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University Personal Statement
Maya
Chen
(415) 867-1203
maya
.
chen
@
email
.
com
San
Francisco
,
CA
94110
October
14, 2026
Application
for
the
Master
of
Science
in
Computer
Science
,
Human
-
Computer
Interaction
Track
—
Carnegie
Mellon
University
Dear
Admissions
Committee
,
Last
winter
,
I
watched
my
seventy
-
two
-
year
-
old
grandmother
squint
at
her
smartphone
,
trying
to
decipher
a
medication
-
reminder
interface
rendered
in
eight
-
point
grey
text
.
After
three
failed
at
-
tempts
,
she
set
the
phone
down
and
returned
to
the
paper
calendar
she
has
kept
since
1987.
That
moment
distilled
why
I
am
applying
to
Carnegie
Mellon
:
technology
should
adapt
to
human
limitations
,
not
the
reverse
.
I
want
to
build
systems
that
remain
usable
when
vision
fades
,
mem
-
ory
slows
,
and
confidence
wavers
.
My
undergraduate
journey
at
the
University
of
Washington
gave
me
the
theoretical
foundations
and
empirical
rigor
to
pursue
that
goal
.
Majoring
in
Informatics
with
a
minor
in
Accessibility
Studies
,
I
maintained
a
3.91
GPA
while
completing
coursework
in
interaction
design
,
cognitive
psychology
,
and
statistical
methods
.
In
an
accessible
-
technology
seminar
led
by
Dr
.
Leah
Findlater
,
I
conducted
a
heuristic
evaluation
of
three
popular
banking
apps
,
identifying
fourteen
WCAG
2.1
violations
that
collectively
prevented
screen
-
reader
users
from
completing
basic
transfers
.
The
project
taught
me
that
accessibility
is
not
a
checklist
but
a
design
philosophy
that
must
govern
architecture
,
information
hierarchy
,
and
feedback
loops
from
the
first
sketch
.
That
philosophy
guided
my
two
years
as
a
research
assistant
in
the
UW
Interactive
Systems
Laboratory
.
I
led
a
mixed
-
methods
study
examining
how
older
adults
adopt
voice
-
first
interfaces
for
medication
management
.
We
recruited
eighteen
participants
aged
sixty
-
five
to
eighty
-
four
,
conducted
contextual
inquiries
in
their
homes
,
and
iterated
three
prototypes
using
a
participatory
design
framework
.
Our
findings
,
which
revealed
that
participants
preferred
multi
-
turn
clarification
prompts
over
single
-
shot
commands
,
were
accepted
as
a
poster
at
CHI
2026.
Beyond
the
pub
-
lication
,
the
work
taught
me
how
to
balance
ecological
validity
with
experimental
control
,
and
how
to
translate
ethnographic
nuance
into
concrete
engineering
specifications
.
My
internship
at
Garmin
International
last
summer
extended
that
research
into
industry
practice
.
Working
with
the
UX
research
and
firmware
teams
,
I
helped
redesign
the
daily
health
-
dashboard
screen
for
a
wearable
device
used
by
over
two
million
subscribers
.
I
prototyped
four
informa
-
tion
-
density
variants
in
Figma
,
ran
remote
moderated
usability
sessions
with
twelve
participants
across
three
age
cohorts
,
and
presented
findings
that
reduced
task
-
completion
time
for
the
old
-
est
cohort
by
thirty
-
four
percent
.
The
experience
clarified
the
difference
between
academic
and
industry
timelines
,
and
convinced
me
that
I
need
graduate
training
to
bridge
the
two
worlds
—
to
speak
fluently
both
to
engineers
wrestling
with
sensor
constraints
and
to
participants
wrestling
with
declining
dexterity
.
1 / 2
Carnegie
Mellon
'
s
Human
-
Computer
Interaction
Institute
is
singularly
equipped
to
cultivate
that
fluency
.
Professor
Amy
Ogan
'
s
work
on
learning
and
health
technologies
for
underserved
popu
-
lations
directly
aligns
with
my
interest
in
aging
and
inclusion
;
her
2024
paper
on
adaptive
scaf
-
folding
for
older
adult
learners
reframed
my
thinking
about
instructional
interface
design
.
I
am
equally
eager
to
work
with
Professor
Brad
Myers
in
the
Natural
Programming
project
,
exploring
how
programming
-
by
-
demonstration
might
empower
older
adults
to
customize
their
own
smart
-
home
routines
without
writing
code
.
Courses
such
as
Service
Design
,
User
-
Centered
Research
and
Evaluation
,
and
Programming
Usable
Interfaces
would
provide
the
methodological
breadth
and
technical
depth
I
lack
.
After
completing
the
M
.
S
.,
I
intend
to
pursue
a
Ph
.
D
.
focused
on
adaptive
interfaces
for
aging
populations
,
or
join
a
research
-
heavy
industry
lab
such
as
Microsoft
Ability
,
AARP
'
s
Innovation
Labs
,
or
IBM
'
s
Aging
Initiative
.
Ultimately
,
I
hope
to
lead
a
research
group
that
treats
old
age
not
as
an
edge
case
but
as
a
core
design
constraint
—
one
that
demands
clearer
typography
,
more
forgiving
error
recovery
,
and
interfaces
that
respect
the
accumulated
wisdom
of
long
lives
.
My
grandmother
still
uses
her
paper
calendar
.
But
last
month
she
successfully
refilled
a
prescrip
-
tion
through
a
portal
I
redesigned
during
a
volunteer
clinic
sprint
.
The
smile
she
sent
me
—
a
photo
of
the
confirmation
screen
held
next
to
her
morning
tea
—
reminds
me
that
the
metric
that
matters
most
is
not
task
-
completion
time
,
but
dignity
.
I
am
applying
to
Carnegie
Mellon
because
I
believe
your
program
will
teach
me
to
scale
that
dignity
across
millions
of
users
.
Thank
you
for
considering
my
application
.
Sincerely
,
Maya
Chen
2 / 2
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