MICHAEL BELLATO
7300 Palo Verde Rd • Irvine, CA 92617 • Michael.bellato@gmail.com • 310-699-5166
EDUCATION
University of California, Irvine
M.A. & PhD Cognitive Science
Expected, 2017
Awards: Cognitive Sciences Summer Research Stipend (2013-14), Social Sciences Teaching Assistant Fellowship
Membership: Associated Graduate Students, Center for Hearing Research
University of California, Irvine
B.A. Cognitive Psychology, B.A. Political Science
September 2011
Honors: Tau Sigma Honors; Dean’s Honors; Social Sciences Student Scholar – Awarded from the Dean
Leadership: Founding member of UCI National Society for Leadership and Success; Transfer Center panelist
Other: U.C. Education Abroad Program - Lund University, Sweden; Poster Presenter - UC Berkeley Psychology
Undergraduate Research Conference; Club Ice Hockey – Left Wing; Students for I/O Psychology Board Member
EXPERIENCE
Graduate Researcher
September 2012 – Present
University of California, Irvine – Dr. Berg Auditory Attention Lab

Investigating auditory feature detection of complex tones through spectral weight and EEG analysis for the
purpose of differentiating endogenous recordings (from exogenous) correlated with cognition in the human cortex

Truncated process time of EEG event potential extraction algorithm by 20% after replacing loops for indexing

Implementing statistical analyses (t-test & ANOVA) to differentiate brain wave recordings in different conditions
Teaching Assistant
September 2012 – Present
University of California, Irvine

Developed skills of up to 30 students per quarter to experimental design concepts, statistics and analysis programs
(Matlab & SPSS), requiring the communication of complex concepts to an inexperienced audience

Produced a lab manual for future classes and other Teaching Assistants to facilitate an error-free data analysis
Research Assistant
September 2011 – May 2012
University of California, Irvine – Dr. Berg Auditory Attention Lab

Programmed experiments, analyzed, and presented quantitative psychophysical data from selective attention tasks

Conducted pilot studies to make data-driven recommendations for design change to the Principal Investigator
PROJECTS
User Experience Researcher
Public database for civil rights era racial violence – Dr. Alfred Kobsa
September 2014 - Present

Constructing an interactive map that allows users to aggregate events of racial violence during the civil rights era

Designing and conducting user research, via focus groups, surveys, and usability testing (based on product phase),
to strategically direct the design process with qualitative data, ensuring usability and efficacy of the database

Research results are organized and communicated to team members in multi-department collaboration on project

Project includes the aggregation of government documents to make them available to the public via social media
GRE Verbal Study Guide
August 2011

Developed a Matlab GUI, resulting in a 5 percentile (average) increase by recording user performance in a data
file and included a compilation of the most frequent GRE word roots and respective meanings/examples
RELATED COURSEWORK
Graduate: Linear Algebra/Fourier Analysis, Computational Matlab, Experimental Matlab, Discrete Math & Probability,
General Linear Models, Statistics, Signal Detection Theory, Game Theory, Hearing, Vision, Multivariate Time Series
Undergraduate: Hearing, Cognitive Robotics, Matlab, Cognitive Neuroscience, Statistics, Experimental Psychology
PROGRAMS
SPSS, Matlab, RobotC, R, Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, Outlook), HTML, CSS, Balsamiq (wireframing)