Grace Go

Year in School
Junior

Major
Statistics + CS

Research Interests

Research Mentor
Prof. Arindam Banerjee

Research/Engagement Experience
This is my first research experience, and I am interested in various fields of Computer Science. It is fascinating to be able to conduct research at UIUC as an undergraduate! In terms of engagement experience, I was a leader of the interview prep subcommittee in Women in Computer Science to help peers prepare for the tech interview, and have been working as a Course Assistant in CS 128 for three semesters. I was also a committee member in Reflections | Projections and recruited speakers for events.

Interests
I am interested in Artificial Intelligence, Computers and Education, Theory and Algorithms, Data and Information Systems, and Accessible Technology.

Project Title

How did I get interested in Computer Science?
When I was in high school, I aspired to apply my data analysis for social good and positively impact the world. As a student who started learning programming at UIUC for the first time, Computer Science was a whole new field I have never explored before, with lots of potentials to impact the world in different ways. I wanted to explore different fields in CS and got interested in Computer Science.

What social interests matter to me?
It is hard for some people to start learning new technology since they do not have enough technical resources. I believe that everyone should be accessible to technology and need enough opportunities in education, regardless of their race, gender, age, etc. In addition, I am very interested in climate change and water purification systems!

What is my most impactful college experience?
My most impactful college experience was in Women in Computer Science(WCS). After the first year of the pandemic, when every class went back to in-person and I arrived on campus, I hoped I could make new friends with similar interests. And by joining the technical committee in Women in Computer Science, I was able to meet so many self-motivated, passionate, and inspiring people that I could even learn a lot from them! Since then, I got more confident in participating in different events and got more knowledgeable in technologies in general, too.

These are a few of my favorite things!
Visiting bubble tea places with friends, creating Spotify playlists, learning new programming languages, and matcha!

Research Description
Tropical cyclones are extreme events that should be predicted to assess risk and develop adaptation measures. Under Professor Arindam Banerjee, I will be working with Ph.D. student Daniel Kiv and Master’s student Chandni Nagda to examine the use of probabilistic machine learning models to represent complex, high-dimensional climate data to a low-dimension. Specifically, I will assist with improving a deep-state space model, which is inspired by Gaussian state space models.

Biography
Grace Go is a junior in Statistics & Computer Science from South Korea. Learning Java in CS 125 was her first time programming and getting involved in CS, and since then, her interest in Computer Science grew. Her internship experience at the investment & securities company intrigued her interest in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in finance. She is involved in RSOs such as Women in Computer Science, and Reflections | Projections since she likes the inclusive community there, and has been working as a Course Assistant of CS 128 for three semesters since Fall 2021. She likes to explore different fields/areas in CS and also takes care of creating inclusive communities in CS.