# Grace C.

> CS @ Columbia SEAS

Location: Cupertino, California, United States
Profile: https://flows.cv/gracec1

Hello! My name is Grace, and I’m a first-year at Columbia Engineering, planning to study Computer Science! I’m interested in robotics, machine learning and public health advocacy.

gjc2154@columbia.edu

## Work Experience
### Undergraduate Researcher @ Creative Machines Lab
Jan 2026 – Present

### Software Engineer @ Columbia Build Lab
Jan 2026 – Present
Kernel

### iGem Dry Lab @ Columbia iGEM
Jan 2025 – Present

### Education Committee @ Application Development Initiative
Jan 2025 – Present

### SUITS Team @ Columbia Space Initiative
Jan 2025 – Present

### Language Arts and Math TA @ Art of Problem Solving
Jan 2025 – Jan 2025

### Research Intern with Dr. Nhung Nguyen @ UC San Francisco HEARTY Lab
Jan 2023 – Jan 2025
- researched AI-tailored vape-intervention messages for different demographics
- accepted as poster presenter at UCSF Promoting Research in Social Media & Health (PRISM) Symposium
- will publish mental health & tobacco-use infographic on lab website
- designed smartphone messages for future clinical trials

### 1 of 12 Youth Board of Directors @ California Youth Advocacy Network
Jan 2023 – Jan 2025
- created+published tobacco policy handbook for retailers across state 
- launched youth blog platform to showcase events and voices of advocates
- annually organized Youth Quest event: trained >300 youth advocates across state to meet legislators, led march to State Capitol, delivered closing Press Conference Speech, interviewed by KCRA News

### FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) PR Lead & Computer Vision Member @ Cupertino Robotics
Jan 2023 – Jan 2025
- led PR volunteer subteam year-round: create social media promo & educative content
- directed club-wide music video w/ >10 members
- hosted OpenCV workshop for 4 FTC teams (training TF ML model) & Lego workshop for 30 children at homeless shelter

### FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Team Software & Outreach Lead @ Cupertino Robotics
Jan 2021 – Jan 2023
- oversaw software development, designed state machine for teleoperation & utilized Computer Vision to improve game scoring
- integrated new software summer training program (Code-A-Bot)
- mentored 15 young girls in robotics through Project Artemis
- organized FTC Conference Call for idea sharing with 5 teams

### 1 of 20 Peer Advocate Advisory Council (PAAC) @ Santa Clara County Office of Education
Jan 2021 – Jan 2025
- advocated Tier 2 TUPE 50K grant to fund school district TUPE team & 9th/11th grade curriculum
- Stanford Cannabis Prevention Conference panelist
- held school district’s 1st annual Take Down Tobacco multimedia competition
- led 2nd annual Fremont Union High School District (FUHSD) Take Down Tobacco Multimedia Competition, organized meetings with tobacco-prevention student advocates from across school district to prepare promotional material, rubrics, and prizes
- 3x annual Teens Tackle Tobacco Conference workshop presenter

### Team Captain (2023-25), Parliamentary Varsity Debater @ Cupertino Speech and Debate
Jan 2021 – Jan 2025
- led weekly practices: incorporating input, organizing team bonding, & onboarding newcomers through lectures & drills
- coached middle school students & judged mock tournament at Cupertino Speech & Debate summer camp

### President, Administrative Assistant @ Tino Explore STEAM Magazine Club
Jan 2021 – Jan 2025
- published + distributed quarterly magazines around various themes
- held research/writing workshops
- invited expertise from STEM clubs for guest articles on relevant topics
- organized yearly holiday cookie decorating contest

### Research Intern with Dr. Robert Jackler @ Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA)
Jan 2024 – Jan 2024
- researched ZYN Nicotine Pouch’s marketing tactics targeting youth in US to present evidence to legislators and co-authored research paper to be published by World Health Organization
- researched plummeting price of large volume disposable e-Cigarettes (vapes containing 25,000–40,000 puffs)

### Applied Artificial Intelligence (AAI) Research Intern @ UC Santa Cruz Science Internship Program
Jan 2023 – Jan 2023
- researched Human-in-the-Loop in Autonomous Vehicle Object Recognition
- optimized performance of YOLO-NAS object detection model using kitti dataset, merged predictions from AI model and human using fusion methods (Weighted Box Fusion and Soft Non-Maximum Suppression)
- wrote/edited SIP newsletters showcasing interns and events

### Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) Research Intern @ UC Santa Cruz Science Internship Program
Jan 2022 – Jan 2022
- researched applications of Reinforcement Learning (RL) in robotic systems
- applied RL in OpenAI virtual environments, solved sequential decision-making problems like controlling simulated spacecraft & balancing inverted pendulum on cart
- conducted preliminary experiments with RL in Mujoco physics engine to control robotic arm

### Summer Student @ AwesomeMath
Jan 2021 – Jan 2021


## Education
### Bachelor of Science - BS in Computer Science
Columbia Engineering

### Cupertino High School

### West Valley College


## Contact & Social
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/grace-j-cho

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Source: https://flows.cv/gracec1
JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/gracec1/resume.json
Last updated: 2026-04-10