Hi! I’m Erika, and I’m a contributor to Novel Hand. I’m a sophomore at Brown University majoring in Computer Science, although I also study Applied Math, Economics, and Arabic. My interests lie at the intersections of these fields, where tools such as data science and machine learning can be applied to complex interdisciplinary problems in healthcare, natural language processing, and more. Ultimately, I would love to use the technical skills I’m developing towards alleviating various humanitarian issues, including global economic development and education. I’m also related to another member of the Novel Hand team (bonus points if you can guess who!).
Outside of class, I’m a member of the Brown Political Review, currently serving as an Associate Director for BPR’s Data Board. In this role, I work with our board to create data-driven articles, visualizations, and interactives. We use data as a critical lens to report on a range of topics such as global disparities for labor rights in the gig economy and multinational streaming freedom in the Middle East. During my time with BPR, I’ve gained further insight into the importance of an empirical, data-based perspective when approaching not only economic and political issues, but especially humanitarian issues like the ones we’re exploring with Novel Hand.
I’m also involved with the greater Providence, RI community through Brown IgniteCS, a student organization on campus that serves local K-12 schools by teaching algorithmic thinking and intro computer programming skills to their students. As a volunteer educator, I mentor a team of high school girls in the Technovation Challenge, which is run by a global tech education nonprofit. The challenge is a learning-focused competition through which middle and high school girls gain valuable computer science and entrepreneurship skills by developing a mobile app designed to alleviate a specific problem of interest in the community. While I’m passionate about the combination of computer science and business, the opportunity to serve and empower other young women keeps me motivated far beyond the content and curriculum of the program.
As for Novel Hand, I hope to build on the above experiences by focusing on the intersectional implications of technology and business in approaches to altruism. I plan to cover topics like corporate social responsibility, the impact of humanitarian hackathons, how social enterprises use modern tools like machine learning, and more. As someone who’s passionate about data-driven work, entrepreneurship, and altruism, I’m excited to explore the intersection of these areas and how they relate to our generation.
I can’t wait to share what I learn with the Novel Hand community! If you’re interested in any of the above or want to discuss something related, feel free to contact me at erika_bussmann@brown.edu— I’d love to hear from you!
- Activism, Meet Impact: Erika on GameStop, Hacktivism and Empathy - February 8, 2021
- Innovative is not Progressive: What Technology Means to Activists - January 5, 2021
- Hacktivism: Resistance from Digital Gabon - December 8, 2020