CRA-W DMP @ The University of Washington

Mayra Vavrica

Summer 2006

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Born in the sunny yet rainy Mexico City, I am a recent graduate of San Diego State University (SDSU) in San Diego, California, where I majored in Mathematics, with a concentration in Mathematics Education. Before graduating, I took time off to travel in the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Eastern Europe. I taught English, Spanish and Junior High School Mathematics in Ostrava, Czech Republic for two years, where I opened a small private language school named Jazykova Skola Mayflower- Mayra's Language School, to wide acclaim.

During the summer of 2006, I was privileged to receive a grant to do research from the Computer Research Association's Distributed Mentor Program. Through the program, I have the opportunity to participate in graduate level Computer Science research with Professor Linda Shapiro at the University of Washington. My research currently focuses on image analysis using matlab.

How did I end up doing research in computer science? Sound intriguing? It is my love of building in all its forms that has kept me close to computer science taking introductory computer science courses in C, C ++, Java, Fortran, and Visual Basic since 1994, building a small remote control operated Sumo Bot, and becoming secretary of San Diego State's Student Chapter ACM.

I participated in the 2005 Southern California ACM programming competition, my team,obtained the highest ranking of the 3 SDSU teams, due in part to my statistics skills. I am interested in the issue of women in Computer Science.

In the fall of 2006 I am starting my first year at San Diego State University's Applied Math with concentration in Dynamical Systems Maters program.

When I am not studying, I enjoy a variety of frivolous activitie.

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"You see things and say, 'Why?' But I dream things that never were and say, 'Why not?'" -- George Bernard Shaw