Welcome to Team 4’s blog page for the 2024/2025 year with the IPPD program. All of us are extremely excited to have this opportunity to work with each other, our coach, and our team’s sponsor, Florida Power & Light! Our team has been tasked with building a Hazard Detection System to be deployed at various FPL work areas. We are still working on our team name/logo, which we will announce in next week’s blog, and our charter. As we move through our project, we’ll keep this blog updated weekly with what our team is up to so you can have a look at some of the progress we’re making. For now, we’d like to use this post to introduce ourselves to you!
Brian Nielsen | Computer Science
“I’m Brian Nielsen, a 4th year Computer Science major and Electrical Engineering minor. I have experience working on full-stack projects, training AI models, and TAing for circuits. In my free time, I play guitar for a band and play volleyball. I am super excited to be on the FPL team this year in IPPD!”
Timothy Ortiz | Digital Arts & Sciences
“Hey there, I’m Timothy Ortiz, a fourth year Digital Arts & Sciences major. I primarily work in Computer Graphics and UXD. This year presents an amazing opportunity to work in a professional environment, and I couldn’t be more excited for it! I can’t wait to get started working with the team!”
Kate Schwitz | Computer Science
Kate Schwitz is a Computer Science major, with a minor in Digital Arts and Science, as well the ‘AI Fundamentals and Applications’ and ‘Engineering Project Management’ Certificates offered by the University of Florida. She enjoys working on full stack projects, with her most recent being a mobile application for teachers in the Kumasi, Ghana school district with a study abroad group. Kate is also the Director of a Latin dance organization at UF, AscenDance Salsa Company, as well as a choreographer for the Extreme Dance Company. These leadership roles allow her to share her passions with her peers, while also allowing for a more creative outlet to balance and complement her technical studies.
Joshua Thomas | Computer Science
Joshua Thomas is a Computer Science major, with a minor in Innovation, as well as the “AI fundamentals and Applications” and “Engineering Project Management” certificates offered at the University of Florida. He enjoys working on AI and Machine Learning related projects. His most recent project involved creating a convolutional neural network for corn disease classification. Joshua is also Sports Director of the Indian Students Association at UF and a Research Assistant in the SHARE Lab working on the Jacksonville Digital Twin project for assessing flood vulnerability. During his free time, Joshua loves to travel, hang out with friends, play basketball, and workout.
Sebastian Valdes | Computer Engineering
“Hello! My name is Sebastian Valdes, and I am a fourth-year Computer Engineering major. I am specializing in embedded systems, but I also have a deep understanding of a variety of software engineering topics. I am excited to work with the team for these two semesters!”
Aryaan Verma | Computer Science
“I’m Aryaan Verma and I am a Computer Science major with a Math Minor. I specialize in and enjoy app development and cloud engineering. I have developed multiple apps and deployed them onto the cloud, creating a sustainable and scalable infrastructure. I also enjoy data management and engineering to get the most out of any data. Outside of computer science, I enjoy competitively dancing and exercising in the gym.”