Ivette Colón is a PhD student who works with Tim Rogers in the Knowledge and Concepts Lab and Paula Niedenthal in the Niedenthal Emotions Lab. Ivette primarily studies how we represent social and visual concepts in neural networks (including the brain and computational models). Learn more about her research and personal interests here.
Please describe your research in a way an elementary school student might understand.
There are so many different things in the world– there’s people you know, places you’ve been, and the stuff you interact with every day. In order to make sense of the world, it’s helpful for us to organize all these things in our minds and our brains. My research is about how we organize all this different information (especially information about people) and what our brains do to help us do that! Sometimes I also create “mini” versions of our brains on the computer so I can test what information can or can’t be learned from pictures or language.
What inspired you to pursue that research?
I used to study face processing, and what I found most interesting about faces is that they tell us so much at one time! We can learn about who someone is, whether we know them, what they’re feeling, where they’re looking (and where we should look) all from a single image of a face. I thought it was amazing that we can juggle all this information, and I was curious about how different kinds of information compete for our attention and memory. Zooming out, I realized that this applies to practically everything in our world, not just faces!
What are your hobbies outside of school?
Recently, I’ve been making and teaching stained glass art, rollerblading on the still-salty streets of Madison, and preparing for my amateur ham radio license upgrade. I love radio (shoutout to WORT 89.9FM, where I was a host for several years), local music (shoutout to one of my former bands, Combat Naps), and reading outside (shoutout to… Ursula LeGuin?).
What are your favorite places or things to do in Madison?
I spend a lot of time at the Bodgery, a local makerspace where you can learn and do practically every modern craft. I can often be found gossiping on the Mickey’s Tavern patio, or simply walking along the shores of Lake Monona. When it’s cold outside, the Tenney Park Lagoon has the best ice skating.
What’s a positive experience from graduate school that will stay with you?
Personally, the heart-to-heart conversations I’ve had with other students at conferences, when we’re at our most vulnerable (e.g., academically, in our reputations, traveling) will stay with me forever! Some of my favorite memories are being in another country, walking around with other UW students, talking about experiments and life, and collectively dreaming of the future when we are Real Scientists. I will also say, there’s nothing like FINISHING DATA COLLECTION!
Congratulations, you’ve earned your PhD! How will you celebrate and what would you love to do next?
Well, I’m moving to Montreal to start a postdoc at McGill in the fall! For now though, I’m going to spend my last summer in Madison doing canonically Madisonian things: kayaking on the lakes, drinking Spotted Cow, reading in the grass, biking the Lake Loop, showing off the veggies in my tote bag at the farmer’s market, etc.
One more thing ..
Finding a group of friends in my first year despite the Zoom situation (we were the incoming 2020 cohort), and staying friends through all the various ups and downs has been beautiful! Plus, making new friends every year with each new cohort, and folding them into the mix is very rewarding. My fellow grad students are awesome!! Love y’all!! 🙂