Elizabeth Daisy Lane Saunders

Give5 Mile High is a citywide volunteer initiative led by First Lady of Denver Courtney Johnston and the Mayor's Office outreach team. Alongside Aaron Neyer and Shawn Duncan, our group created a mobile platform for Denverites to find volunteer events and track volunteer hours. I was voted by the team to lead as the project manager where I oversaw and managed the development while designing and developing alongside the team.

Joined Jodie Schanhals as a development intern to help build the iOS/Android app, MeetingMaker. The app aims to help users discreetly check in and out of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, creating a secure and accurate record of attendance for themselves and drug and treatment courts.

MeetingMaker is a user-friendly mobile app designed to help individuals discreetly check in and out of meetings, creating a secure and accurate record of attendance. This innovative tool is particularly beneficial for those needing to verify attendance at 12-step programs, community service, and other recovery-related meetings, although it can be utilized in various non-recovery contexts as well.

MeetingMaker empowers users to manage their meeting attendance goals effectively. The app also allows users to add contacts, enabling automatic sharing of attendance reports with anyone who needs them.

As a development intern for MeetingMaker, I collaborate on developing this innovative, impact-driven mobile app solution supporting addiction recovery & community empowerment.

During Fall 2025, our team (Caitlin Littlejohn, Robyn Marowitz, Sara Runkel & Elizabeth Saunders) partnered with AdventHealth through the Social Impact Laboratory to address critical nurse retention challenges. Through comprehensive research—including 41 surveys, 4 in-depth interviews, and 3 stakeholder workshops—we discovered that 67% of nurses plan to leave within three years, with nearly half considering departure within six months.

Our statistical analysis revealed that 75.6% of retention variance could be explained by just four factors: having inspiring role models, feeling respected, department culture, and preceptor support. The key insight was that nurses need both peer support and administrative support to thrive—having one without the other leads to eventual departure.

In response, we designed the "Safety Net," a four-layered support system that makes it structurally impossible for new nurses to fall through the cracks. The program includes: (1) a three-month Buddy System pairing new nurses with compensated mentors for daily support, (2) standardized Charge Nurse Guidelines with mandatory check-ins and proactive intervention training, (3) an automated Heavy Shift Alert System integrated with Epic to deploy real-time resources when units become overwhelmed, and (4) mandatory 48-Hour Check-Ins after traumatic events to connect nurses with counseling before crisis escalates.

For my final project in Professor Zack Jacobson-Weaver's ATLS 3710 Material Studies and Practice course, I combined aluminum tubing, Douglas fir, and cotton terry cloth to solve a problem I actually face: storing skis in rental housing without drilling into walls. Inspired by Muller Van Severen's Alltubes furniture collection, I designed a freestanding rack that uses tension and weight distribution instead of wall mounting, researching each material's origins from bauxite ore weathering in tropical regions to Douglas fir's native range across western North America.

The project pushed my metalworking skills in bending and welding aluminum, woodworking for curved ski cradles, and material integration across different media. When Zack joked and asked if I'd actually use this, the answer was obvious: I built it for myself—a piece that's both sculptural and practical, demonstrating the semester's accumulated skills while creating something genuinely useful for my life.

Group project with Ellie Arnold and Elizabeth Saunders for ATLAS 4519 (Hacking the Apocalypse: Water) with Professor Zach Weaver. The premise of the semester-long research based course was to problem-solve for a future apocalyptic environment where food is scarce.

Group project with Brett Rabbiner and Elizabeth Saunders for Professor Ryo Suzuki's ATLAS 4519 (How to Hack (Almost) Everything) as a final project.

An individual design built for ATLAS 3710 (Material Studies and Practices) with Professor Zach Weaver.

An individual design built for ATLAS 3710 (Material Studies and Practices) with Professor Zach Weaver.

An individual design built for ATLAS 3710 (Material Studies and Practices) with Professor Zach Weaver.

Built a browser-based wardrobe management system inspired by Cher's iconic computerized closet from Clueless for Professor Ryo Suzuki's ATLAS 4519 (How to Hack (Almost) Everything) as a midterm project. Partnering with Brett Rabbiner, I trained two custom TensorFlow.js models using Google Teachable Machine—one to classify clothing types (shirts, pants, dresses, outerwear) and another to identify style categories (casual, formal, athletic, minimalist, vintage)—processing over 2,000 unique training images from personal closets and retail sources.

