HOLLY JACKSON


I’m a third-year PhD student in computer science at UC Berkeley advised by Ben Recht.

Previously, I received my Bachelor’s in electrical engineering and computer science from MIT and my Master’s in human rights studies from Columbia University. I work on on interdisciplinary applications of computer science, from astrophysics to history to politics.


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Note to current Berkeley undergraduate students -> We are looking to hire an undergraduate student researcher to contribute to an exciting collaboration between UC Berkeley and NASA Ames during the Spring 2026 semester (with possible extension to the summer). The student will extend an existing 3D reconstruction pipeline to multispectral image data and assist with related low-light mapping tasks. This is a paid position funded through a contractor role with NASA Ames. For further information on the project and to fill out an application, see here. Applications are due Monday, Jan 26.



WORK IN COMPUTER SCIENCE








01 EVOLUTION GYM 

The first and largest benchmark for evolving soft robot morphology.


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2021





02 UNLOCKING HISTORY 

An algorithm to virtually unfold intricately-sealed historic letters.


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2016-21





03 COSMIC EVOLUTION

Building an evolutionary tree of stars in the Galaxy based on their chemical signatures.


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2019-21





04 TOPOLOGICAL OPTIMIZATION 

Optimizing low-mass truss bridges with programmable stiffness properties for space travel.


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2015-17






WORK IN HUMANITIES








05 ANTI-PALESTINIAN MEDIA BIAS

Quantitative studies of anti-Palestinian bias in mainstream US news.


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2021-23






MINI PROJECTS








06 LASER COMMUNICATIONS

Creating a mini internet with lasers.


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2022





07 REAL-TIME IMAGE PROCESSING WITH A MICROCONTROLLER

A simple real-time image processing pipeline on a PSoC.


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2020





08 SPARSITY-BASED MIXED-MODE AUTOMATIC DIFFERENTIATION

Optimizing automatic differentation for nonlinear nodal analysis.


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2020




09 ARCHIVE

Science fair projects throughout the ages :)


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2013-15





(C) 2024 HOLLY JACKSON