As my roommates are packing up the last items in their rooms, I am quickly writing this last blog. I have missed many days of blogging and know I should speak about what we did during the last week, but it was extremely eventful. In this last half hour before I leave my room, I would not be able to appropriately include everything. I have therefore been thinking about what to write/include in this final blog post. There is so much I want to say that I do not know how to word it. As I further write, I will try to convey that this was an amazing experience. I am a different, more knowledgeable person than when I came … Continue reading →

I’m just gonna separate the past two days from today because I want to do a longer final reflection in a different post. Wednesday was busy busy. Harrison, Sophie, and I finished our paper. Aron stayed in the lab with us pretty much all day on both Tuesday and Wednesday, and he was a huge help as he wrote our results and discussion sections in particular. It was a lot of work, but I’m content with how it turned out considering this was my first time writing such a technical research paper. After work, Andrea, Alee, Harrison, Sophie, Rodney, and I went to the gym one last time to rock climb. I decided to try a harder run than I … Continue reading →

This is the last post. It’s going to be a long one, so buckle in. Yesterday we culminated our research with our poster presentation. It was incredible to share our research together as a team to so many people. Seeing people use our game was also fascinating; despite many people struggling with using the controls (which is a concern that we will or the team will hopefully address in the future) they still found the game engaging and fun. So at least we know that our environment is inviting and engaging for users. After the presentation, we went out to the Peterson Pits and roasted marshmallows while finding constellations. It was a very relaxing end to the busyness of the … Continue reading →

This morning we continued working on the paper. It is finally starting to shape up well, which is good since we’re submitting it this afternoon. This afternoon we’re planning on working on the paper more, and possibly will work on the game a bit more, as well as practice our poster presentation. Until next time 😉

This morning we continued working on the paper, but we worked on it on the third floor as opposed to our usual corner because we wanted to watch the thunderstorm. Pretty much everyone else in the REU joined. It was fun to work sitting side by side with everyone since we haven’t all worked in the same area for a while. After two hours of working on the paper, we went to the luncheon lecture, which was arguably one of the most interesting one’s we’ve heard so far. The presenter was proficient in psychology and law, a fascinating combination, and she studied the criminal justice system and how it basically uses pleas for unfair negotiation. In other words, people with … Continue reading →

I’m back.  Week 10…I‘m already sad thinking about leaving this Saturday 🙁 So much has happened since I last blogged. On Thursday, I kept working on the Unity environment in the morning. After lunch, we had our event with CUNY, and they presented their projects to us. Their projects dealt with VR, so it was interesting to see what they’ve been up to. After the event, I worked on Unity again. I was able to figure out how to have the poke from the user’s hand register as a trigger that would record the value of the cube they poked on. Yay. Once that was done, I put my 6 cubes on the table in front of where the participant … Continue reading →

Last monday bro!!! Its been a while since i last posted— I’ve been busy with work but now we’re finally free!!!! Now its just writing the paper and the symposium………. 5 days remain.

The presentations on Friday went well. I feel more prepared for the 3-minute elevator speeches on Thursday. This morning we worked on the paper. It’s slow going and less fun than making the game, but at least we can make it easier for other people to follow our process to make the game. This afternoon will be more work on the paper as well. Until next time 🙂

Lil weekend recap:  Saturday was pretty quiet until 4ish when the guys came downstairs practically begging us to go to the trampoline park 35 minutes away. We all kinda wanted to do something, though, so we settled on mini golf and dinner. Mini golf was fun, and then we stuck around at the same place to play arcade games for about an hour. Afterwards, we had a really good dinner at a local Mexican restaurant that’s been recommended by so many people here. When we got back to Freddy, we just played some mario kart and another game that I don’t remember the name of. Sunday was a work day for me. I made some really exciting progress on the … Continue reading →

Day 57. Today we have agreed on a long work day. We are working on our blogs for another 10 minutes. Then we will all collectively work on our poster for 30 minutes until the meeting at 2pm begins. From there we will proceed to work on the paper for an hour and unity for an hour after that. Once it is 5pm we will then proceed to create and consume pasta for two hours. After 7pm we will commute back home to continue working on the paper for an hour, publish a draft for revision, split our slide show for presentation, and then read the assigned case studies for our ethics course tomorrow. All in all our work day … Continue reading →

It has unfortunately been a while since I have last blogged so this will have to be a recap of a lot of the work I have been doing during that time. I want to first start out with our assignment for HCI:We were tasked to think about our multidisciplinary backgrounds and find a research question that encompasses three areas of study. I study economics and computer science at school, and I am trilingual, meaning I have to love language. I will therefore add linguistics to my background as I done a bit of linguistics in the past. These disciplines, especially linguistics, seem difficult to combine but I can try. My research question that combines all these disciplines:How do language … Continue reading →

Day 56. This weekend was calm. Not much occurred. Today, Monday, we are working on the presentable for the project, so the power point and poster that are due later this week. We are also working on the research paper. We are on track to be able to get everything done. It should be a calm week and next week will a chill end to the ten weeks here.

This weekend was pretty fun; on Saturday, we went to mini golf in the evening and then went to El Azteca afterwards for dinner. I had lots of fun at mini golf! We split into 2 groups to save time, so it was Andrea, Rodney, Angy, and I on our team. I think we did pretty good and it was funny watching Rodney and Angy try to beat each other. After, we played a couple of games in the arcade before going to dinner. I played a couple of rounds of Guitar Hero, which I really like, and a game of MarioKart. Harrison and I were bummed because neither of their basketball games were working so we couldn’t compete against … Continue reading →

Last night was lots of fun! We got to learn how to make baklava with Heliya in the food science building. Their kitchen was super nice and I think we did a great job making the baklava! It was really fun to make because I like baklava and I’ve always wondered how it was made. It was really good and tasted even better because we made it ourselves! Later in the night, we finally finished season 1 of Game of Thrones! It only took 8 weeks! Today, I have been working on our research paper. I got lots of comments on the intro that I have been fixing and I have been reading a lot more papers to fill out … Continue reading →

Last night, I talked to my friends at home for a few hours while we played Minecraft. It was a lot of fun and I got to talk to some of my friends I haven’t talked to all summer. Later in the night, all of the girls got together and hung out and played with some makeup. It was a lot of fun and Harrison and Rodney joined in a little bit when they stopped by. This morning, we had an HCI class about interdisciplinary research. It was really interesting for me because I am always getting asked about how psychology fits into technology. To me, it’s hard to see how psychology doesn’t fit into technology and HCI, but hearing … Continue reading →

Heuristics  Normalcy Bias  Definition: The normalcy bias describes our tendency to underestimate the possibility of disaster and believe that life will continue as normal, even in the face of significant threats or crises Design: Color  Project: In our project we have learned about how a skewed heat perception can affect the response of people during heat events. In our color scheme we included green and red which are associated with bad and good. With the red we can bring attention to high temperatures and indicate through color its danger.  Availability Bias: Definition: The availability heuristic describes our tendency to use information that comes to mind quickly and easily when making decisions about the future. Design: Scale/ Proportions  Project: Since we … Continue reading →

Heuristic: Familiarity: when people make decisions based on things, people, and places that are more familiar to them Design principle: Design a study involving components that the intended participants can either relate to or feel familiar with. Design in the curiosity EEG project: Formulate trivia questions to be about topics that the participant enjoys and is familiar with. However, this doesn’t mean that each individual question should be about something that the participant is familiar with, because that would affect our data. Instead, some of the general topics that a question falls into should be something that is familiar. For example, if the participant is familiar and interested in animals, we’d give participants some questions about animals.  Heuristic: Affect: when … Continue reading →

For our most recent HCI assignment, we are to pick 3 heuristics used in decision making and 3 design principles for the heuristics. Then we are to write how we can apply these 3 different pairs into our project. Heuristics Familiarity: Favorable to things that appear to be familiar Design Principle: Having consistent visuals and standards. Implementation: We will keep the format of the screen the same during the experiment. This way we won’t gain any undesired data from a surprise unfamiliar screen. Heuristics Affect: Emotions are affecting how we decide something Design Principle: Not including anything that is offensive or give an adverse emotion. Implementation: We have removed or omitted certain trivia questions because of some current events. We … Continue reading →

