Excellence in Research

Denisse Alvarado, B.S Computer Science

With a passion for coding, Denisse Alvarado came to Oregon State as a Computer Science major. Her passion sparked from her involvement in Girls Who Code. A national non-profit organization aimed at supporting and increasing the number of women in computer science. Through this program she found learned how to code, learned about different career paths within tech, and found a sisterhood. 

 

Early on as a freshman, Denisse started working in the CHARISMA Artificial Intelligence Lab at Oregon State through the STEM Leaders program. “I did not really consider research so being able to have the opportunity really helped me grow throughout college”. The CHARISMA research group was researching human and artificial intelligence interactions. One of the projects they were working on was building a robot (Opera Bot) for a play at Oregon State to follow directions of the director.  “We got to see how Computer Science was involved with the arts,” Denisse says.  

“We were all in different stages of our lives and had different understandings of technology and building robots,” Denisse says.  How to talk to everyone, how to approach people, how to problem solve and how to break down difficult concepts were important skills Denisse learned in her time working in the research lab.  

 

Denisse has also served as an URSA ambassador where she helped incoming students with preparing their research for presentations. “I got to be on the other side and help students with their research which was really cool.”  Additionally she served as an LSAMP (Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation) mentor. 

 

Currently, Denisse is a computer science student minoring in business. On top of being a student, she is the current president of the OSU SHPE Chapter. (Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers) and a program assistant for the STEM Leaders program 

“My biggest piece of advice would be to ask for help. When we leave home and are in a new environment things can be really scary. Sometimes, we tend to keep things in and that makes us even more anxious. There are people at Oregon State that are willing to help, oftentimes being in the same shoes you are in”.  Denisse says.

https://www.charismarobotics.com/