HCI STUDENT

@Worcester polytechnic institute

B.S. in HCI, M.S. in IUX

Boston, ma

design

coding

freelance

My name is Selina Tran and I am currently a senior studying Human-Computer Interaction at Worcester Polytechnic Institute. I’m currently a UX design intern at Amazon Robotics in Westborough, MA.

Originally studying Computer Science with hopes to pursue a career in web design, I decided to create my own major at WPI called HCI. In my major proposal, I wrote about why the major is needed at WPI and the real world, and about how I was inspired to pursue this career path.

Now, I'm going into my senior year at WPI and am incredibly excited for what the future awaits. Taking a mix of graduate and undergrad courses in MIS, CS, Psychology, and Art, I am confident in my ability to apply HCI to more than just web design.

On campus, I am the president of my sorority, Phi Sigma Sigma Gamma Iota, an office assistant for the WPI Dean of Students office, and am part of Rho Lambda, Order of Omega, and Senior Honor Society. In my free time, I enjoy spending time with my friends and family, scrapbooking, cooking, and learning new hobbies (recently, guitar!).

ART AND DESIGN

AR 1101 Digital Imaging and Computer Art

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects

AR 2301 Graphic Design

Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, In Design, Figma

SP 3531 Latino Literature & Culture

Although not a traditional art course, the students were tasked to do an un-essay for our final about what we've learned about the Latino-American experience and identity. I chose to do a drawing using Adobe Illustrator of someone solving a Rubik's cube, inspired by a line from one of the poems we read, “a little square from Rubik’s Cuba / que nadie nunca acoplará” in Bilingual Blues by Gustavo Pérez-Firmat (Pérez-Firmat 22-23). The Rubik's cube represents an immigrant's growth in life from each layer in the cube.

• Bottom layer: adjustments and hardships as an immigrant
  
• Middle layer: identity crisis
• Top layer: future and hope
• Topmost layer: an imminent future
  

COMPUTER SCIENCE

CS 2303 Systems Programming Concepts

Learned about the fundamental learning concepts of C and C++ such as memory, pointers,

and data structures. Used Oracle VirtualBox and Linux for the learning environment.

CS 2223 Algorithms

Learned about the principles of significant algorithms such as mergesort, quicksort, heapsort, BSTs, and big O notation. Gained practical experience in implementing algorithms in Java.

CS 2102 Object-Oriented Programming Concepts

Learned about intermediate topics in Java such as methods and classes, linked lists, BSTs, heaps, encapsulation, array lists, and hashmaps.

CS 1101 Intro to Program Design

Learned about beginner program implementation in Racket. Designed and implemented simple data models, recursive functions, and debuggers.

Startup UX Designer

Overview

Created intuitive wireframes for a startup to effectively communicate user experience to various users including claims adjustors, attorneys, and accident individuals on process form completion. Met weekly to ensure standards were met and showcase ideas.

Software

Figma

Optum Software Engineering Intern

Overview

Created an internal data validation tool, built off of a current contract auditor, to map data from two proprietary APIs and flag any discrepancies between the two to be further reviewed and optimize end-to-end content testing. Gained full-stack development experience through back-end data mapping and developing meaningful UI to display data on the front-end.

Software

React, TypeScript, GraphQL, Node.js, GitHub

Liberty Mutual L1 Tech Support Intern

Liberty Mutual Intern Hackathon 2022

Overview

Summer of 2022, I joined Liberty Mutual’s L1 TechSupport team to aid the team in working daily SRM tickets. I resolved tickets covering a variety of applications such as Outlook, Teams, ZScaler, and onboarding.

Overview

My team consisted of 6 interns under the “My Best Work” problem category. We hacked for a total of 16 hours and created a website called LM Hub, a center for Liberty Mutual employees to find all resources and learn more about teams in one place. After hacking, we concluded with a presentation of our work.

Software

Software

BMC Remedy, BeyondTrust

GitHub, HTML, CSS

Liberty Mutual Digital Insights Project

Overview

Worked alongside two other interns to improve several LM employee websites using Heap Analytics to acquire data and analyze user patterns. Presented findings, dashboards, and UI proposals to LM team.

Software

Heap Analytics, Figma

Continuation

In my free time, I created wireframes and prototypes to implement these changes using Figma, with the intent of improving the most used features of the website to be more user-friendly.

Made In America Festival- Cause Village Installation

Made In America is an annual festival that occurs every Labor Day weekend on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia. Founded by Jay-Z, the festival aims to partner with non-profit organizations to support causes. Cause Village is a 20-foot tall art installation of designs by local artists and students who were inspired by a cause.

My Impact

I was fortunate enough to have been chosen as one of the 12 featured artists to display my art piece at the 2023 Made In America Cause Village. I submitted a piece I did for my Spanish class, supporting causes regarding immigration, education, and social justice. Unfortunately, the festival was canceled but I am honored to be continuing this work by presenting my artwork at the New England Council of Latin American Studies.

OTHER DESIGNS

DIGITAL SCRAPBOOK

Ever since I was little, I always loved crafting and scrapbooking. When I started learning about graphic design and immersing myself in the world of digital art, I fell in love with digital scrapbooking. @SellysMems is an Instagram account I made to display my “Internet Scrapbook” to the world and anyone who is interested in a more creative glimpse into my life.

Check out my most recent post and more by clicking it below!

SPOTIFY WIREFRAMES

Overview

I decided to take on re-designing the mobile Spotify app as a fun way to get familiar with using Figma tools. As a daily Spotify user, I noticed some features that needed improvements.

• Friend activity is only visible on the Desktop Spotify version, not allowing users to fully engage in the social aspect of Spotify.
  
• In order to view friend profiles, you have to search their name or go to your list of following.
  
• Sessions settings are limited and the sessions itself often lag.
  

With my revisions, I aimed for Spotify users to have more control over the app with session settings. I also improved the ability to interact with friends, promoting the app to be more of a social platform.

Problem

Solution