I build technology from model to interface for the people existing systems forgot to design for.
Scarlett Whisnant
Design, AI, and the questions people would rather avoid.
I moved to Japan at eleven with no Japanese and got fluent fast in a system that wasn't built for me. Now I build technology for the people existing systems forgot to design for.
Read my story →A local-first desktop app that reads facial expression from a live camera feed in real time and nudges you to step away when stress reads high. I trained the model, wired the pipeline, and built the GUI. I also rebuilt it after I caught a weight-loading bug by logging per-frame confidence. The rebuild is where I prove the growth rather than paper over it.
A generative-AI course-feedback system for my university's faculty. Sixty days, a confident wrong assumption, and one week left when user testing told us we'd solved the surface, not the problem. I pushed the team to pivot to a system that actually surfaces honest feedback for students, professors, and admins. It shipped, earned an official university press release, and a professor is presenting the work at a conference.
An open-source web app for people with developmental disabilities, customizable cards plus freehand drawing, with text-to-speech. I tested it with autistic users and the results were genuinely mixed: some loved drawing, others said it wasn't for them. That's the point of the project. The honest takeaway I'm carrying forward: listen more before building more.
Looking for an early-career role where technical depth meets human-facing work. US citizen, no sponsorship needed.