Gwen Liu

Intro

I am a student at Boston University majoring in Physics, minoring in Computer Science and Philosophy. I am interested in the intersection of art, physics, and philosophy. I am currently working on a 2D indie game while learning 3D art on blender, check out my work and other links:

• Resume
• LinkedIn
• GitHub

In my free time I like to hike, read, or act in student films on campus. Picture of me on the Salkantey trek to Machu Pichu !

research

I have been involved with biophysics research throughout undergrad under Professor Erramilli at Boston University. I received funding from UROP to conduct a project and present at a symposium in October 2022. Here is my full poster. I was involved in implementation and evaluation of the experiment, collaborating with graduate student Ramprasath Rajagopal. Our experiment was a pivot from using a fluorescence marker (to study the temperature properties of the shockwave model of gold nanorods) to studying the degradation of the fluorescence by reactive oxygen species generated by irradiated gold nano rods.

As an intern in Advanced Laboratory (Class Code: PY581), I conducted an experiment with my collaborator Zachary Klappenbach studying chaotic periods of water droplets. We used an oscilloscope and photodiodes coordinated by LABVIEW in our setup. Here is my paper.

In Advanced Laboratory (Class Code: PY581), my collaborator Isabelle Boegholm and I measured the crystal structure of different materials using X-ray crystallography with the Tel-X-Ometer. Here is my paper.

projects

As part of Break Through Tech AI, I worked with 3 undergraduate students to collect climate and bat species data and design a predictive AI model characterizing the spread of White Nose Syndrome in bat species across North America for BioInterphase's engineering initiative on this issue. We presented to stakeholders and our challenge advisor, Noah Snyder, the CEO of BioInterphase, in Dec 2023. Access our presentation here and our notebooks on github.

In MIT's Policy Hackathon (2023), my team of 4 undergraduates researched and wrote a policy memo for the housing sustainability challenge put forth by Princeton's Eviction Lab.

I published a platformer game called Dream Catcher on itch.io: Dream Catcher. I used the Unity platform and C# to put it together, drawing the animations, sprites, and tiles on procreate, while making the sound effects on Audity.

The 2D indie game I am working on is inspired by an August Moon Festival myth and my childhood of looking over my brother's shoulder, watching him play Pokemon Black & White on his Nintendo DS.

art

• Acting
• Modeling
• Art

The Distance Between

In a short film titled The Distance Between, directed by Ilana Beloborodov (Director of Photography: Rich Gbessi, Producer: Ryleigh Fortin, Production Design: Julia Desantis) I play the lead Aviva in a tragic romance that takes place in a bookstore across dimensions. Watch it here.

Voyeur

In a short film directed by Ilana Beloborodov, we explore Margaret Atwood's quote from the Robber's bride about male and self objectification: “Even pretending you aren't catering to male fantasies is a male fantasy: pretending you're unseen, pretending you have a life of your own, that you can wash your feet and comb your hair unconscious of the ever-present watcher peering through the keyhole, peering through the keyhole in your own head, if nowhere else. You are a woman with a man inside watching a woman. You are your own voyeur.” Watch it here.

Good Enough

Short film by Mark Barboza, where I play Toni's girlfriend who helps her reconnect with a hobby. I also voiceover for the prize foundation. Watch on Mark's youtube channel here.

Stages of Grief (Off the Cuff Issue 20)

Virtual Reality (Off the Cuff Issue 19)

East meets West (personal project, shot by Natalia Ng)

In Limbo

In Limbo, submitted to the Core Curriculum Journal, recieved an honorable mention in the Core Journal Program. The theme of 2021 Core Journal was COVID, and as a student of a Core Class that read the Divine Comedy that semester, I felt extremely drawn to this scene: Virgil also guided me as I followed the story out of lockdown, from the dark inferno of isolation, experiencing sorrow without torment, simply passing by in the comfort of home, to my next years of college (the following circles of hell? haha). Painted on Procreate iPad. Read the rest of the journal here.

Pixel art I created for games

contact

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Instagram
• GitHub

Elements

i = 0;
										 

while (!deck.isInOrder()) {
    print 'Iteration ' + i;
    deck.shuffle();
    i++;
}

print 'It took ' + i + ' iterations to sort the deck.';