CURRICULUM VITAE

Education

M.A.Sc. Electrical and Computer Engineering

University of British Columbia | 2025
Supervisor: Dr. Sidney Fels
  • Thesis: Revisiting the Steering Law: Curvature, Complexity, and the Path to a New Predictive Model.
  • Cumulative Average: 93.4

B.Eng Electrical Engineering

McGill University | 2021
  • Minor: Biomedical Engineering
  • CGPA: 3.64 / 4.0

Publications

Curves Ahead: Enhancing the Steering Law for Complex Curved Trajectories | Best Paper Award

CHI ’25: Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
An extension of the classic Steering Law to better account for curved trajectories by introducing total curvature (K) in the movement time prediction equation.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3706598.3713102

Work Experience

Graduate Teaching Assistant – CPSC 314: Computer Graphics · CPSC 319: Software Engineering

University of British Columbia | 2022 – 2025
  • Mentored 2–3 student teams per term through the full software development lifecycle, from requirements to final delivery.
  • Acted as a liaison between students and industry sponsors (Coast Capital, Amazon Web Services), ensuring clear communication and alignment on scope, usability goals, and technical constraints.
  • Led lab sessions and office hours, answered technical questions on course forums and project reviews.
  • Assessed technical reports, system designs and implementations, providing detailed feedback.
  • Created concise study materials, summary notes, assignments and examination questions to support student learning in computer graphics concepts.

Aircraft Systems Specialist Intern

CAE Inc. | 2020
  • Resolved client issues related to aircraft simulation software suites.
  • Designed and implemented automated system tests (C#) to validate aircraft system behavior against manufacturer specifications.
  • Integrated hardware and software systems for A429 avionics buses (ARJ21 platform).

Research Assistant – Aerospace Mechatronics Lab

McGill University | 2020 – 2021
  • Developed and tested circuitry and PCBs for sensing brushless DC motor speed using back-EMF filtering.
  • Embedded the sensing solution into existing LabVIEW-based monitoring tool for motor-propeller systems.
  • Investigated freewheeling capabilities of PX4 Sapog firmware to support regenerative braking in UAVs.

Research Assistant – Shared Reality Lab

McGill University | 2019
  • Engineered a wearable device using the thermal grill illusion to study human temperature perception.
  • Built a portable, force-controllable fingertip rehabilitation device to replace manual monofilament tests.
  • Developed firmware, control logic, circuitry and mechanical housing for an ESP32-based system.
  • Designed PCBs for a vibrational footwear device supporting motor learning and sensory feedback.
  • Designed and ran pilot user studies with lab members; presented results in a poster presentation.

Projects

Experimental Framework for Steering Law Studies (Interactive Web-Based Experiment Platform)

Human Communication Technologies Lab | 2022 – 2024
  • Designed a robust experimental framework for Steering Law research, grounded in prior literature and refined through multiple rounds of pilot testing.
  • Iteratively adapted task design, parameters and interaction mechanics based on pilot data and observations to improve validity, reliability and usability of testing platform.
  • Developed a web-based experimental platform to support controlled manipulation of path geometry, real-time interaction, and data logging of cursor trajectories and performance metrics.
  • Deployed the platform in a large-scale user study, forming the backbone of a CHI’25 publication.

Data Analysis & Modeling for Steering Tasks

Human Communication Technologies Lab | 2024 – 2025
  • Built Python-based data analysis pipelines for cleaning, aggregating and analyzing behavioral dataset.
  • Conducted regression analyses, mixed-effects modeling and learning curve analyses to examine user performance in curved steering tasks, producing a publicly available dataset.
  • Proposed and validated an extension of the Steering Law for modeling human movement behavior.

Speech Onset Detection Using sEEG

Human Communication Technologies Lab | 2021 – 2022
  • Processed audio data to label speech onset, extracted frequency-based features from sEEG signals and clustered channels via Bisecting K-Means.
  • Developed a CNN-LSTM-based model to predict speech onset based on sEEG signals, achieving an AUC of 0.89, outperforming Random Forest models on the same dataset.

