Digital Health Young Scholars 2025

  This week was full of hands-on experience. We finalized our project and poster presentation. However, we faced some challenges with our sensor (MQ-7)  on day 3 and sometimes with the Arduino code. But everything works perfectly now. We also had a Research presentation which was very interesting and inspiring.  Today, we are going to present our Poster at the Rice Symposium in one of the Butcher Hall's rooms.     

 This last week was the most nerve wracking week of all. I was very excited to work on my project this week that my partner and I even met up the weekend before to finalize our idea, plan how we will use the coding and Arduino sofrware to accomplish it, and work a bit on our academic poster. When we first arrived, we started by trying to combine our pedometer/accelerometer code with the pulse oximeter code. After a few attempts of not getting anything to show up on the screen, we finally got something and we were able to combine them. Unfortunately, they were overlapping with each other and we couldn't get any further than that. I got the idea to start our device with one component, the accelerometer. My idea was to edit the pedometer code into a tremor reader. I started by changing the name of the program and making the step count into a "tremor count". That was all for Day 1.    For Day 2, we were able to complete our academic poster and part 1 of our tremor reader code...

I definitely enjoyed figuring out how to design an app within the limited time we were given. :) I am proud of the poster we created and the problem we aim to address. :)      This week was the most rigorous one out of the three that have passed so far in the program. This last week was filled with finalizing the device we proposed to address a problem within underserved populations. The previous four days were spent on creating the research poster, coding our program, and designing an app that would sync with data from our smartwatch. As a beginner in writing C++ and Swift, getting our components to work was challenging from the start. However, with the help of supervisors and support from colleagues, building the project one by one proved to be tedious but not impossible.     In the short time I spent daily walking to Rice to reach the conducive circuits lab and work on activities highly relevant to my career and field of interest, I found that I had gro...

     Week three was the busiest week for me and my partner. We were only able to finish some of the things we wanted to do for out final project. The interface and demonstration of how it will look like is perfect in my opinion. We especially designed this application for kids since they are in the highest risk of not being able to recognize pre-asthma attacks. We tried and we are going to keep on trying to make this as accessible as possible to lower-income families, making use of electronics available to them and just a little more additionally to make the machine work: the TinyWatch. Cheaper compared to the products out in the market, and small too that will be perfect for a child's wrist.      I am extremely happy about being able to make the code for playing custom videos on the tiny watch screen. Our instructor, Dr. Young, told me that was never explored and done before. It might have taken me three hours to do but it was definitely worth it.  ...

 The last week of this program has been really eventful but also stressful at the same time. We begun to work on our final prototype which was our SmartGlasses that utilizes Object Detection and Distance Sensing. Monday and Tuesday were mostly figuring out how to use the ESP32-Cam which would allow us to do object detection in real time. While we struggled very bad these two days, we will got the camera up and running. We mainly struggled with trying to figure out how to implement a buzzer so that when the camera detects an object, one or two buzzes will sound. Other than that, we have our glasses + distance sensor configured, so our main goal is to display how the object detection would work and future hopes for the project.  I've also been reflecting heavily on this project, which has gone by very quickly. I am so glad to be able to have found a great learning and working environment while working on this project. Although our project wasn't flawless and we had many struggle...

      This week, we completed our projects: we designed the interface of our game, coded for the GPS, pulse oximeter, and pedometer, projected our design onto our tiny watch, and completed our poster. While we may have had many setbacks, especially with the code, we were able to overcome them. In order to have everything completed before Thursday, we decided to split the workload.      Monday through Wednesday, we started on our code and poster as we both took turns doing it. While we thought we were getting ahead, it was difficult not to overshare our ideas and knowledge about asthma as our poster became too wordy, and the picture was difficult to decipher. Because of this, we had to delete, rewrite, and add words so it would have a small number of words and be big enough to read from a distance. On the other hand, we were also struggling with combining all of our adrunio code. Combining the GPS, pulse oximeter, and pedometer was difficult, as we also had ...

 Week 3 Day 1: On Monday, we finally got our first prototype of the distance sensor done. It felt good seeing everything come together and actually work the way we planned. It was a big step because it showed that the core idea behind our project was solid and functional. Day 2: Tuesday was all about the poster. We worked on laying everything out clearly, from what the problem is to how our solution helps. We made sure the design looked clean and easy to understand, especially for people seeing it for the first time. Day 3: We made a big upgrade on Wednesday by adding an object-detecting camera to our prototype. It took some time to figure out how to connect and code it, but it added way more accuracy and made the whole system smarter. It made the project feel more complete. Day 4: Today we’re presenting our prototype and poster. It’s cool to see how far we’ve come since the beginning. We’re excited to show everyone what we built and explain how it could really help people with vis...

