Mara Solen

Research

I am interested in how visualization can be used to communicate with non-experts. In particular, I am interested in both formal and informal learning spaces: museums, nature, classrooms, media, etc. I work in the InfoVis lab at UBC under the supervision of Professor Tamara Munzner.

Visualization of Deep Time in Informal Learning Environments

A design study with a focus of making deep time more understandable to museum visitors. In collaboration with Laura Lukes.

Ongoing

VIVA: Virtual Healthcare Interactions Using Visual Analytics

A design study on creating a flexible visualization system for a healthcare use case. In collaboration with HealthLink BC and DigEM.

Ongoing

Scoping the Future of Visualization Literacy: A Review

A survey paper of visualiation literacy literature that identifies, describes, and makes a case for three themes to be considered in future research: foundations, believability, and engagement. It also contains an analysis of participant pools from existing visualization literature to identify groups for future study.

Presented in the VisComm workshop at IEEE VIS 2022

Paper: osf.io/eypgm/

Teaching

I am very interested in teaching and education, especially where visualization can be applied.

CPSC 547

Teaching Assistant.
September 2022 - December 2022

Foundations of Software Development

Course Facilitator. Part of UBC's Extended Learning program.
April 2021 - now (ending December 2022)

CPSC 447

Teaching Assistant. Old course code was CPSC 436V.
January 2022 - April 2022

CPSC 210

Teaching Assistant.
June 2021 - August 2021

CPSC 110

Teaching Assistant then Lead Teaching Assistant. Supported course development, particularly during the change to virtual courses.
September 2017 - December 2021

Work

While software development is not my primary interest, understanding software development processes and practices is crucial for rapid prototyping in research projects.

Tableau

Software Engineer Intern. Further developed the Quick Search feature so that, on focus of the search bar, users would see useful links such as recent searches and vis creators that they might like.
June 2021 - August 2021

Activision

Software Engineer Intern. Created developer tools for supporting Call of Duty: Modern Warfare's crossplay feature.
May 2019 - July 2019

Intel

Firmware Engineer Intern. Developed a small, internal unit testing environment with basic test running and code coverage for SSDs.
January 2018 - August 2018

Projects, Awards, Degrees

I have been involved in multiple programming projects, received multiple awards, and received a degree since I first began my adventure in computer science. Here are some highlights.

Project: Actor Adaptability

A visualization to understand relationships between actors and other actors and actors and genres. Group project: my role was the central view.
Live demo

Project: ECHO

A 2D sidescrolling video game programmed from scratch in C++ and GLSL. Group project: my role was the smooth movement, dynamic shadows, visual level creator, AI pathing, and many small details.

Award: Best CPSC 554K Student Project

Won for the project "Designing a Toolkit to Support Diverse Conference Design" as part of a group.
May 2022

Award: Bill Aiello Award

For community work within UBC's computer science department.
May 2021
Article

Degree: Bachelor of Science

Honours Computer Science. May 2021

Pictures

I have a cat and a dog, both of which I take outside (dog: every day, cat: a few times a year). I like playing soccer, watching movies, and cooking. I have lots of tattoos and like to change my hair colour every couple months.