Lucia Victoria Enriquez

Student , Columbia University
  • People
  • United States of America

I am a/an:

Undergraduate Leadership & Research Scholar

University

Columbia University

Laidlaw Cohort Year

2023

Research Topic

Astrophysics Computer Science

Area of Expertise

Computer Science

I am from:

United States of America

I speak:

English Spanish Turkish

My hobbies/interests are:

Foreign languages Gaming Music Politics & current events Volleyball

I am open to participating in mentoring/buddy programmes

Yes

Topics

Channels contributed to:

STEM

Rooms participated in:

Columbia University

Recent Comments

Hi Karen! I loved your explanation of PBATs, and I definitely learned a lot about the testing methods for immigrant students from your project! It is so interesting to me how much more of a subjective and creative method is used for PBAT evaluations than exams such as the SAT or ACT, which were the only tests I was familiar with until hearing about these processes. Thank you for sharing!

Replying to Rojeh Dayan

1. When beginning my research project, I had assumed that the community I am researching was well-received in Israel since it is a Jewish community but expected that the US may be a different story. However, I came to learn that the Jewish-Iranian community was, and even still is today although to a lesser extent, discriminated against in Israel. This was a surprising fact that contradicted my initial assumptions and has enriched my perspective of the topic at hand, allowing me to more greatly appreciate the efforts individuals have made to preserve their Iranian heritage and reclaim their ancestry. 

2. CLIO has proved particularly useful to me as it allows me to access a wide breadth of information with just one search. It is especially useful since it contains various types of sources, such as physical books and e-books. Moreover, topic-specific databases have proven to be useful as well.

Hello Rojeh, it's really insightful to hear about what you've found to be the case in Israel while conducting research aimed at understanding nuances in the US. I believe that expanding the scope of your research in this way is very helpful, and both relations internationally and domestically are valuable to study. I cannot wait to see what angle you end up taking for your final project as well. 

Replying to Joseph Karaganis

(Sorry for the late post! I put this on my to-do list, but I must have accidentally marked it complete because I lost track of it)

1. This is something that I've thought a lot about--since the bulk of my day-to-day research work involves interviews (and mostly preparing for them with background research), it's been difficult for me to plan out exactly how I want to present my final product. I'm thinking of writing a short paper in addition to the poster board, with an annotated bibliography that compiles all of the existing research that is relevant to my topic (LLM adoption in newsrooms). I haven't really thought about integrating my work into an academic environment that goes beyond Laidlaw, because my interview-based approach would require validation through the IRB for it to be published or released in an academic context (which would be virtually impossible at this point). However, I have thought about my project's implications on a more personal level--I see my work as having really pushed my interests further and helped me understand what the landscape is of this particular issue (one which I'm really fascinated by). The research I've done over the past month will definitely help fuel the work/research that I pursue next summer--my perspective on the topic is clearer and my questions are more focused.

2. My main questions surround the adoption of Large Language Model-powered chatbots (e.g. ChatGPT) by newsrooms and news media companies. I've mostly been looking at the way journalists conceptualize this integration process--and the norms, ethical considerations, and policy responses that have emerged. I think the topic is interesting because, while obviously timely (there's been a lot of buzz in news media about AI adoption, and a few companies have had widely publicized experiments with generative AI), it also ties into much larger questions about the way institutional norms and practices can be destabilized by the advent of new information technologies. On a practical level, the applications of my research seem pretty clear to me: a better understanding of this very odd moment in time (we are in the wild west of AI norm-creation) could help chart a clearer path forward.

Hi Joseph! I love your application of your research project to your personal life and understanding, which I believe is a very valid form of using research (especially conducted by you)! I believe that all of these avenues to produce your future work can prove to be fruitful, and would add a lot to the conversation about AI and journalism intertwining both presently and in the future. I am also sure that you have received a lot of varied answers regarding your inquiries about AI integration in journalism that I look forward to learning from. 

Replying to Aleena Garrison

My research involves a lot of looking at a lot of news articles and magazines, social media, as well as film. It becomes harder, especially with magazines, to figure out how to distinguish the real truth from clickbait essentially. The different kinds of media I’m looking at tend to want the most interactions with their content and will blow small instances out of proportion, not give context to certain quotes, and use other clever methods to get the most clicks. Ethical concerns arise because I’m never sure when I’m reading something factual or fictional. For example, last week I was assigned to research Tina Turner tributes, and during my research, a lot of articles mentioned a feud between Tina Turner and Aretha Franklin. Upon doing my own research, I think the feud was made bigger than it actually was because of a few mean-spirited comments from both women directed toward each other. The two had never even met in person! To respond to these ethical concerns, I do as much research as possible after reading an article to verify their claims. I wouldn’t want to spread more gossip and give my faculty member false information, so it’s very important for me to sort through what is actually true and what is misinformation. However, it can sometimes become overwhelming, simply because sometimes I have to verify a source with another “sketchy” source, and finding a credible source often involves a lot of searching down rabbit holes and takes a lot of time.

I definitely have considered alternative viewpoints. I was fortunate enough to be able to read portions of my faculty member’s forthcoming book, and after reading it I had a better understanding of what I should research and how I could make my research most useful for my faculty member. My research is about divas and their impact on girlhood, queer people, and society as a whole. Before researching what I have done so far, I thought that I would be looking at the broader impact of these divas.  Instead, I have been looking at the lives of specific divas and their impact on specific aspects of life, which I enjoy much more than the broader idea I had going into this. I get to learn more about influential women I otherwise wouldn’t have been curious enough to deep dive into their lives in the ways that I have. My research has overall been a real joy so far.




Aleena, 

I love your response regarding media bias and clickbait, as it can often skew people's understanding of a subject and paint pictures of scenarios in the public eye that are not as objective as could be with, say research. Thus, it is really inspiring to me that you have been taking pieces formed in the past as news articles and repurposing them to create a research project that is moving and depicts the information you have compiled in the most unbiased way possible. It is also informative to learn how you are doing this in a research project on media, especially from someone whose research is quantitative and doesn't get to explore such cool nuances. I am so excited to see the fruits of your labor!

Although the scope of my project itself hasn't changed, the pace definitely was altered as we realized that we needed much more teamwork to make our software work for our group than anticipated. It was very helpful to receive such patience and guidance from my fellow researcher and professor, and I realized that gravitational wave events happen much more often than I anticipated, and with different likelihoods of being black hole events. Therefore, my research is tiered by prioritizing certain events, which was so interesting to see! Also, the research papers written by my professor and his colleagues have educated me so much - I keep rereading them due to how dense and informative they are, but they gave me all the background I needed to be aware of how amazing a project I am assisting with. 

My own professors research, and recent LIGO findings or events detected at observatories have enriched my experience while researching, and given me all the knowledge I have needed! It is so unique having a mentor with the answers to my questions.

I am very grateful to be expanding my knowledge so vastly both in computer software which has given me more technical knowledge, and even more so with concepts of physics that I never thought I would have the privilege of understanding. My ultimate goal and that of Professor Paerels is for me to be a part of a research paper that can come to a conclusion regarding the ability to locate black holes in the sky through means of halos. I am also hoping to come up with a culminating log of all the gravitational wave events that I have analyzed through my time with the professor which I can present as a solo project of my own. However, I have valued the collaboration with our team even more than my individual work, and hope that I can see that research paper come to fruition as we plan to continue work after the Laidlaw summer session as well. 

My research matters because it tackles a discovery that would be new in the field of astrophysics and would also bring a tangible way of distinguishing black hole events from a slew of other events in the universe. This would make the study of their occurrences potentially easier in the future and say something about their strength and the impact of the merger as well! The question of alternative methods to detect black holes interests me because it highlights the importance of such small photon particles in a universe so large, making me believe more and more that the smallest things can bring great importance. I also believe that it interests me because it will prove that applications of computer science and software can impact the astrophysics field in such a valuable way and help us make discoveries that wouldn't otherwise be possible. It brings me motivation to continue in the field and learn more every day. 

My research, as a data collection and analysis project, is very analytical and straightforward. However, it does tackle the question of who has the privilege of collecting scientific data in the first place, and what kinds of barriers can be put in place for those who do not have training or access to resources to be in this field of work. I hope to research this more as well as I continue my project.

I have learned to take the viewpoint of a true data analyst, but also an astrophysicist with many of the concepts that Professor Paerels has explained to me about the concept of my research. It is incredibly different than any project that I have been a part of thus far, and definitely given me more scientific knowledge of our solar system than I had before, which is fascinating. I have begun to appreciate what it means to delve into new topics of study and have the perspective of a field researcher, which has been very helpful in furthering my research. 

Hearing about such amazing, diverse research topics from fellow researchers made me all the more inspired to think of the broader impact that my research could have in different fields, and also made me think about what outside research methods I could employ to better inform my work. Even reading up on research regarding the history of the observatories from which our X-ray image data is coming, and how/under what circumstances our data is collected in general, could really help educate me on the greater context surrounding my research. Understanding topics that further research and development in the world today is always very important and has served as a great reminder to me that there is much more opportunity in this area of work. 

I really hold the Research Ethics panel at the front of my mind as I look through the observatory histories and make it a point to delve into the creation of the archives I am pulling from. It is very important to also keep in mind the vast other array of resources I have through Columbia's amazing institution which I was able to learn about through the librarian panel as well.