 This week was one of the most crucial time periods, in terms of deciding the final project idea. On day 1, Dr. Young was teaching us more about the behind the scenes of how machine learning actually works, along with the math behind it all. Although I did not fully understand every concept, it was a very educational experience and a reminder as to why I enjoy math so much. He taught us concepts involving matrices, vector calculus, and 3D/4D math. The way it was taught was insightful and made sense as to why machines need these concepts to even think about making AI. The same day, he guided us through more coding on python using google colab, he showed us how to filter noise in set data to accurately pin point information we actually need when recording a heart beat. We also learned about the Gaussian Blur and how the computer uses it for edge detection, which is the basis behind AI recognizing objects and even self driving cars.  On day 2, my partner and I settled on an offic...

      For week three, day one marked the beginning of building our prototype for our project, a TinyWatch designed to detect the different stages of Parkinson’s disease by monitoring tremors. We worked on integrating sensors and refining our design to make the device both functional and affordable. On day two, we finalized and submitted our presentation poster, making sure it clearly communicated our objectives, process, and findings. Day three was focused on completing the prototype and troubleshooting the code to ensure everything worked smoothly. Today, on day four, we will present our project in front of judges, sharing the journey of our TinyWatch and its potential impact on the lives of those affected by Parkinson’s disease. I had a wonderful time with Dr. Young, Mr. Franklin, and all the new people I got to meet during this program.

 This concludes the third and final week of my tenure at the Digital Health Scholars Program. As this wonderful experience comes to a close, I would like to reflect on the experiences, my final project, and the friends I made along the way. At the beginning of the week, me and my partner, Christian, finished our final prototype. It was comprised of a TinyScreen+, accelerometer, and Pulse Oximeter. Our prototype was a device that helped improve the accuracy of red light heart rate sensors as it tends to become more inaccurate for people with darker skin tones. Using a bias algorithm based on literature, we adjusted the BPM and oxygen readings to display more accurate data.  As we finished our project early, we focused our efforts on finishing our poster, and I was experimenting with skin tone detection with OpenCV, a RaspberryPi, and a webcam. I've figured out how to use face detection and use skin tone detection using Python.  Lastly, the lectures I've seen this week such...

  On day one, we began with a presentation on how to create a successful academic poster, learning the key elements of design, clarity, and data visualization. On day two, we finalized our project idea and began soldering components for the Raspberry Pi. Day three was filled with hands-on learning as we toured the nanofabrication lab and were introduced to coding using a Raspberry Pi, which helped us understand how software and hardware work together. The Nanofabrication Lab had an amazing Scanninf Electron Microscope, where we saw an image of a butterfly wing at nanoscale. On day four, we explored the School of Engineering and visited Dr. Young’s office, taking several informative tours that gave us a deeper look into the facilities, research spaces, and opportunities available within the engineering department. The picture from above is from one of the fine arts building. Had a lot of fun this week!

   After the third week of Digital Health Scholars, I have continued working on my final project and refining the code to make it as user friendly as possible. I ran into a couple of issues when it came to implementing the algorithm necessary to compensate for a users squinting, but eventually was able to fix it. I also managed to change the sensors color by accident causing it to interpret biometric data incorrectly and spend way too long trying to get it back to normal with the right colors.     Additionally, me and my partner began working on our posters to present and "pitch" our device. We took into careful consideration where each picture was placed and how much information we gave. The previous poster resource significantly sped up the process when we needed inspiration for how to navigate a section of our poster, so we are thankful for previous members giving their posters to us.      Finally, we finished our project and poster and we are ...

    During the second week, we have had lots of tours around the campus. I guess I should be used to the weather already but I can't stop saying that it's too hot. Touring Rice was really cool and I didn't think it would be that big. We saw halls that were very European in design and almost gives a fantastical vibe. Long story short, every building makes you feel like you're in a whole different place.      The python and the math that was introduces was really awesome for me and thought it directly applies to what I want to do. Joe still teaches well and makes everyone feel included which I get is kind of hard since I am sitting way back. He makes the topics easier to understand and I really like his humor.       My partner and I are starting to finalize our project and talk about it in more depth so we will be able to pull it off as best we can. Though our vision is a little too big for the allotted time, we are trying our best to finish wh...

    In week 2, we started off the week with a presentation that informed us of what to expect when presenting our poster at the end of the program. The presenter shared her experience while also helping us understand how to attract our audience from different distances. She also explained how much we should say by giving us examples on how to tell our story while also not repeating what is already displayed in the poster; basically, talk about potential answers to questions the audience may raise.          We then solder, assemble the GPS, and code to get my coordinates. I also combined both the pedometer and  pulse oximeter into my  tinyscreen/smartwatch. I've also presented my project proposals with my partner. The next day, we took a tour of the clean room, where there were chemicals that can eat your bones, which is why they have a shower right next to it! We were also able to use the Raspberry Pi and use it to code a camera. We also...

 We started off the week by getting a small lecture from Dr. Young on Linear Regression, which I found pretty interesting as I've used them before and I intend to use them a lot in the future! To actually be able to do them hands on and combine it with the code we were working with before was amazing. We then did Computer Vision, which has been something I've been wanting to do for a long time, and I think Dr. Young gave us a great launchpad into actually doing it. We also went on a small tour and had time outside to relax through all the work we were doing. Through the next day, my partner and I also thought long and hard about a good project idea, in which we came to have a vision for making a device for Uncorrected Refractive Errors. We prepared our presentation and had a long discussion on what our specific device would do and how we would integrate certain devices. These last two days have been pretty good as Dr. Young has taken us with him, especially as we worked on Comp...

I feel as if I'm now more in tune with common technical terms found in engineering and programming as compared to when we began this program. Although I am still unfamiliar with much of coding, I've learned a lot about how everything fits together when it comes to the interactions between software and hardware. Working with raspberry pis and the Linux camera, as well as continuing to work with Arduino, Python, and the TinyScreen GPS have given me more confidence to experiment with circuits in the future. Soldering for the first time was also a valuable lesson in how easy it is to finally begin something that may have seemed intimidating long before.  Exploring more of the Rice campus has also been enjoyable, as the campus life and community expands much further than I initially expected. The nanofabrication clean lab tour gave an in-depth view into just how significant Rice's research and facilities are to the world outside of the university's campus. I've also come...

     Digital Health Take Flight Day 1     in Day 1, we continued coding Python with Dr. Young. I was feeling more comfortable with coding and writing longer codes without making errors. We also commit to our final project idea and presented to the class. Day 2     In Day 2, we started soldering the GPS. It was my first time soldering, and I was so determined to get it perfect, I wanted the solder to be perfect balls, so I kept resetting and do it it all over again and even did my partner's GPS. Overall, Tuesday was my favorite because I really enjoy soldering. Day 3      In Day 3, we went to the clean room tour which was really fun. Our tour guide had a pretty sick sense of humor which makes the tour really exciting and we get to learn a lot about bio engineering and how researchers conduct experiments, and then after that we got started on the Raspberry Pi, which I have done research on in the past and getting to work with it in person ...

 This week was full of hands on experience and amazing tours.  For day 1, I was able to code in python using Google Colab and represent biological data like the heart rate and the sound emitted by firing neurons. I even learned how to apply the Fourier transformer in real life experience. For day 2, I was soldering. I attached pins to a circuit board and It was quite interesting. I also assembled different components to create a GPS. But I was not able to locate something using the GPS decoder because of some missing modules and data. For day 3, We were in the Rice Nano-material Lab. The technologies in the basement were quite impressive. I now have a better understanding of how nanotechnologies are designed. I also had fun setting up an actual camera using Linux. For day 4, We did a whole campus tour and it was very interesting.

       Nearing the end of my second week of my experience at the Digital Health Scholars Program, the week featured ups and downs. Yet, through persistence and hard work, the submitting our project end of the program looks achievable but tastes bittersweet.      During day one of week two, featured a tour of the engineering building, and time to work on our projects. Me and my partner, Christian decided on the topic of our final project, which was adjusting the algorithm for heartbeat sensors to more accurately read vitals of people with darker skin tones.     Day two was more laid back, where we were given time to work on our final projects. Here, I struggled a lot, with tons of compiling errors and thoughts of giving up. I was worried that I would not complete the final product for our prototype. In between that, we learned how to solder, and I was unsuccessful again, soldering all of the pins together.        Day three ...

