Shanna

Li Ching

Hollingworth

Software Developer | HCI Researcher

Who am I ?

I am a Software Developer Located In Calgary, Canada

I am currently pursuing an MSc in Human Computer Interaction at the University of Calgary, studying under Dr. Wesley Willett in the Data Experience Lab. I am able to quickly learn relevant tools, languages and frameworks on the fly as my current projects demand them. Currently, I am most interested in development at the intersection of Extended Reality and Artificial Intelligence, and in data visualization. I also have experience with web and mobile development, and graphics.

In my undergrad, I founded the UofC branch of Women in Computer Science (WiCS) and served as its inaugural president. I am also passionate about learning languages, both human and computer:) In my free time I can be found reading a good book or performing in community theatre!

Personal Info

My Expertise

Data Visualization and AI

I am passionate about implementing AI into existing apps and use cases in new and interesting ways, and creating data stories by uncovering patterns, simplifying complexity, and making information more accessible. With a minor in data science, I have experience designing and deploying client dashboards and teaching data visualization at the university level.

XR/3D Graphics Programming

I enjoy developing XR interfaces for a variety of everyday use cases, and working with 3D modeling and visualization. I have done a number of AR research and personal projects with Unity, created animations with Blender, and even have some experience with low level graphics programming.

Mobile Development

I have diverse experience building mobile apps for companies and in hackathons. I enjoy mobile UI design, and have experience with Android Studio and React Native.

My Portfolio

Featured Publications Web / Mobile Arduino Graphics, Games, and Animation
See more about FluencyAR->
FluencyAR Poster
FluencyAR

Poster - The ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology (UIST) 2023, San Francisco.

An AR language learning system which aims to combines gen AI, object recognition and AR visualization to produce an immersive application to improve conversational fluency for intermediate level language learners. (Unity, C#, Microsoft Azure Speech Services API, OpenAI API)

See more about Escape The Matrix->
EscapeTheMatrix Screenshot
Escape The Matrix

CalgaryHacks 2025 Hackathon 6th Place

Based on the theme "Collaborative Game", Escape the Matrix is a cross between a VR escape room and a capture the flag, where you and a partner play as Neo and Morpheus. (Unity, C#, Rust, C++)

See more about ComeUp ->
Light up corset
Come Up

First place prize in the 6 week hackathon HackTogether Alberta
An app to help individuals find financial, educational and social resources in a centralized place to support their learning and networking journeys for breaking into tech. (Android Studio, Java, Firestore - Firebase)

See more about Conversation Corset->
Light up corset
Conversation Corset

This corset analyzes the emotions behind your conversations while you wear it, assigns recognized emotions to colours, and lights up to produce a visual sentiment representation of your conversations! I handsewed, soldered, and programmed all components. (Arduino, Python, Huggingface API)

See more about Reading Tracker->
Reading Tracker
Reading Tracker

The reading tracker is a data physicalization of my reading goal each week. An arduino powered motor lifts a curtain higher up the closer I am to my reading goal, to reveal a beautiful backlit stained glass (cellophane) mural inspired by Beauty and the Beast. (Arduino, stepper motor)

See more about Robot Jacket->
Robot Jacket
Robot Jacket

The Robot Jacket tracks your movement and converts them into sound, allowing the wearer to generate their own robotic soundtrack! (Arduino, Accelerometer, Gyroscope)

See more about Happy Little Flower ->
Happy Little Flower
Happy Little Flower

A short animation of the happy little flower who just wanted to make it back to the sunlight! I modeled the flowerpot in blender, directed, posed and filmed this animation. (Blender)

See more about Mass Spring Systems ->
Mass Spring Systems
Mass Spring Systems

A collection of four mass spring systems; All 'particles'(masses) are iterated through in every frame where I manually coded all physics and force calculations, to create realistic simulations. (C++, OpenGL)

See more about this Poster ->
AR Conversation
Towards Glanceable On-Demand AR Conversation Visualization

Poster - IEEE VIS: Visualization & Visual Analytics 2024, Florida

This project explores glanceable, real-time conversation timelines in Augmented Reality (AR), focusing on lightweight, non-intrusive visualizations that enhance discussions without distraction. Using Large Language Models (LLMs), NLP techniques, and XReal smart glasses, I explore the development of a system that detects topic shifts and provides on-demand summaries to support seamless, intuitive conversation tracking. (JavaScript, D3.js, HTML, CSS, Python, OpenAI API, OpenAI Whisper)

See more about DicoverYYC ->
AR Conversation
DiscoverYYC

CalgaryHacks 2024 Hackathon

DiscoverYYC features all of the historical sites around the city of Calgary, encouraging users to explore the city by featuring a 'Site of the Day' to visit, a list view of all the sites, and a map view. Clicking into the site will give you the historical background of the location. (ReactNative, MongoDB, Rust, RESTful API)

See more about Photography Website ->
Website
Photography Website

A local server mock photography website featuring an admin and client side, a contact and appointment booking section, and a working photo database (Python, SQL, HTML, CSS, Jinja, Flask)

The most dangerous phrase in the language is 'we've always done it this way'.

- Grace Hopper

My Resume

Relevent Experience

Data + AI Specialist (Memory Anchor)

October 2023 - February 2024

Vector Search: mproved performance and matching accuracy from computer vision output to csv datapoints by refactoring the internal search engine to utilize NLP vector search (OpenAI Embeddings API)

Dashboard Development: Delivered actionable insights to customers through dynamic data visualizations in a web-based dashboard. (JavaScript, React)

Augmented Reality Development: Enabled smoother AR functionality within the app by transitioning from Unity to a native mobile development approach. (React Native, Viro)

Software Engineer Intern (Cisco)

May 2021 - August 2022

Automated Testing: Reduced pre-release risks by automating regression and conducting smoke tests for Mac/Linux, and expanding the unit testing suite. (Jenkins, Ruby, RSPEC)

Web Scraping: Ensured timely platform releases by automating the daily scraping of Apple/Linux distribution websites and sending mass notifications via email and Webex. (Ruby, BASH)

Database Management: Enhanced product performance tracking through efficient database management and visualization (SQL, Ruby and RESTful API)

Education

MSc Computer Science Thesis-Based (Human-Computer Interaction)

2024 - 2026

Supervisor: Dr. Wesley Willett

Alberta Graduate Excellence Scholarship (AGES) 2024: $11,000 award which recognizes outstanding academic achievement in graduate studies.

Wendy Powell Woman of Inspiration Award 2024: Awarded by CAN-CWIC (Canadian Celebration of Women in Computing) to a self-identified female student in a Computer Science program who has inspired young women to explore technology and/or to pursue careers in technology.

BSc Computer Science Honours (University of Calgary)

2018 - 2023

Minor in Data Science

President’s Award Nominee: Nominated by the Department of Computer Science upon graduation for demonstrating academic achievement with outstanding co-curricular contributions to the university.

Skills

Proficient
Python
Java
C++
Unity
HTML/CSS
JavaScript
React/React Native
Github
Familiar
Android Studio
Blender
C#
D3 / Observable Plot

Languages

English
Mandarin Chinese
Spanish (Coming Soon)