Where are you from?: New York City ☆
School/grade/major: New York University {Polytechnic School of Engineering}, Senior, Computer Science & Journalism.
Last Thing You Binged: CW’s The 100 (Strong female leads and somewhat of a sci-fi Earth dystopia. It has me on my toes & waiting for the next episode every week!)
Why did you choose to intern with Microsoft? I thought I fell in love with Computer Science during one of my college tours where I shadowed a programming class, but I think it was long before that when I was making layouts on Neopets, but just didn’t realize it. Ever since, I’ve been excited about anything in technology. When I first met John Farmer, I was thrilled about the idea of working towards helping people with the skills I’ve developed. Microsoft’s new vision under the leadership of Nadella is like a revolution, I wanted to be a part of it!
What projects are you working on for your position as tech fellow for Microsoft New York? I’ve been working with my team on setting roots in the Civic Tech community in NY and becoming a part of it as well. From attending conferences and meeting people to participating and building tech at hackathons, we’ve been encouraging dialogue and offering services – letting the community know that we’re here. As a team, we’ve been designing and coding a large scale visualization tool for a birds-eye view of all things Civic Tech. It will be launched at Code Across 2015.
What excites you about civic tech? Technology is always exciting, but civic tech throws a spin on it that really inspires me. When I first joined Microsoft Technology and Civic Engagements, I was really shocked to find this hidden community (it’s entering the secret garden!). There’s just so much talent, drive, and motivation in the community to build things towards helping people – and creating smarter, more technologically advanced cities. To me, part of building the future is technology, but an even more important part is building technology that will make an impact on people’s lives!
What’s one problem you hope civic tech will solve for cities? I hope that civic tech will make cities more resilient. Technology and sensors can be combined to build a dynamic where people are better connected with their cities.When it comes to things like transportation, pollution types, or even disasters – an informed and well-educated populace will make better decisions. In particular, I hope to see civic tech change the way cities will respond to disasters during which quick access to water, food, shelter and even emergency aid is required.