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Table of contents

General Information

Full Name Carla Gabriela Floricel Sosea
Languages English (fluent), Romanian (native), Spanish (novice)
Research Interests Visual Analytics, Visual Data Science, Information Visualization, HCI, ML

Education

  • 2019-Present
    Ph.D. in Visual Data Science
    University of Illinois Chicago
    • Computer Science
    • Electronic Visualiation Laboratory
  • 2015-2019
    BS in Information Technology
    Politehnica University of Bucharest
    • Computer Engineering

Work Experience

  • 2019 - Present
    Research Assistant
    University of Illinois Chicago, Electronic Visualization Laboratory
    • Chicago, IL
    • Research on visual data science for multidimensional cohorts, mainly in medical data.
    • Advisor Dr. Georgeta-Elisabeta Marai.
  • Summer 2023
    Research Supervisor
    University of Illinois Chicago, Electronic Visualization Laboratory
    • Chicago, IL
    • Co-mentored an under-represented high school student during a research project.
    • Organzied by University of Illinois Cancer Center - Diversity in Cancer Research (DICR).
  • Summer 2022
    Research Intern
    Aicure
    • NYC, NY
    • Worked on the OpenDBM open-source project.
    • Created an open-source visual analytics tool for digital biomarkers.
  • Fall 2019, 2020, 2022
    Teaching Assistant
    University of Illinois Chicago
    • Chicago, IL
    • Introductory programming classes and graduate visualization class.
    • Office hours, lab presentation and supervision, assignment grading.
  • Apr 2018 - Jan 2019
    Junior Full Stack Developer
    UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions
    • Bucharest, Romania
    • Developed and tested features for the company's bank client web application.

Research Interests

Visual Analytics I am primarily interested in designing, developing, and evaluating visual analytics systems for medical data. I have experience in processing and visualizing large-scale, multivariate cohort data from cancer patient cohorts, digital biomarker cohorts, airplane simulation ensemble data, and vessel cohorts.
InfoVis I am interested in designing novel encodings for cohort summarization and temporal trends.
ML I have experience in using unsupervised modeling for cohort prediction and desription.
HCI I have extensive experience in working in multidisiplinary environments with domain experts from different research areas, in client interviewing to gather task requirements, and in evaluating any built visualization systems with the clients, mostly using qualitative methods.

Projects

  • 2023 - Present
    Visual Analytics for Supervised Prediction of Patient Symptoms
    • Visualization system for designed to predict symptoms after the completion of cancer treatment.
    • Analysis of longitudinal treatment toxicity and model building.
  • 2023
    Image+Text Search System for Biocuration
    • Evaluation and maintenance of search interfaces for mouse gene expressions.
    • Maintaining an active learning system for searching and labeling documents using figures.
  • 2023
    Visual Analytics for Human Epilepsy
    • Design and task analysis for a system used for detecting brain seizures.
  • 2020 - 2023
    Visual Analytics for Treatment Comparison Based on Longitudinal Symptoms
    • Visualization system for predicting symptoms after the completion of cancer treatment.
    • Analysis of longitudinal treatment toxicity using sequential rule mining.
  • 2023
    HCI Evaluation of Visual Analytics System
    • User study for evaluating a visual analytics system for model builders in oncology.
    • Oualitative and quantitative methods to evaluate user experience, use, non-use, and trust.
  • 2022
    Visual Analytics Tool for Digital Biomarkers
    • Interface for the OpenDBM open source project analyzing both individuals and cohorts.
    • Visual analysis of digital biomarkers extracted from audio and video sources.
  • 2021
    Illegal Activities during Global Fishing
    • Visual analysis of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
    • Detection of IUU fishing based on longitudinal vessel activity.
  • 2021 - 2022
    High-performance computing and data-driven modeling of aircraft contrails
    • Visualizing contrail formation from aircraft simulations.
    • Visual analysis for I/O simulation parameters and ensemble members.
  • 2020
    CAVE2 Airport Control Simulator
    • Airport control simulator for a large-scale virtual-reality environment CAVE2 at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory.
  • 2019 - 2020
    Visualizing Symptom Development for Head and Neck Cancer Patients
    • Visualization system for head and neck cancer cohort analysis.
    • Analysis of symptom clustering using association rule mining and symptom development.
  • 2018-2019
    vINCI - Clinically-Validated Integrated Support for Assistive Care and Lifestyle Improvement, the Human Link
    • Bachelor's Thesis
    • Designed, tested, and developed an interface for improving older adults' QoL using IoT.
    • Second prize for best research project presentation at a Politehnica University competition.

Skills

  • Programming Languages
    • JS, Python
  • Technologies
    • React, d3.js, Observable, Three.js, Pandas, Sklearn, Matplotlib, Seaborn, HTML, CSS, Unity, Git, SQL, MongoDB, Adobe XD, Docker
  • Soft Skills
    • Problem-solving, prototyping, client interviewing, development, usability testing, evaluation, teamwork, time management, team lead.

Talks and Presentations

  • Roses Have Thorns - Understanding the Downside of Oncological Care Delivery Through Visual Analytics and Sequential Rule Mining
    • Paper presented at IEEE VIS 2023
  • Opening Access to Visual Exploration of Audiovisual Digital Biomarkers - an OpenDBM Analytics Tool
    • Paper presented at IEEE VIS 2022 Visualization in Biomedical AI Workshop
  • OpenDBM Summer Internship
    • Virtually presented my experience and results to the company where I interned in the Summer of 2022
  • THALIS - Human-machine Analysis of Longitudinal Symptoms in Cancer Therapy
    • Poster presented at the CRA-WP Grad Cohort for Women Workshop in 2022
  • THALIS - Human-machine Analysis of Longitudinal Symptoms in Cancer Therapy
    • Paper presented at IEEE VIS 2021 virtually and in person at UIC, EVL satellite event for the conference
  • A personal experience in the doctoral program in the USA
    • Presented graduate study opportunities in the USA virtually for Romanian students at Politehnica University of Bucharest in 2021
  • Visual Analysis of Patient Timelines
    • Ph.D. Qualifier Exam, 2021

Volunteering

Paper Reviewer IEEE VIS 2022-2023, EuroVis 2022, CFG 2023
Student Volunteer 2021-2023 IEEE VIS conferences (student volunteer captain at VIS 2023), Electronic Visualization Laboratory

Awards

Travel Award University of Illinois Cancer Center Award for cancer research conference travel