Welcome to my website!

My name is Drew, and I’m a PhD student studying Computational Media at the University of California, Santa Cruz as a part of the ASSIST Group under the supervision of Professor Sri Kurniawan. I’m also a Graduate Student Researcher for the Braingeneers, a bioengineering research collective that is part of the UC Santa Cruz Genomics Institute where my work is supervised by Professor Mircea Teodorescu.

I’m a multi-disciplinary engineer who specializes in prototyping, electronics, computer aided design, and software development. My favorite thing to do as a engineer is develop interactive systems that are both physical and virtual. My research as a graduate student has mainly focused on two topics: creating novel open source lab equipment, and developing interactive science education tools that focus on communicating advanced research topics in a more approachable way. I only got exposed to scientific research as a graduate student, and spending the past few years learning all about it through my job as a engineer supporting biologists and neuroscientists has been a adventure that I want to share with people who haven’t realized that they love science yet!

Previously, I completed my MS in Computational Media at UCSC where I was a part of Professor Angus Forbes’ Creative Coding Lab and was mentored by Dr. Oskar Elek. Before that I completed my BS in Computer Science and BA in Film and Digital Media at UCSC in 2021. My thesis for both my bachelors and masters degrees both centered on creating 3D printed representations of Physarum Polycephalum slime mold simulations - more information about this topic can be seen in the “Projects” tab.