Week 2 and 3 Young Scholars PATHS-UP

 Week 2

I just completed week two of the Rice University Young Scholars Program. Though this week wasn’t as immersive as my first week, I felt like I became more proficient with the softwares we used and was able to complete some neat projects. 

This week, we were mainly focused on Bluetooth, GPS, and the wonders of wireless connection. Monday, we made a GPS tracker that tracked the way points from Ryon Building to the soccer field. Tuesday, we made a step tracker that was similar to the commonly used “fit bit” which tracked our steps from the Ryon building to the Rice Coffee shop and back. In addition, we started a Bluetooth wireless project where we made wireless and portable “rock paper scissors” games on a board known as the “microbot”. This activity was particularly fun because I was able to use this bot and play the game against some of my peers. Wednesday, we worked more closely with Bluetooth and paired our phones to our device so that we could see our text notifications on our Tiny watch. Also, I was able to brainstorm a neat code with my peer, Sofia Lowery, about making two arduino boards play harmonizing music together. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the program Thursday because I was on a trip to San Francisco. However, I am excited to catch up with my peers and work on projects as soon as I get back.

All these activities were very fun and I can’t wait for the new week where I can finally assemble all my parts for my watch together and work on my code with Sofia.

 Week 3

I just completed week three of the Rice University Young Scholars Program. This week, we worked on our final projects. For our final projects for one last presentation, I worked with Sofia and focused on two different projects: playing music on the Arduino and making a pulse oximeter/ pedometer combo.

For the musical project, we chose to code a duet for the popular song “Industry Baby” by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow. This duet was going to be played on two different Sparkfun’s Arduino Boards. The process was very tedious. We had to convert the notes on the sheet music to concert "C", double time the notes, sync up the two melodies together. Despite these challenges, Sofia and I were still successful in creating a nice melody together.

For the pulse oximeter/ pedometer combo, we chose to combine the Pulse Oximeter to the Pedometer so we can have a functioning device that could not only allow easy access to the steps they take but see their BPM. This project wasn't as difficult as making the code for the song. However, we did experience challenges with coding the different buttons. In order to switch between the two function, we couldn’t neglect the buttons on the watch. Thus, we had to figure out some way of accounting the buttons in our code. This process was quite difficult as it required us to understand the “false true” statements as well was necessary voids to use. However, with the aid of Ms. Kim and a little muster of courage, we got a working code for the buttons.

When I leave this camp, I am definitely eager to continue to play around with the musical code I made on C++ and show it off to my friends and peers not only out of pure enjoyment but to also teach them how to do it as well. Also. this club has brought up an interest in coding so going into the new year, I am definitely going to seek out coding clubs and outlets at my school to continue to cultivate this new interest.

Video of one of the projects