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| - | == Blog ==
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| - | Feel free to check out my blog!
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| - | http://lding.tumblr.com/tagged/iGEM
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| - | == May 29: First day of the summer session! == | + | <br> |
| - | Today was the first day of research. My group met together, did some intros, and gave an overview of the whole lab. We went over briefly what kind of projects we’re going to be working on and the activities that we’re going to do. And they’re all going to be super exciting!
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| - | I’m going to be working with Wendy on building softwares on the Beast (aka a tabletop interaction surface, but it’s almost the size of a bed!), something unique and made especially by and for our lab. But first we had to make sure that it can display images well, so our task today was to align the mirrors that project the image of the beast to create a desktop smooth background. However, these mirrors were very sensitive and we had a limited amount of space to work with! We were under the table for the whole time and everything took a lot of patience. We all knew that we can get our images aligned and calibrated, but it’s just going to take time. So there we are, under the table/ screen, fiddling around with the knobs, and trying to figure out with way to turn it tighter/ looser (lefty loosy, righty tighty) for the whole day. But wala! It finally worked. We were able to get our images align and smooth out the pattern on top. It was very satisfying to see it work and to know that we did it!
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| - | == May 30 ==
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| - | Today was a relatively simple day. I did a lot of research and reading, which was fun. I learned a lot more about where HCI and how the Beast compared to other systems that are already being developed already. And this made me realize that there are other simpler ideas and machines out there. But, it is still a relatively undiscovered field. There are many questions being asked and many being answered. It's very interesting to see the type of approach and solutions they came up with. With that, I'm really excited about the potential of the Beast. From what I have read today, there isn't another system like this. The surface is so big that it can't really be compared nor can results of the smaller ones be extrapolated to fit what we have. So yes, I'm excited to work on the Beast. I'm excited to get it working. And I'm excited to develop programs and observe how people interact with this!
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| - | == May 31 ==
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| - | Today, I did more research on different applications and systems that are similar to our multitouch table. It's fascinating to learn what other people are up to and what other kinds of system are already out there. So I discussed and analyzed with my friend about the pros and cons of each system. And at this point, I realized that I really had to understand how each system function. And I think that this is very helpful because with this foundation, I have a better sense of where our Beast and our programs fit into HCI inthe world. So a relatively simple day. I'm ready for more!
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| - | == June 4: A Microsoft Visit==
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| - | Today, our HCI lab got to visit a branch of Microsoft that was located at Cambridge, MA. I was super impressed with Microsoft. First of all, they had an amazing view of Charles River. A whole panorama! It was absolutely gorgeous and stunning even though today was cold and raining.
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| - | Their recruitment and education chair presented Microsoft 8 to us and their tablet. It was amazing. I'll be honest and say that I had my doubts about a tablet version of Microsoft because ipad is already amazing. But I quickly learned that Microsoft has some pretty nifty ideas too. With swips on the sides and touches on the corners of the screen, Microsoft 8 seems to be as lively and useful as it can be too! I was really amazed at what other options and ideas Microsoft 8 is going to put forth in the realm of technology. And after seeing and learning about this whole thing, I am absolutely amazed and excited about the technology that I get to work with in the lab and the possibilities/ creativities of the next generation technology.
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| - | == Jun 6: A day in the wet lab ==
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| - | We had a Synthetic Biology bootcamp in MIT and it was pretty cool. (And for once, I didn’t have to wake up at 6:30 in the morning! Wohoo!!)
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| - | First of, MIT is just amazing. There is so much stuff/ brain power here and I got the feeling that if you want to learn something or just anything, there will be at least one professor who’s speciality and interest is just that!
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| - | The Natalie, an MIT Prof, taught us and gave us an intro on Synthetic Biology. We had lectures in the morning, and labs in the afternoon. She’s amazing! She’s super knowledgeable about the biology, explains things well, and keeps the class interested. It’s very interesting to apply the biology that I learned at Swells and be able to make something out of it.
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| - | We learned about what other igem teams in the past had came up with. There's a team that engineered cells to respond to light by changing color. With these cells, they were able to create a beautiful pattern!