Last night, I didn’t do much with the other interns in the evening because I had a long meeting about marching band back at my university. Since I’m president of the band, I have to have a couple meetings over the summer to talk to the directors, exec board, section leader, etc. Later into the night, we finished watching the Elizabeth Holmes documentary for our Ethics class. I wish the one we watched went more into the legal battle, but it gave us a good understanding of everything leading up to them getting charged. This morning, I worked on standardizing the design of our app, while Angy added more screens and Chu Chu looked over the revisions on the Intro … Continue reading →

Hello friends This past weekend was extremely fun. I got to see one of my friends from school and hang out with them. We went to the farmers market and a mall. Also some of the others from Ames joined us at the farmers market in Des Moines. It was extremely hot and draining, but it was a ton of fun. Then on Monday, we worked on VR and figuring out how to sync the data streams from the Unity app and the Muse headband. Lydia and Harrison did an amazing job looking into the possible ways we could do it. We also worked on our presentation for CUNY which is next week. Well that all, Sophie

Last night, some of us went bowling at the Memorial Union, which was a lot of fun. I bowled 111 for both games and raced Rodney on a MarioKart game. He won but by a hair. At night, we watched some of the Elizabeth Holmes documentary which we will finish tonight. This morning, we presented the first drafts of our CUNY presentations. Our team did well but we have some notes to work on for the actual presentation. After, we had our luncheon lecture with Alex, so it was really cool to hear more about him! Later this afternoon, we have meetings for our project and work time. Here is a picture from last night:

Our homework for the HCI session was to pick heuristics people use in decision making, then pick design principles to accommodate those heuristics, and lastly reflect on how these can be applied to my project.

Today had a lot more visual progress than the past few days this week. We finally got a repository working, so we were all three working side by side on the project. We now have functional hands, teleportation, and continuous motion!!! Alee was able to import the scene, Rodney’s progressing the code…it’s been a good morning. This afternoon we’re continuing our progress, and hopefully Alee and I will move onto the coding portion. Until next time 🙂

This morning, we started with an HCI class with Yvonne. The focus of today’s class was decision making, and how things like heuristics and biases can influence our decisions. After class, Dr. Adarsh Krishnamurthy talked about his research and interests during the lunch and lecture. His background is architecture and engineering, so while some of what he was talking about was unfamiliar, I could pick up on things and found his work with neural networks and 3D printing really interesting. After the lunch and lecture, Aron came to the VRAC for a bit. The first thing on the to-do list for today was to get back to figuring out how to analyze the EEG data that we collected from the … Continue reading →

Day 43, 44, & 45. Here are my notes from today’s lecture on technical ethics and from our guest speaker during our luncheon lecture. There is never a 100% correct answer to ethical dilemmas Capital System works if Gross Revenue > Expenses otherwise your out of business Recognize when there is an ethical dilemma & create a standard for going about answering it Loss of reputation: Back room conversations about work & employees do happen and can be detrimental to careers TECHNICAL ETHICAL GUIDELINES Ethics are achieved by following a mixture of moral, legal & personal Values Important Quotes: On Wednesday we… Data structures And many many pages of changing notes on the project. Today: Running out of time to … Continue reading →

Last night, Sophie, Harrison, and I started our literature review draft. Writing this paper is starting to feel like one of the harder things we’ve had to do this summer as a team because we all have different writing styles. At first we tried to just talk all together, and I would write the ideas down, but we quickly realized that wasn’t going to work when we spent about half an hour on 2 sentences. Instead, we decided to divide and conquer, so each of us took responsibility for writing 2 sections from the outline, and then we’d come back together later and make adjustments as needed.  Today we spent our morning working on our literature review, going over what … Continue reading →

Now that we are all busy working on our projects, we are having less time to hang after work. So, last night we didn’t do much but hang out and chat for a little bit before going to bed. This morning, we started working on a Figma prototype for our CommHEAT app. We decided on some features and sketches yesterday so we are recreating those in Figma. Chu Chu and Angy are working on learning app development in Unity while I am refining the design and researching our branding palette for the app. We have also started writing our paper, which I am taking the lead on since I have written the most in college. Later today we will keep … Continue reading →

