Jessica Singh

Year in School
Sophomore

Major
Computer Science

Research Interests
Artificial Intelligence Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Programming Languages, Formal Methods, and Software Engineering Scientific Computing Theory and Algorithms

Research Mentor
Prof. Lawrence Angrave

Research/Engagement Experience
First semester, I was working on an automated trading bot under the Promoting Undergraduate Research in Engineering program. We implemented an algorithm using a profitable trading strategy into an interactive brokers’ trading platform. This semester I am continuing work from last semester on the ClassTranscribe Caption Accuracy Research Project, where we are generating a weighted word error rate and analyzing the accuracy of using machine learning for speech to text on educational videos with Professor Lawrence Angrave. Currently, we look at the frequency of words and look at insertions and deletions in the different captions to calculate word error rates. In the future, we will be able to compare captions based on different metrics like time and sentences. We also have word lists for different subjects like physics, computer science, etc. Eventually, these can be used as phrase hints for the speech to text conversion. We hope that with our research we will be able to do an evaluation and data analysis of ML methods and data.

Interests
Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, Robotics, Computational Biology, Memory and Compilers

Project Title
Analyzing accuracy of Word Error Rates (WER) of Artificial Intelligence (AI) generated captions compared to professional human generated captions in engineering lecture videos

How did I get interested in Computer Science?
I got interested in computer science after doing multiple biology projects in Parkinson's disease and Alzheimer's disease that harnessed computer science to make an impact. I realized that computer science is the tool to be used to solve multiple problems

What social interests matter to me?
I care about improving disease detection and treatment, sustainable energy consumption, environmental preservation, helping out people under the poverty line, and improving access to basic human rights like clean water and nutritious food

What is my most impactful college experience?
My most impactful college experience was joining Hack4Impact and working as a software developer on the team working with 7000 Languages a nonprofit focused on building an application to improve language learning courses of indigenous languages

These are a few of my favorite things!
Pizza, Kayaking, Thai Food, Hiking, Listening to Music

Research Description
I am working on the ClassTranscribe Caption Accuracy Research Project, where we are generating a weighted word error rate and analyzing the accuracy of using machine learning for speech to text on educational videos. Currently, we look at the frequency of words and look at insertions and deletions in the different captions to calculate word error rates. In the future, we will be able to compare captions based on different metrics like time and sentences. We also have word lists for different subjects like physics, computer science, etc. which can be used as phrase hints for the speech to text conversion. We hope that with our research we will be able to do an evaluation and data analysis of ML methods and data.

Biography
I have the spirit of a researcher. Whether than involves going after class to inquire about the different types of graphing algorithms or finding ways to apply machine learning to predict the onset of Alzheimer's disease 20 years before its onset, I am always brainstorming new ideas, analyzing different solutions, learning from different implementation, never losing belief in my cause and idea, and learning from past mistakes. I love exploring different skillsets and coding in various languages to solve problems. I believe that we all have the spirit inside of us, so, I want to help other women like me who are trying to get more involved in research at UIUC with our amazing faculty. I look forward to learning and growing through this opportunity and becoming a part of this passionate and talented community of women who are trying to learn more and make an impact with computer science. I am very excited to continue working with Professor Angrave this semester on my project of using ML to minimize speech to text error rates.