Millions of people need a blood transfusion for lifesaving treatments each year. Yet, blood banks are often in short supply of blood due to a lack of donations. It is critical that there are enough resources available to provide patients with the care they deserve. Our project, BloodPact, empowers people to save lives through community, competition, and information. BloodPact is a web and text-messaging platform that gives new and returning blood donors the opportunity to join and compete across communities, set goals, earn rewards, and access important information about donation eligibility and blood drives.

Direct fieldwork at Boise State University (BSU) revealed that academic librarians with liaison responsibilities struggled to incorporate the BSU MakerLab into their instructional sessions. To investigate this further, I conducted unstructured interviews with academic librarians. Interviews revealed several barriers that academic librarians felt regarding the BSU MakerLab. To address these barriers, I developed the BSU MakerLab Toolkit, which is comprised of a literature review, an essay matching makerspaces to the ACRL Framework, downloadable lesson plans and handouts, and examples of how to other academic librarians have incorporated emerging technologies and experiential learning into library instructional sessions.

Seattle Central College holds the Broadway High School (1902-1946) Archives, which was developed by the BHS Alumni Association and contains over 250 linear feet of artifacts and ephemera unique to the history of Seattle’s first high school. The association disbanded in 2014 leading to questions about ownership and stewardship. Our team completed an item-level assessment of the collection, including an inventory and condition report, and addressed pressing preservation issues. We worked to forge collaborative relationships between stakeholders so that the archives can remain within its community of origin as a resource for students, teachers, scholars and alumni families.

We have developed the browser extension voice enhancement system (BEEVES), an extension for Mozilla’s Firefox browser which supports voice extension development along with a visual agent. Interviews with extension developers verified a need for a framework which implements and integrates speech-to-text and natural language understanding components. User research suggests the need for a seamless voice experience bringing the benefits of mobile browsing to desktop. What we’ve built on open source components is aligned with Mozilla’s mission to ensure a private and accessible internet for all, and has the potential for enhancing commercial platforms.

Inspired by the Butte County Library (BCL)’s experience with the 2018 Camp Fire, we created ‘Building Better’, a resource website for fire survivor support planning. Most disaster recovery plans lack a survivor support component, so we researched the ways libraries can aid their communities in recovery. We surveyed Camp Fire survivors, interviewed BCL employees, attended library events, spoke with a disaster recovery expert, and researched other libraries’ responses to different types of natural disasters. Libraries can play a vital role in the recovery of their communities after disasters, and ‘Building Better’ can leave them better prepared to aid survivors.

Network traffic and accurate location data draw significant interest from network operators and many other industries for marketing and service improvement potentials. At the same time, such data draw significant scrutiny due to privacy concerns. This project attempts to address privacy concerns by building a machine learning model based on truly anonymized data where all privacy-related information is peeled off. The project solution helps improve consumer confidence by eliminating privacy exposure while allowing the sponsor to save significant resources by simplifying the data wrangling process from complex and disintegrated data sources.

We are working with Pitchbook, a company that provides financial database and platform for Private Equity and Venture Capital professionals. VCs today spend more than 20% of their time searching for the right opportunity to invest in. For that, they have to look at thousands of companies, more than 100 KPIs. To make this process easier and less time consuming, we made Investoscope, which applies machine learning to cluster similar companies according to different KPIs and augments Pitchbook’s abilities to provide data with intuitive and intelligent UX. Using Investoscope, users can better understand volatile markets when making crucial investment decisions

For my capstone project, I’ve been working with the Center on Contemporary Art, or CoCA, a nonprofit contemporary art gallery in the heart of Seattle. Over the spring quarter, I’ve digitalized, scanned, catalogued, provided metadata and researched biographical and exhibition material from the Seattle Times, the PI and the Stranger, to provide context for over 150 archival slides allowing CoCA management, art historians, and art enthusiasts a deeper understanding and visual context of the history of contemporary art in the Seattle area.

How can a public library encourage community members to explore the natural world and historical sites while utilizing library resources? Check Out Kingston arose from an initial partnership between the Kitsap Regional Library - Kingston location and the Wild Society, later joined by the Kingston Historical Society. This project planned a local walking tour and developed backpack kits containing exploration resources: field guides, binoculars, observation and scavenger hunt activities, and bookmarks with recommended reading lists. The Village Green community center will circulate these kits, enabling visitors and residents to check out Kingston with new tools while connecting with the library.