The Girls Who Code Upper School club welcomed speaker Eli Kim, a data scientist who has worked on autism research, speech pathology, gentrification, and bike safety through coding!
Led by juniors Amelia Otto and Marissa Shaffer, and supported by teachers Laura Jamieson and Eva Porter, the Girls Who Code Upper School club welcomed speaker Eli Kim, a data scientist who has worked on autism research, speech pathology, gentrification, and bike safety - all through coding!
Kim shared that her first coding experience was actually in Kindergarten using a program called Logo, although she didn’t discover this connection until after college. Kim attended MIT and majored in Computer Science. She later received a PhD from Yale in Human Robot Interaction, which led her to autism research. At Yale, she collaborated with a speech pathologist language, researching children as they spoke to robots and incorporating this fun tool into therapy.
A previous role at the Center for Autism Research at CHOP led her to Philadelphia, and she now works locally for a company [what is the company called?] that uses data and coding to research and develop solutions for a range of issues, including making bike lanes safe even when there is traffic blocking site lines. Kim also described the systemic racism and sexism in the computer science field - something she sees finally shifting.
While some members of the club have been coding for 3-4 years, it was inspiring to hear from a young person making change in the world with a similar passion.