Week 2 - Anthony

    Today, we completed the second week of the Digital Health Young Scholars Program. This week was not the best in terms of progress for me, because I feel really behind and worried whether I can complete the final project in time and to a high standard.
    So far, the research project has been quite confusing, overwhelming, yet fun. It is confusing, because I don't know what constraints I am working under. Do I have access to other sensors aside from the ones provided? Am I allowed to create a whole other watch case for the project? This confusion led to me feeling overwhelmed with the task at hand, because I want to succeed and go above and beyond for this project. I want to test myself and have a good impact on the health world. This combined with how little I completed made me worried and somewhat stressed. However, the ability for me to tinker and work with electronics and code to tackle a modern issue excites me. I already have so many ideas on how I can use the sensors to help someone struggling with coronary heart disease. The only thing that I am unsure about is whether I can make a watch to effectively help them. The project is aimed to help people of poor communities. If people have low income, they would be working and not much free time to take care of themselves; would a watch that reminds them of their health be truly effective if they don't have time? Despite my internal concerns, I am anxious to be able to construct a product that applies to the real world and has the potential to help many people.
    For the final week of this program, I look forward to having the tour of Rice University. I also am looking forward to focusing on the watch and making changes to the code; although, I am worried about breaking something unintentionally.
    For the final project, I am looking to tackle the issue of coronary heart disease which is a common cause of death in the world and affects millions of people worldwide. I want to help them in treating the disease through changes in lifestyle and informing them on the disease, because medically treating the disease via surgery is expensive and often unavailable for people.
    A highlight from this week is definitely the tour of Rice's clean room. The room is used to produce small semiconductors and small objects, often smaller than a human hair strand. I enjoyed being able to suit up and learn about all the equipment they use to produce the thing that powers the modern age.

This is me in the clean suit

A close up to some samples they showed us

A sample they showed us. This is something that would be produced in the clean room

One of the machines they use. This uses evaporate to create patterns on the disks.

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