Speech Synthesis from Silent rtMRI Videos

Human Communication Technologies Lab | 2022
  • Reconstructed and synthesized speech audio from the USC-TIMIT rtMRI speech production dataset.
  • Processed video using Eulerian video magnification, reduced audio noise and extracted articulatory features relevant to speech production.
  • Developed ResNet-based model to predict mel-cepstrum coefficients to synthesize resulting speech.

Study Space Finder

CPSC 544 Course Project | 2022
  • Designed a mobile application to help students find suitable study spaces based on user preferences and constraints.
  • Conducted qualitative interviews and observations, created user personas, and established functional and non-functional requirements.
  • Iterative prototyping (low to medium fidelity) focused on user needs, using both Wizard-of-Oz style paper models and interactive Figma designs connected to a pseudo-database.
  • Conducted usability tests with participants representing typical users and demonstrated the app was intuitive, functional, and reduces the time spent searching for spaces.

Personal Interactive Website (Creative Portfolio – jennie-chen.com)

Self-Directed | 2025 – 2026
  • Conceptualized and designed a personal website to showcase research, technical projects and creative work through an interactive medium, treating the site itself as a UX artifact.
  • Produced low-fidelity sketches to explore layout and interaction concepts, then transitioned to Figma to create medium-fidelity, responsive designs complete with reusable components and interactions.
  • Implemented the website using HTML, CSS, JS and Astro, integrating animations and dynamic content.

Ceramics Practice

Self-Directed | 2023 – 2026
  • Experimented with functional design through wheel-throwing and hand-building techniques.
  • Integrated 3D printing into ceramic works by designing and fabricating custom tools such as handle formers, ribs and maker’s marks, and sharing the design process through online tutorials publicly.
  • Served as studio supervisor, responsible for overseeing drop-in sessions, member support and mentoring.
  • Produced short-form pottery videos to educate, entertain and document the creative process.

Activities

VP Social

UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduate Student Association | 2022 – 2023
  • Organized 18+ graduate student events for the graduate student body with ~50 participants per event.
  • Planned event logistics end-to-end: ideation, promotion, volunteer coordination, budgeting, materials, event flow, participant experience, and execution.
  • Designed posters and social media content and team branding in Adobe Illustrator and Canva.
  • Planned and furnished a new graduate student lounge for community building and collaboration.

Lab Ambassador

UBC Electrical and Computer Engineering Department | 2022 – 2025
  • Participated in monthly departmental discussions addressing graduate student concerns.
  • Represented lab members by communicating feedback and relaying issues to department leadership.
  • Contributed to discussions on program structure, resources and graduate student wellbeing.

Avionics Subteam Lead

McGill Rocket Team | 2017 – 2021
  • Led four avionics projects: flight computer, power management, ejection system and video recorder.
  • Designed circuitry, PCBs, firmware and mechanical structures across multiple embedded systems.
  • Defined testing plans, technical specifications, timelines and documentation.
  • Organized weekly meetings, mentored team members, and resolved technical and interpersonal issues.
  • Co-authored technical reports and attended the Spaceport America Cup competition.
  • Organized and taught onboarding tutorials in mechatronics and programming.

Awards

Best Paper Award, CHI ’25 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems | 2025
Dean's Guidelines Extra-Curricular Contribution Award, University of British Columbia | 2023
British Columbia Graduate Scholarship, BC Ministry of Advanced Education | 2023
Excellence Bursary for Computer Science and Engineering, Quebec Ministry of Higher Education | 2021
Mr. & Mrs. Lee Hee Chong and Mr. & Mrs. David Su Toye SURE Award, McGill University | 2020
Rubin Gruber SURE Award, McGill University | 2019

Skills

  • Software: Python, C/C++, JavaScript (HTML/CSS), C#, MATLAB
  • Hardware: Embedded systems, STM32, sensor integration, circuit prototyping/testing, signal processing
  • Data & Research Methods: Experimental design, surveys & interviews, user studies and usability testing, data analysis, statistical analysis, regression and mixed-effects modeling, quantitative modeling
  • Design & Interaction: UX research, interaction design, prototyping, accessibility (applied)
  • Tools & Platforms: Git, LaTeX, Figma, Jupyter Notebook, Adobe Illustrator & Premiere Pro, Procreate
  • Collaboration: Technical communication, mentoring & teaching, project coordination
  • Languages: English (native), French (native), Mandarin (conversational), Spanish (basic)
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