Claire Zheng

Year in School
Freshman

Major
Computer Science

Research Interests
Interactive Computing

Research Mentor
Prof. Sharifa Sultana

Research/Engagement Experience
In high school I taught twenty-five students from fifth to eighth grade about the basics of computer hardware, Java, Python in a technology camp hosted by my robotics team. In this week long camp, we worked to inform and motivate the middle schoolers to search and join a local robotics team.

Interests
Interactive Computing and Robotics

Project Title
TBD

How did I get interested in Computer Science?
After joining a robotics team in seventh grade, I learned the basics of Java. I found the Project Euler website and had lots of fun solving the puzzles through code. Eventually, I ended up independently programming a Discord bot with the goal to replicate and combine functions of other popular bots onto my own without looking at their online code. I realized I really enjoyed the process of finding new APIs online that I never knew existed. By implementing and playing around with the new APIs, I decided that wanted to explore problem solving in real life applications in the future.

What social interests matter to me?
Promoting and inspiring women in STEM.

What is my most impactful college experience?
My most impactful college experience has been meeting new friends in class or events and trying out new RSOs with them.

These are a few of my favorite things!
I love cats, drinking boba, reading fantasy books, solving 1000-piece puzzles, and playing video games.

Research Description
This semester, I am working with Professor Sharifa Sultana on a music algorithm project. We will first do a brief literature review of human-computer interaction (HCI) and explore some seminal HCI projects. Afterwards, we will research how algorithms in standard music platforms and song charts work.

Biography
Claire Zheng is a freshman at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign majoring in Computer Science. She was born and raised in the northern suburbs of Chicago. As this is her first semester in CS STARS and participating in research, she is excited to learn more about impact research can provide to others.