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Dept. of Computer Science & Engr.
University of California, San Diego
9500 Gilman Drive, #0404
La Jolla, CA 92093-0404

I am currently a second year Ph.D. student in the Computer Science and Engineering Department at UC San Diego, working with Professor Lawrence Saul in the area of machine learning.

My research interests lie at the intersection of machine learning and speech and audio processing, or more generally: computer audition. I'm interested in creating real-time systems that can automatically localize a target sound source, accomplish automatic speech recognition, and much, much more :)

about me
three places i call home

I've lived most of my life in a small town called Richland, WA, a three hour drive east from Seattle.

I did my undergraduate studies at the beautiful University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, where I received a B.S. in Computer Science and a minor in Music. During that time, I did undergraduate research with Professor Martin Tompa in computational biology and Linda Shapiro in vision/learning, and served as an officer of the ACM-W (Association for Computing Machinery for Women). I also studied piano with Professor Regina Yeh and, for two years, participated in the UW Gospel Choir.

I am now in my second year at UC San Diego in La Jolla, CA, working with Professor Lawrence Saul in machine learning and speech/audio processing.

when i am not being a grad student

On Thursday nights, I am parked in front of the tv, watching the two greatest shows in the world: 30 Rock and The Office. On Sundays and some Fridays, I'm at the Chinese Evangelical Church for Bible study and worship. On Saturday afternoons, I tutor at the Achieve Tutoring Program, a free, K thru 12 tutoring program for members of the Linda Vista community. In my spare time, I like to read, blog, watch movies, chill on the beach, and explore the city with friends. I also like to design websites.

when i was a young'un

I have fond memories of going through three periods of massive obsession:

From '95 to '00, I was a level 5/6 gymnast and a die-hard gymnastics fan. To this day, one of my most prized possessions is a collection of autographed letters/pictures from 23 of the most famous gymnasts during that time including Nadia Comaneci, Shannon Miller, Dominique Dawes, and Blaine Wilson.

I spent the majority of high school practicing and competing for classical piano. During this time, I studied with Professor Leonard Richter at Whitman College, who was probably the greatest teacher I have ever had in any subject. Some of my favorite composers are: Franck, Chopin, Dvorak, Elgar, Brahms, Rachmaninoff, and Prokofiev. My classical music collection (biased toward piano) can be found at: http://appassionata.ucsd.edu/dhu/music.

Drawing and painting has always been a hobby of mine throughout the years. A couple of my favorite pieces that I have done are below: