Week 1 - Christian Cisneros

 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 more "normal" sleep schedule due to the early start and long drive. Furthermore, I looked into applications of software and hardware in a medical environment as this was the primary focus of the program and had not been an application of my work I had previously considered.

    The professors were immediately impactful as my kit was not complete and my Mac Book required an adapter to work with the Arduino board. They were able to help me get everything going and when I ran into issues with board detection they were also able to help me fix those.

    Aside from the technical knowledge, I have enjoyed the dining hall food and continue to try new things every day and it has quickly become one of my favorite parts of the day.

    In the following weeks, I look forward to collaborating with my partner and creating a device that can serve underprivileged communities. 










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