cv/experience

Basics

Name Clara T. Friedman
Label Vision Science PhD Candidate. Optometrist
Email cl.friedman@berkeley.edu

Education

  • 2025 - present

    Berkeley, California

    PhD
    University of California, Berkeley
    Vision Sciences
  • 2021 - 2025

    Berkeley, California

    O.D.
    University of California, Berkeley
    Doctor of Optometry
  • 2017 - 2021

    Montréal, Québec

    B.Sc.
    McGill University
    Neuroscience

Awards and Honours

Work

  • 2025
    Amazon Lab126
    Specialized HDE Intern - Emerging Optics
    • Developed optical simulations using LightTools to analyze reflection characteristics in emerging display technology, identifying key parameters affecting visual comfort
    • Designed and conducted two user studies: (1) real-world usability testing with prototype devices and (2) psycho-physical experiments using MATLAB and programmable lighting to establish perceptual thresholds and preferences
    • Employed rigorous statistical methodology including non-parametric analyses, correlation studies, and predictive modeling to translate optical measurements into user experience metrics
    • Created comprehensive technical documentation including literature reviews, experimental protocols, and data visualization, and communicated technical findings and design implications to stakeholders across product management, human factors, product innovation, optical engineering, and safety/reliability teams
  • 2021 - 2025
    University of California, Berkeley
    Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry and Vision Science
    Research Assistant
    Advisor: Dr. Emily Cooper
    • Built and calibrated a video-recording set-up to collect high-FPS datasets to examine motion and disparity statistics of urban and natural scenes
    • Coded an automated data processing pipeline on MATLAB to examine video stills, employed several computer vision algorithms to calculate optic flow, generated semantic segmentations of video stills using pretrained computer vision object recognition models with the Detectron2 codebase, as well as other data analysis and figure creation.
    • Developed an experiment and collected eyetracking data utilising the Eyelink 1000 Plus eyetracker. Utilised Psychtoolbox for stimulus generation and presentation of moving dot fields to study ocular following response
    • Conducted data collection and analysis two studies, one investigating the use of navigational cues on the HoloLens as a mobility aid in low-vision patients and the other studying perceptual motion priors in individuals with normal versus impaired vision
  • 2022
    University of California, Berkeley
    Redwood Center for Theoretical Neuroscience
    NIH T35 Integrated Summer Research Program
    • Trained a sparse coding algorithm to extract binocular features from stereo images of the natural world and analysed the resultant basis functions
  • 2018 - 2021
    McGill University
    Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Science
    Research Assistant
    Advisors: Dr. Robert F. Hess, Dr. Alexander Baldwin
    • Worked on the McGill team for development of digital clinical measurement applications for clinical trials of an amblyopia-correcting video game (Dig Rush) in a collaboration between Novartis, Ubisoft, and McGill University
    • Coded components of interactive browser-based tests for binocular suppression, stereovision, and screen calibration in C# using Unity3D, including scripted dichoptic stimuli and implementation of staircase algorithms.
    • Coded and ran psychophysical experiments presented on FOVE eye-tracking virtual-reality headsets using Unity3D software, one aiming to quantify the sensitivity of stereopsis around the visual field and the other measuring vergence movements in response to depth percepts moving on binocular screens.
    • Scripted and ran a stereoscopic perception test on MATLAB with Psychtoolbox that leveraged the sensitivity of binocular depth perception to detect monocular retinal abnormalities, such as those symptomatic of early-stage age-related macular degeneration.