Olivia Brode-Roger

I am a Junior at MIT in Poli... actually, gimme a second: story time!

When I applied to MIT, I wanted to do Computer Science. Programming was really fun and I spent a lot of time doing that. By the time I got in, I was convinced I wanted to study physics. What was better than trying to understand how our universe works? Once I got on campus, I was set on Planetary Science. It's the next frontier! A year later, after spending a summer automating exoplanet data analysis, I switched to Computer Science. Not long after, I ended up in Theoretical Mathematics in a valiant quest to understand the world through 5 times removed concepts. That was fun. Finally, we catch up to the present to find me in Political Science, continuing my quest to understand how our world works. So, at this point you wonder what the purpose of that story was in a space-limited bio. Simply put: the universe is exciting!

Okay, what do I do in my free time? Lots of things. I'm fascinated by the legal system and spend quite some time reading about it. I have a Raspberry Pi connected to a thermometer and a hot plate that helps me with me cheese making. It also controls lights around my room and wakes me up in the morning. I also enjoy defending opposing or unpopular viewpoints to my friends: I find i interesting how often I leave these conversations not knowing what to think. Finally, I also spend a lot of time reading about discrimination in the US, both based on race and on gender.

What projects would I like to mentor? Any project using data analysis to understand how something works would be great, whether that something is particles or people. I would also love to help you with more qualitative projects in the social sciences. Finally, I also help teach a class about building CPUs, starting with transistors, so I can also help with that!

As a mentor, I would be happy to help you in developing your ideas, so don't worry if you feel like yours isn't really fleshed out. I would also be willing to help in your research and final phases of your project. Often, having someone to have ideas to throw at is useful to put some clarity into them. I'd love to be on the receiving side of your throws. Throughout the project, I would hope to instill two broad things: a fascination for understanding how things work, and a sense of methodology to avoid common errors.

Now that you have a glimpse into my life, I'm looking forward to hearing more about you!