Cinthya is an Engineering Management masters student at Santa Clara University, where she created and obtained a bachelor’s degree in General engineering with a focus on Human Computer Interaction (HCI). As a research assistant at the HCI Lab under the supervision of Dr. Kai Lukoff, she’s the project lead for the Thámien Ohlone Augmented Reality (AR) Tour that’s been showcased on ABC news, NBC, and KTSF. Her other research involved using speech recognition in assistive robots at the Human Machine Interaction and Innovation (HMI2) lab under Dr. Maria Kyrarini.

She’s a published author in IEEE and workshop co-organizer at CHI 2024. Her background focuses on leading teams and UI/UX design for startups and non-profit organizations. As former co-founder of Tour (acquired 2023), she’s now looking to transition into product management or systems engineering, with a particular interest in collaborative robotics.

Outside of work, Cinthya is passionate about helping mentor other students discern their future, specially empowering first generation and undocumented students. For the past two years, she has helped organize, grow and lead the Summer Engineering Seminar (SES) for underrepresented high school students interested in engineering. The program won the 2022 and 2023 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award from INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine.