Projects

SafeSpace

Despite the prevalence of poor mental health, Cal students suffer from underfunded resources and a lack of space to dialogue about their issues.

We provide a technological approach to close this resource gap.

Research has shown that sharing with peers can alleviate psychological distress. SafeSpace is an anonymous online chat platform that bridges students with others who share various commonalities.

We seek to generate a sense of connection through a filter system that closely matches users. We also provide a one-stop destination to connect students to peer counselors and resources on campus.

It's time we all had someone we can talk to.

More Info

Diversity in User Recommendation Systems

Engaging with diverse content comes with a lot of benefits. As a result, many recommendation system designs have focused on increasing user exposure to novel content.

However, if our hope is to design a system based on the true desires of the user, we need to make an important clarification: All benefits aside, is diversity in content what users actually want?

To answer this question, I wanted to see whether users would choose to engage with novel content when presented with familiar content, specifically in the form of YouTube videos. If the user chooses to watch the new videos, we may be able to conclude that they enjoy diversity.