University of Advancing Technology's Official Technology Blog

SIP Title: Eros
Student Name: Rico Garcia, Robotics & Embedded Systems

As a Navy veteran, Rico Garcia (Robotics & Embedded Systems) has traveled all over the globe. After leaving his home state of Wyoming, Rico was initially stationed in Pearl Harbor. And from his new home base in Hawaii, Rico spent four years traveling 12 countries—traversing everywhere from Latin America to the South China Sea. With all this wanderlust under his belt, when it finally came time to pursue his college degree, Rico didn’t care where he’d be, so long as his robotics degree would be applicable to his future career.

That’s what brought Rico to University of Advancing Technology (UAT). After moving to Arizona and starting school, he soon took a part-time job at a Men’s Wearhouse, where he would quickly learn what seemed to be a near universal truth: “Men want to look good, they just don’t know how.”

Enter Eros, an AI-powered chatbot designed to help men demystify personal style, build a coveted wardrobe and look sharp in any setting. Rico’s Student Innovation Project (SIP) is named after the Greek god of love and desire.

Taking after his mischievous, legendary namesake, Eros’ first interaction with its creator involved the AI mocking Rico’s attire choices, telling him his outfit looked horrible. Refinement was necessary, and Rico used a combination of tools including Python, ChatGPT, JavaScript and React Native to keep working on Eros until he got it right.

Rico specifically mentions Professor Tony Hinton as a source of support while converting the programming language of his SIP from Python to JavaScript, and also credits influence to Professors Craig Belanger and Matthew Prater. While Rico admits he is eager to graduate and start the next phase of his career, he is also glad to have had the personalized assistance and to have been a part of the exclusive culture that UAT offers.

Due to being limited to a few select outfits that he had to wear while in the Navy, Rico’s interest in fashion stemmed from a desire to finally stand out rather than blend in. He now feels his personal style is defined by what most might overlook—accessories and the little details that make an outfit pop. Notably, he feels the most crucial accessory for any outfit is the confidence needed to complete the look.

“It’s 90% confidence, 10% fit,” Rico said, noting that he can help with the fitting and aesthetics, but the rest is up to the wearer. “The confidence comes when you learn how to wear it all correctly or learn to mix patterns and colors that complement each other. That's when you can look in the mirror and say, ‘I look pretty damn good right now.’”

For the future of Eros, Rico envisions a version of the application that allows users to not just receive fashion advice, but also catalogue their wardrobes and generate customized outfit suggestions.

Ideally, Rico wants to find work in AI — but he is keeping an open mind about where the future can take him. On track to graduate in the summer of 2023, he would love to work at Tesla or even in the field of human prosthetics, acknowledging that his experience and knowledge in robotics are applicable to a wide variety of industries.

Rico says that three years ago, he would have had “no idea where to even start” when it came to developing Eros, as he learned most of his coding skills and technological savvy at UAT.

“The main goal behind Eros was to really push the boundaries of my experience and what I could do with AI, coding and everything I've learned so far.”

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