Overview
The Project:
I'm working in the LASER Lab this summer. One of their projects involves modeling processes. They've developed a language called Little-Jil that can accurately and precisely describe processes. One case study that they're particularly interested in is modeling medical processes. Medical processes are very complex, and it's hard to intuit where errors and mistakes are likely to occur (and in medical processes those errors can have dire consequences). There are also a lot of exceptional cases, each doctor/nurse may have multiple patients, and each patient may be worked on by various doctors and nurses. Thus, the process model may be quite complicated. One goal of modeling these processes accurately is to figure out automatically where there are weaknesses. Another goal is to use these validated processes to guide doctors and nurses while they are performing these processes. My project involves creating mock-ups of how this guidance could be presented to the medical professionals.
I'm keeping a journal of my experiences both in the lab and in my spare time this summer.
My Mentor:
Dr. Lori Clarke is my official DREU mentor. She is a professor at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst in the Department of Computer Science. Her research area is software engineering, specifically software analysis and testing.
Location:
I'm spending the summer at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst.
Final Report:
I wrote a final report (pdf) of my work this summer.
What is DREU?
DREU (Distributed Research Experiences for Undergraduates) is a program that matches undergraduates from underrepresented groups in computer science and engineering with mentors to do research for the summer. Their goal is to get students interested in graduate schools.