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| - | Another igem team from the past came up with the idea of E. coli that smells like wintergreen and bannana based on where the cell is at the cell cycle. It was also very interesting to know that students had to categorize the smell of bananas on how strong the smell is, so on the right, there is a gradient of strength of banana smells! I did smell those and the strength of the weakest one to the strongest one is very different!
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| - | == June 6: DiamondSpin ==
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| - | My topic is on the macro-development of the beast. I’m super excited to learn about the beast. As I researched for other similar systems that have been developed, I learned that many researchers are aware of the idea of a multitouch table, however, the topic is so new that people are still trying to figure out what is the best way to use a tool like this (or if there is even a best way). There wasn’t really much about a system as big as our beast, making the idea of getting the chance to work with the beast very exciting to me.
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| - | During research, I found this app called DiamondSpin, and it’s super cool. It addresses the idea of seeing/ moving objects around different side of the table. It also addresses the idea of what space is public/ private/ important in relation to the workflow.
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| - | Feel free to check out the link above. It’s pretty cool!
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| - | == June 7: Interactions with the Beast ==
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| - | In research today, we finalized our presentation on interactions with the Beast (aka. our bed-sized tabletop) the Beast and everything that I read finally seems to come together. I learned that there are so many different systems out there, but there is so much more you can do with it! Everything that you dreamed of as a computer is totally possible, and it’s probably something that people are already working towards!
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| - | For example, today, I learned about Kinect, which senses human as a blob. However, if we represent a human being as joints and points, we can have finer movements. And by connecting the Kinect to a tabletop (with the appropriate software/ apps), we will be able to use gestures to control the tabletop surface without having to touch it.
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| - | There are just so much cool things out there! It’s amazing.
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| - | == Jun 12: BU + iGem ==
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| - | Today, we visited BU and learned and bonded with the BU team that we’re going to work with over the summer. We learned about biology and about the projects that the BU team will be trying to do this summer. After today, I realized that iGem is such an amazing opportunity. The fact that we get to not only work on CS (something that I am passionate about) but also learn about synthetic bio and that iGem combines these 2 is just so cool! I can’t wait to brainstorm and come up with ideas/ projects to work on for the rest of the summer.
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| - | == Jun 13 & 14: Brainstorming!! ==
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| - | Today was a busy day. In the morning, a man from Agilent came to check out our work, and I helped on presenting an app with Consuelo, Kara, and Veronica. In the afternoon, BU came over and we started a major brainstorming session. First, we started by just gong around the room, individually, and just writing down ideas that came to our mind. Then, we regrouped and discussed the major topics together. This was actually a lot of fun because we were writing down all the ideas we could think of. All of the whiteboard around the room was filled with words or pictures. Everyone has a chance to speak up and say something that caught their interest. All ideas were welcomed. So it was really cool to see how everyone’s minds work and the different ideas we could all come up with. In a matter of minutes, the whiteboard of the topic that we’re discussing would be filled with ideas with all colors of the marker.
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| - | This definitely was very cool. However, brainstorming can still be hard. For example, for Semantic Search, we couldn’t really break through the loop. We kept on going in circles and circles and no one really could think of an idea that could solve our problem.
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| - | Overall, all this brainstorming is exhausting. I was tired at the end of the day. And tomorrow is an even larger brainstorming session. I hope that we can have some kind of product. That we will find a good idea to work with that will be baller for igem and that we will have a lot of fun with it. I know we can do it. Just gotta wait and see what our combined of brain power can come up with.
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| - | What was really cool about today was that in our research lab, we are also going to have a CS + Art project (MAS) going on. When this group is brainstorming, our instructor invited an Art Swells prof to come and give insights. And then when we were discussing about the idea of an eLabNotebook (an electronic smart lab notebook), the MIT prof who taught us synthetic bio engineering came too and gave her insights.
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| - | The fact that we were able to work with so many diciplines across the field was really amazing. But what I really learned today was the fact that people from different subject areas really do view objects/ events differently. Though we may only be undergraduate students, a CS major student vs a Bio major student already have some perceptible perspective differences. Interesting, huh?
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