EagleEyes doesn’t just bring college students and students with disabilities together. It even facilitates the occasional romantic relationship. The BEAT recently interviewed Peter Brandano about how he first met Laura Mazor in the EagleEyes Program.

How did you get involved in EagleEyes? What was your role in the EagleEyes Program?
I first saw EagleEyes at my Freshman Orientation at Boston College and I remember being amazed that such work was being done at the college that I was going to attend. I never forgot Prof. Gips’s name after that presentation. When I felt I had a strong enough footing in the major I contacted Prof. Gips again. Soon I was working on the project. My primary role was to help design and implement software that could be used by EagleEyes students. In my senior year, I wrote a set of programs called “Fun and Games” that included matching and pattern recognition games aimed at helping the students with reading readiness. In addition to writing software I often worked with Mike Nash and Rick Hoyt as well as other students. They helped me to test my software. Before leaving I also helped to put together an assembly manual for the EagleEyes system. I majored in Computer Science and graduated in 2001.

How was Laura helping out with EagleEyes?
Laura majored in Biology and graduated from BC in 2001. She worked on the less technical side of EagleEyes. Laura helped do research for the book written about the project by Professors DiMattia and Gips. She would often work with the students at the Campus School, but we rarely crossed paths.

How did you two meet?
Sometime during my senior year I met Laura when we both played the "You Don't Know Jack" trivia game with Campus School students. We played for about an hour and didn't talk to each other much. After playing trivia, another Campus School volunteer insisted that she put the names "Laura Mazor" and "Pete Brandano" into an online "Love Calculator." I had just met her so this was very uncomfortable. Of course, we got an incredibly high score. I remember Mike Nash thought it was pretty funny.

Did you ask Laura out?
Months came and went, and I finished up my final classes at BC. When graduation day came, as I was sitting on Alumni field listening to our graduation speakers, I thought to myself, "I guess I never will get to know Laura Mazor." She had made a pretty big impression on me despite our rare meetings.

After 7 months or so I decided to call Laura. I looked her up in my old BC phonebook. I hadn't talked to her in nearly a year, and before that, we never had a long conversation. Nonetheless, she had remained on my mind. After a day or so of getting the guts up, I called her school number with no idea what to say. I got voicemail and left a somewhat awkward message. Unfortunately, she was on winter vacation. Almost a month passed without a returned phone call. I had all but given up. Finally, she called. We had no idea what to say…

Well did you go on a date?
We decided to make a date for the North End. That night we learned that we shared a love for restaurants, and I realized that she was as cute as I remembered. I had no idea how much we had in common.

What has happened since then?
After graduation, I took a job with General Dynamics in Needham, Massachusetts. I am a Software Engineer on a project that builds the world’s only high-definition entertainment system for hotels. We’re currently deploying our latest system in Las Vegas’s next mega hotel.

Laura is putting her degree to use as a Research Associate at Genzyme Corporation. She works in a lab that helps to produce pharmaceuticals for “orphan” diseases that have very small patient populations such as Fabry and Gaucher diseases. Laura is currently in the process of applying to graduate schools.

Being part of EagleEyes was one of the most incredible learning experiences of my life. I am so proud to have had the opportunity to take part. I met incredible people like Professors Gips, DiMattia, and Olivieri, and even more incredible people like Mike Nash and Rick Hoyt. I also met the love of my life, Laura Mazor. Laura and I can only hope that we will find future projects that are half as rewarding and inspirational as EagleEyes.