where you get points for beer or math

January                    Got used billboard sign right off the posts, made art (pants, vest, etc.)

2021

December                Won IM Frisbee with Microwaves (RI grad students)

November                Hiked Pittsburgh’s northside stairs, 16 miles and 237 flights

November                Two CHI Paper acceptances! (MouthHaptics & ControllerPose)

November                Tried out for USA Worlds Beach Ultimate Team! Was a great experience but really hard

November                Skived on work w/ Chris & Craig to raft

October                     Human Spider for Halloween

Fall                                Learned glass blowing

September Helped run Pinnacle, Olympics of Hackathons

September               FarOut Touch wins best paper at SUI :)

Spring                          Played college survivor, made the merge!! but then got 8th place after being voted most likely to win

Spring                          First paper acceptance! FarOut Touch @ SUI

February                    Stayed with Srin in Atlanta for two weeks

January                      Wasp stung my EYE

2020

October                     Became a Schwartz Entrepreneurial Fellow

October                     Match with Chris Harrison of Future Interfaces Group - his welcome gift is a lockpicking set

August                        Started my PhD in Robotics @ CMU

August                        Visited Srin in Atlanta for the first time

August                        Played Idlewild, 5th best disc golf course in the country

August                        Tried original KFC (not at a KFC)

August                        First time seeing Grand Canyon

August                        Drove cross country, from LA to Pittsburgh, taking Southern route

March                         Walked top to bottom of Manhattan, 16 miles

February                   Attended Almighty Opp, weird puppet show in LA

February                   Road trip stop at White Sands National Park, went sledding

February                   Road trip to NM for crazy MeowWolf experience

Spring                         Worked backstage on Avenger’s campus for months

Spring                         Worked as Disney imagineer on the Spiderman webshooters ride

                                          2019

December                  Featured singing into Karoake mic on James Corden. Also won a T-shirt for my enthusiasm during the show

November                 Bugible Thanksgiving! 18 course meal with every dish made with bugs

September                Was on Let’s Make a Deal! They asked me a "quick cash question" (show me something in your bag with fruit) but I failed...

Fall                                 Worked at Conservation X Labs 

Fall                                 Worked at San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research on an autonomous animal (polar bear) monitoring system

September                Learned to walk on stilts (BM)

September                Tickled by a professional dominatrix (BM)

September                Climbed on Thunderdome while on shrooms (BM)

September                Attended Burning Man: Metamorphasis

August                         Got stuck on ocean with Thai man trying to scam us

July                                Prostrated for 1.5 hours up a temple on Mt. Putuo

July                                Spent an entire week with ZERO communciation

July                                Learned KungFu with Shaolin Monks, both 8 trigrams and 12 forms

July                                Shaved head bald

July                                Lived at the South Shaolin Monastery in Fujian for a month

June                               Visited abandoned Buddhist Hell theme park, Har Paw villa

June                               Elephant Sanctuary in Chiang Mai

June                               Bought an ostrich egg (common in Vietnam). Really hard to crack and tasted weirdly gelatinous

June                               Travelled Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore with Candy and Sam

Spring                           Learned to Fence (PE)

February                     Watched Physicist Brian Greene record Light Falls,  live

January                        Learned a lot at the Disgusting Food Museum

January                        Toured the Hiroshi Ishiguro Labs, where I voiced a humanoid robot and held a robot baby

2018

September               Attended Grace Hopper as Microsoft Scholar

August                       Worked overnight at Disney’s California Adventure for two weeks

July                              Met Grant Imahara at Stuntronics demo

Summer - Fall       Worked at Disney Research

June                            Microsoft Sponsor Prize at Capitol360

May                             Clefhangers sang at graduation, Roar Lions Roar

May                             Facebook F8 hackathon as F8 fellow

April                            Met Dominique Ansel and got a private tech tour!

April                            Second tattoo: SOTG (frisbee) on wrist. Designed myself.

March                        Had dinner next to the Prince of Lichtenstein

March                        Presented XPerience on international Catholic TV

March                        Explained VR to the Cardinal of Science (who didn’t speak English)

March                        Finalist at VHacks, Hackathon at the Vatican!

February                  Watched Martha Stewart live... she SUCKS

January                    Watched Trevor Noah live

2017

December                Attended Alfred Aho's last ever class (now a Turing Award winner)

October                    SWE Conference

October                    Ada Lovelace Fellow at the OSHWA Conference in Denver

September              Nude modelled for figure drawing club

September              Modelled in CultureShock

September              Top 10 finalist at HackMIT for SmartBike, an embedded systems bike kit with various sensors + taillights

August                       Visited the Philippines' Department of Education to negotiate contract

August                       Ran an innovation summit in Catarman, Philippines

August                       Witnessed cockfighting (roosters with knives strapped to their feet) + gambling

August                       Spent a month with nonprofit CodePhil in Lavazares, Philippines

July                              Got an NFC microchip embedded in my hand

July                              Went to DEFCon

June                             Watched the US Sumo Open with some of the world’s best sumos

June                             Competed in A16Z Battle of the Hacks

Summer                    Worked at NASA JPL for the Mars Sample Return mission

April                            Was FB friends with and chatted Martin Shkreli

February                  Ran CodeDay NY near the FlatIron

February                  Met Charles Duke, astronaut from Apollo 16

February                  Attended West Point Military Ball

February                  Ran DevFest with Tristan Harris as keynote

January                     2nd place at PennApps

2016

November               Hung out with Awkwafina again, this time at CSC Lunar Gala

November               Convinced guard to lead me to roof of tallest Dallas building

November               Ran Dallas CodeDay

October                    Ran the Columbia Makerspace MakerFaire booth at World MakerFaire

September              Intel Sponsor prize at HackMIT

July                              Saw Muay Thai worlds

July                              Visited Chan in Vietnam, tried turtle for the first time

Summer                    Played on HK National Women’s Ultimate Team

Summer                    Studied abroad at HKUST

April                            Attended NASA Space Apps NYC

April                            Finally got the tattoo I’ve wanted for 5 years. Fire on collarbone

February                  LIGO Discovery! Immediate assembly @ Columbia, Neil DeGrasse Tyson was there

February                  Hung out with Awkwafina at a concert at Barnard, sang on stage with her

2015

Fall                               Finalist in Red Bull's "Can You Make It" Challenge with Candy and Mark

September              Modelled in AAA CultureShock 

September              Started undergrad at Columbia University (SEAS)

January                     Learned to walk on ball, spin plates, juggle