{"id":12247,"date":"2025-11-17T14:53:29","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T21:53:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/?page_id=12247"},"modified":"2026-02-24T11:06:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T18:06:37","slug":"malia-barker","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/about-us\/computingdirectory\/current-students-directory\/malia-barker\/","title":{"rendered":"Malia Barker"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:33.33%\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"640\" height=\"426\" src=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/981\/2025\/12\/Barker-Poster-Malia-Barker-1.jpg\" alt=\"Malia Barker standing next to their research poster.\" class=\"wp-image-12499\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\" style=\"flex-basis:66.66%\">\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-education\">Education<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:23px\">Emphasis in Data Science<br>B.A. Applied Computer Science<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-biography\">Biography<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"font-size:23px\">I am a PhD student in Computing with a focus on Data Science at Boise State University. I work with Dr. Edoardo Serra on improving reasoning in large language models (LLMs), developing methods that make model reasoning more reliable, transparent, and ethically grounded for cross-disciplinary research.<br><br>My background spans computer science, data science, and software engineering. I previously worked with Dr. Brian Jackson on ultra-hot Jupiters, building tools for observation planning and orbital characterization. Across these projects, I aim to build interpretable, trustworthy AI tools.<br><br><a href=\"https:\/\/maliabarker.com\/\">Malia Barker&#8217;s Personal Website<\/a><br><a href=\"mailto:maliabarker@u.boisestate.edu\" class=\"\">maliabarker@u.boisestate.edu<\/a> <br><a href=\"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/coen-cs\/people\/faculty\/edoardo-serra\/\">Advisor: Dr. Edoardo Serra<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Education Emphasis in Data ScienceB.A. Applied Computer Science Biography I am a PhD student in&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3544,"featured_media":0,"parent":12366,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-12247","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3544"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12247"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12670,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12247\/revisions\/12670"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/12366"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.boisestate.edu\/computing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}