I am a 2nd-year Junior (undergraduate) studying at Muir College, University of California San Diego, in beautiful La Jolla, California. I'm planning on getting a B.S. in Cognitive Science with a specialty in HCI (Human-Computer Interaction). I've done 3 projects so far in classes taught by Dr. Jim Hollan: redesigning the interface of a bus stop sign/making it more usable, creating a user-friendly site built completely with Ruby on Rails (http://maam.omiid.com), and redesigning the ACS Help Desk, a place where UCSD students/staff can go to for computing/networking assistance. I'm very interested in making interfaces more user-friendly, and hope to get into the field of interaction design once I graduate from UCSD.

Socially, I consider myself a natural leader and a great friend. If my closest friends had to describe me in a few words, they'd probably list: opinionated yet open-minded, funny, and confident. I love the Los Angeles Lakers and basketball in general. I'm also ranked 7th in the world for Machine Dance (not sure if this is too popular in Germany but I know it is in the Nordic countries), namely a game called In the Groove (www.inthegroove.com).

I met Dr. Borchers in the Fall of last year, when he gave a lecture for my COGS 120 class. I took him up on the offer to come to RWTH for 6 weeks (June 17 - July 28), and really look forward to networking and working with some awesome people. I know I have very little experience in the field of HCI, but I hope my charisma and passion for the work I do will more than make up for it. :)