Masters Thesis: IN‐SITU MEASUREMENT OF ELECTRODERMAL ACTIVITY DURING OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY

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(Summer 2009- Spring 2010)

How could knowing a child’s electrodermal activity (EDA) during therapy change occupational therapy practices? As a joint project between the MIT Media Lab and the Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation, we measured the EDA responses of 22 children participating in occupational therapy for 77 hours. We saw children lying in a ball pit and their EDA correspondingly decreasing; we saw children’s EDA rapidly increase while they were swinging; and we saw many other patterns of responses from different therapeutic activities. Could we show how different guided activities changed children’s arousal with a statistical test? Analysis suggests that many factors play a role in changing children’s EDA, and these factors could not all be taken into account with our low sample size – making any statistical analysis inconclusive. As more tools begin to measure physiological data over longer periods of time, in less controlled settings, we should not forget to build a base understanding at the individual case level.

MIT Graduate School

2008-2014 (Expected)

• I am currently working toward a Ph.D. at MIT.
  
• Masters degree in September 2010
• GPA: 4.8/5
  
• My faculty advisor is Dr. Rosalind Picard with the Media Lab.
  
• My research group focuses on Affective Computing, using technology to measure people's emotional state, and working with that information
  

University of Colorado at Boulder

2004-2008

I graduated the University of Colorado at Boulder in May 2008.

With a degree in Electrical Computer Engineering and a certificate in the Study and Practice of Leadership .

• My final transcript can be found here.
• I was the only one in my major to graduate summa cum laude with a 3.82
• I took various graduate level classes, including Embedded Systems and DSP Lab
• I also took various classes outside of my focus including Spanish, Philosiphy, and Painting