The web application uses AI to automatically categorize uploaded clothing photos, integrates real-time weather APIs to suggest temperature-appropriate outfits, and generates coordinated outfit combinations through smart-matching algorithms that evaluate color coordination and style compatibility. All data is stored locally in the browser using localStorage, ensuring complete privacy without external servers.

This project evolved from my previous RFID-based closet tracking system (Spring 2025) by streamlining the digital cataloging process—reducing weeks of manual entry to minutes of batch uploads with AI doing the heavy lifting.

An individual design built for ATLAS 3710 (Material Studies and Practices) with Professor Zach Weaver.

A weekend, individual design built for ATLAS 3710 (Material Studies and Practices) with Professor Zach Weaver. Built a pair of SCARPA 75 mm tele boots - exploring the intersection of traditional boot making craftsmanship and modern material engineering through hands-on construction, revealing how material properties, ergonomic considerations, and manufacturing techniques converge to create high-performance alpine equipment that balances durability, functionality, and user comfort.

An individual design built for ATLAS 3710 (Material Studies and Practices) with Professor Zach Weaver.

An individual design built for ATLAS 3710 (Material Studies and Practices) with Professor Zach Weaver.

Work as a graduate student researcher under the mentorship of PhD student Josh Myers-Dean and Professor Al Bovik through the University of Colorado, Boulder's Department of Electrical, Computer, and Energy Engineering. Our research focuses on evaluating the perceptual quality of lipreading videos for the deaf and hard-of-hearing community, in partnership with the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA). This project required conducting user studies to assess and improve video content accessibility. This work is directly aimed at improving the visual quality and effectiveness of lipreading videos, ensuring they meet the needs of individuals in the deaf and hard-of-hearing community. Additionally, this research supports responsible energy consumption for a growing tech and media industry.

An individual research project for ATLAS 4519 (Hacking the Apocalypse: Water) with Professor Zach Weaver. The premise of the semester-long research based course was to problem-solve for a future apocalyptic environment where water is scarce. Throughout the semester, I led four experiments sprouting mung beans, broccoli, and radish using various saline amounts and different contaminates to study the effects of saline and grey water on plant growth. Ultimately, I sought to understand how to recycle water for agricultural demands in a future apocalyptic world.

Interviewed by ATLAS | Interviewed by CBS Denver

An individual design project for ATLAS 5410 (Creative Technology) with Zach Weaver. Inspired by Cher's closet recommendation and organization system from the movie, ClueLess, my installation is installed in my closet and uses RFID tags and a sensor to monitor what is in/out of my closet. Depending what is in my closet, its wear count, what looks good together, and the weather outside of my apartment, I am given a recommended outfit posted to my associated HTML site for the project (or, recommended top, bottom, and outer wear). Over time, I have access to this data of what I am wearing vs. not so I can better keep my closet organized by removing clothes that are not being worn.

A class group project for ATLAS 4330 (Wearable Technology) with Dr. Shaz Zamore. The project is a wearable art piece that mimics the appearance and light-reflecting properties of comb jellyfish. The device replicates how these marine creatures naturally reflect light from their comb-like structures as they move. The primary target market is avant-garde and couture fashion, particularly inspired by rave culture. With a 7-hour battery life, it's designed as high-end festival wear that bridges fashion and biology. The Jelly-D bridges art, fashion, biology, and technology in an innovative way to spark conversations about marine life and the remarkable adaptations of our ocean ecosystems; demonstrating how nature's designs can inspire wearable art that makes marine biodiversity tangible and fascinating for new audiences.

A class group project for ATLAS 4330 (Wearable Technology) with Dr. Shaz Zamore. The Ray-Band functions as a smart wearable device designed to enhance sun safety for outdoor enthusiasts by providing real-time UV index alerts and timed sunscreen reminders, ensuring that users can make informed decisions about sun exposure and maintain skin health during their outdoor activities.

