Hi, my name is Tyler Cruz. I was born in Washington, D.C. and rasied in Maryland - mostly Upper Marlboro, MD. I moved across the country to Washington State as a junior in high school. I'm currently a rising junior at Washington State University. I'm pursuing a bachelor's of science degree in computer science.

This was my first REU program. After this summer, I've been thinking a lot about graduate school. Prior to the DREU program, graduate school rarely crossed my mind. This program has given me a great deal of confidence in my major by surrounding me with people like myself who enjoy computer science. I'll continue to succeed in my major and prepare to attend an outstanding graduate school program - thanks to DREU. I'm interested in researching human-computer interaction. In the future, I want to contribute to the diversification of computer science, as the DREU program does.

Dr. Juan E. Gilbert holds the Andrew Banks Family Preeminence Endowed Chair and he is the Associate Chair of Research in the Computer & Information Science & Engineering Department at the University of Florida wwhere he leads the Human Centered Computing Lab. wwww.JuanGilbert.com

"Diverse minds create diverse solutions." - Gilbert