Week 1 - Ayaan

Before the start of the Digital Health Young Scholars Program, I prepared by learning the basic syntax and concepts behind C++, a language that I found somewhat natural to me due to its similarity to JavaScript. I also did some preparation by looking into the basic functions of Arduino, such as "blink" amongst others which helped me have a basic understanding of how it worked and what I features I could implement on an Arduino Board.

I feel that the research projects that have been assigned have been extremely interactive and educational, starting with the fundamentals of Arduino and C/C++, and moving up to more complex stuff. This pattern allowed me and others to better understand how such systems work and build cognizance about the idea that there is always more to do with technology. Pivoting to thoughts about my mentors, I feel that they have provided helpful in-depth explanations for complex topics, as well as support in the projects which we built.

For Week 2, I hope to be able to work with my partner to further construct and program our project to address problems concerning Parkinson's Disease. The creative challenge in the project (i.e. figuring out a way to detect tremors, etc.) it really engaging and peaks my curiosity about what more can be done in the work of digital health.

My favorite thing about the tour (despite being interrupted by the rain), was looking at all the the merchandise (notebooks, pens, shirts, hoodies, books, etc.) in the Rice Bookstore. Everything was grievously overpriced, but I found it interesting to see all of the cool things related to the university.