ESP Biography



ATHENA CAPO-BATTAGLIA, Harvard Junior Studying Neuroscience




Major: Neuroscience

College/Employer: MIT

Year of Graduation: 2022

Picture of Athena Capo-Battaglia

Brief Biographical Sketch:

I enjoy using my knowledge of neuroscience in combination with my coding experience and passion for understandable design. I have thought about teaching and creating products in the future, but am open to change as I learn more. When teaching, I try to make concepts easier with different kinds of examples. Studying psychology has shown me to acknowledge that people learn differently, and better understand the reason behind common behavior, which I try to both share and utilize for more pleasant interactions.



Past Classes

  (Clicking a class title will bring you to the course's section of the corresponding course catalog)

S14618: How Neurons Talk in HSSP Summer 2021 (Jul. 10 - 31, 2021)
Ever wondered how your brain processes information? Your brain uses electricity, chemicals, and ions in a combination to intake, process, and output signals. On the first day of this course, we will look at the parts of the brain more generally before looking into the structure of a neuron since I do not expect background knowledge.


S14201: Brain Injuries and How They Help Us Understand the Brain in Splash 2020 (Nov. 14 - 15, 2020)
This course will briefly introduce the main lobes of the brain (for some background) before going into different case studies that touch into cognitive neuroscience. The studies that will be discussed will range from people that had a complete change in personality after an accident to someone that became amnesic after surgery. I will also introduce sources for future reading so that students can continue learning beyond this course. Background knowledge not necessary! Come learn about some really interesting cases!


X14202: Clean and Intuitive Design in Splash 2020 (Nov. 14 - 15, 2020)
Great ideas require the right execution to be appreciated. When we show our ideas to others, the audience initially interacts with it visually— they don’t necessarily see the work behind it. Even the best ideas can be undermined by poor interface design. This course covers the thought-process in designing interfaces, ranging from websites we see everyday to phone apps to advertisements. We will aim to understand a bit better the magical process of how these interfaces we interact with capture our attention. This means understanding design principles, knowing your audience, and seeing many many examples. The principles covered go beyond this course, applying to many fields.


X14118: Clean and Intuitive Design: An Intro to Making User-Friendly and User-Focused Interfaces in HSSP Summer 2020 (Jul. 11, 2020)
Great ideas require the right execution to be appreciated. When we show our ideas to others, the audience initially interact with it visually— they don’t necessarily see the work behind it. Even the best ideas can be undermined by poor interface design. This course first covers the thought-process in designing interfaces, ranging from websites we see everyday to phone apps to posters. The magical process of how these interfaces we interact with capture our attention and are intuitive. With the audience in mind and the use of psychology, a simple design can be transformed into something with the power to get people’s attention. This course then gives students the tools to build a basic website where they can showcase their interests (and show it off to others). This means learning to use GitHub to host a website and html functions to make it happen all while keeping design in mind to make it intuitive and powerful. The principles covered go beyond this course, applying to many fields.