A class group project for ATLAS 4330 (Wearable Technology) with Dr. Shaz Zamore. Inspired by recent deaths of skiers from getting stuck in tree wells, built a beacon for skiers to install onto and into their helmets. The beacon tracks the user's pulse ox data. If the user's pulse ox drops below the threshold and the user stops moving, the beacon goes off, sending a blaring alarm to alert others that there is a skier who has a low pulse ox and is not moving. Ultimately, the design hopes to keep skiers safe by getting them immediate attention when they lose their voice under the snow.

An individual design project for ATLAS 5410 (Creative Technology) with Zach Weaver where the class was asked to solve our personal pet peeves. For me, my biggest pet peeve is my own laziness in checking weather reports or ski resorts websites to find the best snow for a ski day or even what type of skis I should wear. My installation scraps the Epic and Ikon resort websites along with weather data to tell me which pair of skis I should ski on and which resort I should ski at to guarantee a great ski day.

A class group project for ATLAS 4330 (Wearable Technology) with Dr. Shaz Zamore. An introductory project for wearable technology to learn how to create a soft button. Alongside my group, created and designed a chef's hat inspired by Alfredo Linguini's chef hat that Remy would hide in from the Disney movie, Ratatouille. Using conductive materials, the LEDs inside the hat turn on when the circuit is closed, (or, someone is wearing the hat as their skin is the conductive element that closes the circuit; thus, a button!). When the LEDs are on, it casts a shadow of the rat cutout imitating the Ratatouille look. This introductory project taught us to merge technical concepts with storytelling, demonstrating how even fundamental circuit principles can create magical, interactive experiences.

Group project with Abhinav Mehrotra, Aaron Neyer, Ashleigh Salazar, and Elizabeth Saunders for ATLAS 5410 (Creative Technology) with Zach Weaver.

As part of my Technology for Social Impact course at the ATLAS Institute (Fall 2024, taught by Denise Powell), I researched advancements in solar-powered desalination and interviewed an MIT Media Lab researcher, Jon Bessette, to better understand how this emerging technology can address the global water crisis. My case study explored MIT's groundbreaking system that uses solar power without the need for batteries or grid access—offering scalable, sustainable water solutions for underserved communities. This project deepened my interest in equitable infrastructure design and the role of innovation in climate resilience.

I joined Trinity's Digital Solutions Team, led by Jason Schmitz, to leverage technology in streamlining environmental solutions, with a focus on tackling the complexities of Scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions. My role involves helping clients accurately measure, manage, and reduce both their direct (Scope 1) and indirect (Scopes 2 and 3) environmental impacts across their operations and supply chains.

This final research term paper for STIA 3375 "Science, Innovation, and Entrepreneurs" under Professor Charles Wessner at Georgetown University examines how Georgetown University's Office of Technology Commercialization responds to innovation challenges in the post-Gardasil era. Through comparative analysis and interviews with professors and department heads at peer institutions including Stanford, Columbia, and CU Boulder, I evaluated Georgetown's strategic transformation under new leadership, analyzing both quantitative metrics from AUTM licensing surveys and qualitative insights from interviews with university administrators and faculty researchers. The study reveals how Georgetown's historically successful tech transfer program—responsible for breakthrough innovations like the HPV vaccine Gardasil, Allegra, and CT scanner technology—faced sustainability challenges when key patents expired, leading to a 70% revenue decline. My research documents the university's strategic response, including new leadership appointments, mission statement development, cross-campus partnerships, and portfolio optimization efforts aimed at diversifying Georgetown's innovation ecosystem.

Studied "Technology for Social Impact and Sustainability" under the mentorship of Dr. William Hahn (Environmental Biology) and Dr. Mahendran Velauthapillai (Computer Science) and overseen by Dean Dr. Bernard Cook at Georgetown University's Interdisciplinary Studies program to research and design solutions that drive social change and sustainability.

This interdisciplinary research project is the culmination of my degree which I successfully defended on May 1st, 2024 to the Interdisciplinary Studies department at Georgetown. I combined primary interviews with mobile app developers, hands-on app development experience, and extensive literature review to investigate how technology can drive social change and sustainability through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. Drawing from diverse academic sources and real-world developer insights, the study demonstrated that mobile applications possess unique capabilities to collect data, connect communities, protect resources, and affect to create meaningful impact when strategically implemented.

