I am a Master's student in Computer Science at the University of Chicago, and I am expected to complete my Master's in December 2025. My Master's research focuses on computer graphics, specifically geometry processing with machine learning. I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science, specializing in Human-Computer Interaction, and a Bachelor of Science in Mathematics from the University of Chicago in June 2025. I earned Summa Cum Laude Latin honors for these Bachelor's degrees.

From June 2022- June 2024, I worked as a research assistant at the University of Chicago's Human Computer Integration Lab under Professor Pedro Lopes. In this position, I researched ways to give people new sensory experiences in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR). While working in this position, I published 3 papers through the CHI tech conference, the most prestigious conference in the field of Human-Computer Interaction, and I also presented live demos of each of my projects at various other conferences.

In June 2024, I interned at Google as part of the Wear Companion SDK team. During this internship, I designed and developed new features using Kotlin for the Wear Companion app, the phone app that manages WearOS smartwatches.

Since September 2024, I have been a researcher in the University of Chicago's Threedle Lab under Professor Rana Hanocka. In this position, I use machine learning to research new ways of optimizing 3D geometry using machine learning.

I am currently working as an intern at Google on the Android TV XR team, where I design software for cutting-edge XR devices.

In my free time, I enjoy designing, programming, and composing music for board/video games. During my undergrad, I was a board member of the University of Chicago's Game Design Club (UGD). In this position, I helped run our weekly game-related meetings and organize special events such as the Unity Carnival Unity workshop. My primary responsibility in UGD was overseeing the Devsign Track, UGD's game design/development education program. I designed our education curriculum from scratch and successfully guided over 50 students in making their first games throughout the 2 years of our program! 

Outside of game design/development, I enjoy playing musical instruments. I regularly practice the piano and trumpet, and I am particularly interested in Jazz music. Once I have the free time, I also plan to learn the electric guitar so I can play heavy metal music!

To contact me, please email me at jserf02@gmail.com

Research and Work Experience

Published Research

Programming Projects

Other Projects

Honors

Research

• Best Demo Honorable Mention award from Haptic Source-effector project demo at UIST 2024

• Co-author of 2 papers published at CHI 2024, one of which received an Honorable Mention award (see HCI Lab page)

• Honorable Mention: Computing Research Association (CRA) Outstanding Undergraduate Research Award

• Co-author of 1 paper published at CHI 2023 (see HCI Lab page)

Academic

• Summa Cum Laude Latin honors on Bachelors degrees

• Elected to Phi Beta Kappa (Beta of IL chapter)

• Robert Maynard-Hutchins Award 2023

• Dean's List 2021-2022, 2022-2023. 2023-2024, 2024-2025

Can read, write, and speak Hebrew at an intermediate/advanced level (see Sonic Adventure 2 Glitch Showcase Hebrew YouTube video for example of Hebrew speaking).