 After the second week of Digital Health Scholars, I have gained hands on experience with my personal project, learned more about python, and raspberry pi's. We started out with being set loose on our tiny watch projects. Me and my partner agreed on a watch that took skin tone into account when reading vitals so it was more accurate for darker skin tones. The development has been tumultuous and there was many bugs and detection issues when it came to mapping keys, filtering raw data, creating a good user experience, and implementing the algorithm. Beyond my project however, we begun diving deeper into linux and python with our computer vision program and the raspberry pi.       With computer vision, I was able to compute edge detection on a picture of a parrot, but ran into issues when I tried to make it higher quality making my parrot disappear. There were not enough raspberry pi's to go around so I was unable to have my own, but my partner was able to troubles...

Digital Health Take Flight Program: Week 1 Blogpost        My first week of the Digital Health Take Flight Scholars program was very innovative and exciting. I came into this with no coding experience, and I never took computer science in high school either. However, the SparkFun Inventor's Kit introduced me to a beginner level of embedded electronics by creating different circuits, ranging from simple to difficult. I learned about the different electric components involved in programming a circuit. My first circuit, Circuit 1A: Blink an LED, was introduced to me using a breadboard and an Arduino circuit prototype. On day two, we began by designing the layout for our PCB design and had a wonderful OEDK workshop tour. I also completed Circuit 2C: Simon Says; however, the circuit took me two attempts. This circuit taught me how to make connections between the code and parts on the RedBoard. By day three, we received our TinyWatch projects. I successfully completed...

     My first day here, I was nervous to jump right into coding, building circuits, and understanding the programming the software needed to work. Professor Young does a good job in presenting his thoughts on circuitry and what each component does. Although there are various words that I have no clue what they mean, professor Young makes it to where even a beginner understands the basic function of every part that goes into play, from mother board to the coding language. We then recieved our SparkFun Inventor Kits and got more of a hands on feel for connecting electrical parts. I got to screw on the RedBoard on the plate and stick the breadboard onto it as well. Then, we downloaded the Arduino software on our desktops and plugged in our RedBoard, uploading our code and makig sure we had an output and the correct port.      We began our first porject on the board, which was Circuit 1A: Blinking an LED. Here, I first learned about resistors, polarity, and how...

 This week I have learned so much  On the first day, we had a lot of material to cover. A lot of it was an introduction to how computers can   “see” like in self driving cars and virtual reality. Another thing we covered was the use of technology to help   underserved populations. It also gave me an idea of what I want my project to be about. We also started some of the projects in the Arduino kits, which is interesting cause I haven’t used this type of technology before.   I know a lot of people use them for robotics and other projects like that. When I first used it, I was afraid of messing with pins and breaking things, but the more I used it, the more comfortable I got. On the second day I mostly explored the projects on my Arduino kit. Though it is still fairly new to me, following the sample projects that were in there, made it very easy to understand. Those lessons also build upon each other and it helps you gain a lot of knowledge in a short amount time....

      Starting this program, I was not sure that I had the necessary skills to perform well or add to the program. Little did I know that the foundation of this program was a well structured learning of all necessary material.    Day 1 :  On day one , we had an introduction to breadboarding and circuitry where I got to build some circuits to help grasp of what we were needing to learn. I first did Circuit 1A where I learned the basics of breadboarding and how to make a LED turn on. I then utilized a potentiometer to be able to make the LED blink, and do so at different speeds.                    For Day 2 I continued to build circuits and worked on one that utilized an LCD ( liquid crystal display) which was really cool. Using C code the arduino module I was able to  have the screen print "Hello World". It also displayed the time since it started running below. In the picture below it had bee...

 This week we were introduced to the different tools we are going to use throughout this program. The first thing we were introduced to was the Sparkfun kit. The first day I was able to get "Circuit 1A" working, in that circuit the goal was to get a LED light to blink. I also did "Circuit 4A" and "Circuit 4B". In those two circuits the LCD screen was used extensively. I was able to get the LCD screen to display the text "Hello World!". In the second LED screen project I combined the temperature sensor to display the temperature in the room in both Celsius and Fahrenheit. On day two we did a tour of the lab, we got to see tools that students use to work on projects here at Rice. We also got to see where the clubs at Rice work on their projects. On day three I was able to continue working on the project "Circuit 4B", I added a clock to the bottom of the LED screen which showed the time precisely. I was able to do this by programming the A...

