Week 1- Sophia D.

First Week

 by Sophia Dai

    This week I joined a program called Young Scholars: PATHS UP at Rice University. I had no idea what we were going to do other than that it would be related to Pulse Oximeters, Computer Science and its applications in health. To prepare, I just brought my brain and my (very) limited knowledge of Java, which I had picked up from AP Computer Science. 

    The first started off making a Simon Says game with an Arduino. Afterward, I created a remote control car that would go in a certain direction and distance depending on what I typed in the Serial Monitor. I had some fun playing around with it, but I did encounter some issues. In the beginning, I had trouble figuring out where to find the serial monitor was and was a little confused on where I was supposed to type the commands. I eventually found the serial monitor in the program and was able to test out the code. Then I found out one of the wheels didn't work so I had to swap it out for a new one.

Arduino Car

Serial Monitor

    Our next projects involved the tiny screen. For me, this was the most exciting part because I had already worked with Arduinos in the past and it was nice to be exposed to new technology. My favorite project was the pulse oximeters, which are a device that measures your blood oxygen level based on the amount of red light and infrared light being reflected or absorbed. We compared the ones we made with the tiny screens to commercial ones and they showed similar things.

Pulse Oximeter

    We also made a pedometer/accelerometer which showed me my steps and collected data to generate a graph. This project also utilized the tiny screen but we had to attach different components to it. 

accelerometer

graph generated by pedometer

    Next week, I am excited to continue doing more projects with the tiny screens and finding out what other surprises they have in store for us!