The project's central contribution is the FIFO (First In, First Out) solution model—a framework that creatively adapts both culinary principles learned during my concurrent culinary school studies and computer science queue management concepts to argue that sustainable technology solutions work best as catalytic entry points rather than standalone fixes, requiring collaborative, community-based, and creative approaches to achieve lasting social and environmental change.

Built a mobile IOS food-sharing platform to empower my college campus and beyond to mitigate food waste, alleviate hunger, reduce the environmental effects associated with food waste, and connect communities through food. The app connects users to excess food in their community in a reliable, safe, and secure way.

Wellfed Market is a food-sharing platform empowering consumers to mitigate the environmental effects of food waste, alleviate hunger, and connect communities through food. Ultimately, hoping to localize the food system of America. Wellfed Market is dedicated to those like my Nana: resourceful chefs who always bring an extra seat to the table. This app allowed me to partner with local non-profits, small businesses, student groups, incubators/accelerators, and government groups to help distribute and source local food.

This final term project for STIA 4230 "Data Science for A Changing Climate" under Professor Megan Lickley at Georgetown University analyzed nearly three decades of Great Lakes surface water temperature data (1995-present) from NOAA CoastWatch alongside NASA GISS land surface temperature data to investigate climate resilience patterns across all five Great Lakes. Using temperature anomaly calculations and linear regression analysis comparing water and land temperatures from corresponding Great Lakes cities (Marquette MI, Prince Edward ONT, Traverse City MI, Alpena MI, and Erie PA), the study revealed four key findings: (1) remarkable consistency in Great Lakes water temperatures over time, with minimal deviation from long-term averages despite climate change concerns, (2) synchronized temperature variation patterns across all five lakes despite their geographic diversity in depth, topography, and regional conditions, (3) depth-dependent temperature stability, with deeper Lake Superior showing greater variability than shallow Lake Erie due to thermal inertia and mixing dynamics, and (4) confirmation that water holds energy longer than land, resulting in smaller temperature variations in aquatic systems compared to terrestrial environments.

This research paper, completed for STIA 331 (Science, Technology & International Affairs) at Georgetown University under Professor Brian Toohey, explores the evolution of 3D printing technology from its origins in manufacturing to its emerging applications in food and organic material production. Through comprehensive interviews with three researchers at different career stages—graduate student Jack Kraynak (Temple University bioprinting research), postdoctoral fellow Dr. Jonathan Blutinger (Columbia University's Creative Machines Lab, funded by ReDefine Meat), and lab director Dr. Michael Rivera (CU Boulder's ATLAS Institute, NSF-funded)—the study reveals critical insights about the current state and future potential of organic 3D printing. Key findings include the dominance of international companies (rather than U.S. firms) in funding large-scale food printing innovations, the critical role of bioprinting as a foundation for both medical and food applications, significant sustainability challenges requiring energy-efficient solutions and alternative organic filaments, and the growing need for intentional, environmentally-conscious development practices.

Built a public safety iOS app at 15 with the help of an older classmate, Elijah Cobb. Inspired by being in an uncomfortable situation that I could not find my way out of, I learned how to program, build, and launch an app onto the iOS App Store as a means to help others discretely get out of any situation.

CalcuSaver was created and designed to be used as an incognito way to send for help for whenever you feel like you are in an uncomfortable situation. 1. Manually type a phone number (to serve as your emergency contact) 2. Created a short numerical code (to serve as your emergency code) 3. Use the calculator's addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division functionalities (the calculator functions like a regular calculator) 4. Once the calculators output equals the emergency code, an immediate message will be sent to your choice of an emergency contact.

In 2017, my app won the Traverse City Central High School SciMaTech Project Competition. In 2018, my app won the Congressional App Challenge with Michigan's First Congressional Representative, Jack Bergman. I was invited to Washington D.C. and to share my project with congressional members at the Library of Congress. In 2019, my app won "Best Pitch" from TCNewTech during a pitch competition while also securing funding for the project.