Week 1 Reflection Veronica Aruta      Week one of the Digital Health Scholars Program proved to be as exciting, productive, and inspirational as I expected it to be. Starting with the rationale behind the program, as explained by Dr. Young on the first day, it was clear from the beginning that engineering is relevant and significant in daily living. Traversing from air travel to healthcare, technology impacts lives, whether for better or worse. Despite the challenges that come with programming machines, faults should serve as a lesson for improvement, not a roadblock. Week one’s lectures, activities, and projects proved this.      I found every lecture very interesting. Topics varied from the advanced technology in the context of consumerism and medicine. I discovered defects in the Apple Vision Pro and Waymo, but I also saw the efficiency of using Da Vinci in surgeries. Being grounded and aware of the advancements humanity has achieved was grounding, and i...

  Week 1 Arduino This first week, I had an hand-on experience with the Arduino board. I tried first to turn on/off the light using a photoresistor. Then I added a potentiometer to control the brightness of the light. After that, I used a buzzer and a potentiometer to create and control the volume of a sound. The challenging part was to understand the lines of code.                                                  Tiny Watch To build the tiny watch, I assembled an accelerometer, a GPS, and a pulse-ox. I was able to read the body temperature, the heart rate and the oxygen level on the tiny screen.    Circuit Design Process With the PCB Circuit design software, I realized a 2D drawing of a simple board. Then, I combined the different components and added the different connections at the end.                 ...

 Our first week of the Digital Health Scholars program has been mainly focused on learning and understanding the ultimate goal of the program. We started off utilizing Arduino by putting together several tiny projects using a Sparkfun kit. I put together projects such as a Simon Says Game, Distance Sensor, and Potentiometer using the components that were in our kit! After playing around with the different components and putting together tons of different projects, I played around with the code to modify the text of a LED screen that initially printed "Hello World", and made it print out different texts that I chose. This was definitely my favorite part as I was able to be hands on and see so many different things working together to make cool projects.  The Second and Third day were also very hands on, as we began to make, and finished, our online PCB Board. I really enjoyed making this project as it showed me what goes on behind the making of games such as Whack-a-mole. Alth...

 Digital Health Take Flight Day 1      On Day 1, we started with an introduction to Mr. Franklin and Dr. Joe, and hearing about their teaching and computer science backgrounds made it clear we were in good hands. Then we jumped into a slideshow about what digital health is. What I took away from it is that digital health is like a middle ground, using technology to help improve the health and well-being of underrepresented communities. That’s something I’d really love to contribute to, so I was really excited to dive in and see what the program has to offer. Day 2      On Day 2, we opened up the SparkFun electronics kit, and it was my first time ever assembling a circuit and uploading code, which I found super interesting. Even when I made mistakes, I actually enjoyed fixing them and seeing the error go away and the board finally work. The food was also really good, and overall it was a very hands-on, technical, and learning-filled day. Day 3 On Day 3,...

    Starting the PATHS UP Take Flight Program was exciting and nerve-wracking. Meeting new people always make me nervous, though I have seen some familiar faces. Everyone I have talked to seemed to be friendly and really smart.       I have not worked with a circuit board the looked like the one we were using for the program, usually I just have a piece of wood and light bulbs with a couple of wires and switches to make it. It is thrilling to learn new things I though I would never touch.      Wires, wires, wires. It stuck to me that some of them are male and female, which made absolute sense, actually, since we are talking about connection. When I was constructing the pedometer, well trying to, at least, I felt hopeless. I was thinking that maybe mine is defective, or maybe I broke it. Alas, Mr. Franklin helped me. He aligned the boards like a sandwiched and it snapped, which was surprising because I thought they were extremely fragile. I ne...

  After the first week of my Digital Health Scholars Program I have learned extensively about hardware, software and circuits. We started out simple with building an Arduino board where I immediately lost a screw so my board is a bit wobbly now. We  quickly transitioned from putting the board together into creating various circuit designs,   including things such as an LED indicator, distance detector, instruments, and even LCD screens. As a computer science major, I have had limited exposure to hardware aside from my own experiences building computers. It has been extremely interesting to learn hardware terminology such as PCB and breadboard and connecting it to my passion of coding. The coding I have experienced during my first week is also difference than what I am used to. We have focused on using C for Arduino which I found to be relatively similar to C++, but some notable differences in syntax.      I prepared for this experience by working to have a ...