We’re back in the lab.  Quick little recap of the long weekend:  On Friday, we didn’t do much until night time. Harrison taught Rodney, Ruby, and I had to play a card game called spades. I enjoyed it. You had to play in teams, but it’s not really playing in teams because you sit across from them and you’re not allowed to talk. You just need really suggestive facial expressions? On Saturday, Angelic had to deal with something at a bank near Des Moines, so we decided to just make a trip out of it and go to the Des Moines farmers market. Unfortunately, by the time we got downtown, the market was about to close. On the bright side, … Continue reading →

CRAFTS OF RESEARCH Today was a day filled with discovery and learning, kicking off with an enriching session on the “Crafts of Research.” The morning was dedicated to honing our skills in presenting research posters, a crucial aspect of sharing and communicating scientific findings effectively. Presenting a Research Poster: Reducing Heat Morbidity in Lower-Income Societies During the session, we focused on a compelling and urgent topic: “How to Reduce Heat Morbidity Rates in Lower-Income Societies.” As global temperatures continue to rise, heat morbidity has become a significant public health concern, particularly in lower-income areas where access to cooling technologies and healthcare may be limited. We learned various strategies for creating an impactful research poster, including: Questions and Curiosities I left … Continue reading →

This weekend was our first big break since we have been here. The interns and I took full advantage of that fact. Because it has been four days, I will have a bullet point for each day.

At the beginning of the week , We were working on mca work. I am happy we can get more time focusing in a single project. Alex let us run free and do whatever we want. I was a bit insecure about my project. I wished I had gotten a bit farther so I could finish the light box idea that I had. After the presentation, i think I should work on my public speaking abilities. It was really inspiring to see other people work. I am happy it’s done, but will definitely miss hanging out with Alex the whole day. Our 4th of July weekend was really fun and eventful. Should have probably slept more than I did. Did … Continue reading →

Today has been pretty productive so far. We’ve decided on our game design and have storyboarded the first scene. Now we just have to assign tasks and begin! It’s a little stressful now since we have to work on a paper, a poster, and a presentation at the same time as making the game, but I know that with enough planning this will all work out. It’s just crunch time now. This weekend was very relaxing. We went and saw inside out, we went to watch the fireworks, we played video games, and I went to the music building multiple times 😊. Until next time!

Day 36. Today we discussed the rural communities of Iowa, why they exist, what their mind set it, and why they are shrinking. We discussed various budgets including how college football coaches make in the realm of 4 million a year. Here were my notes from today’s lecture on risk analysis:

Today we had an hour before our HCI discussion. During that hour I started working on inputting the birds into our game so that we can have their birdsongs coming from them. During our HCI discussion, we learned about the the importance of creating interfaces that account for user error as well as how different people think. It was fascinating to see, because it’s always talked about how older people are worse with technology, when really the technology isn’t developed with them in mind. The lunch lecture today was from Dr. Zarecor, one of the faculty members on the STEM XR team. She told us about her journey to working in the position she holds now and about the research … Continue reading →

So I’m starting from yesterday. Monday was just working on our deeper dive project which was more than stressful because I had to upload different assets into the VR environment , and it wasn’t easy because most of the assets weren’t even compatible. Then I had to find new assets to use for the environment, on top of that I still had to edit them because I found out that I had not deactivated a few cameras for the assets, but in the end I got through it and we got 1 step closer to our end goal.

Research Question: Which GPS navigation system is more effective for drivers, Auditory and Visual or just Auditory? Hypothesis: Auditory and visual stimulation will be more effective for navigation. IV: What kind of navigation systems are used by subjects. DV: Navigation abilities. Methods: using a driver’s testing course to test subjects while displaying auditory and/or visual directions in order to measure the navigation performance and effectiveness through time trails. Through time trial measurements of the drivers we will be running a correlational study to determine how different input of GPS navigation affects ones directional skills.

Hello friends We have just entered the month of July and it is past the halfway point. I feel like the program has been moving fast, and at the same time, very slow. I feel like I am starting to feel a little bit of burn out since there is much to do every day. Don’t get me wrong, I am enjoying what I am doing, but I feel like there is a lot of material I need to or want to know with not enough time to fully understand it. Let’s get to the more fun topics. Since it has been a while, I’ll give you a run down on what has happened. Thursday: We went over HCI and … Continue reading →

Day 35. This morning when we arrived at VRAC we continued to work on our MCA presentations. They are getting close to completion and should be ready by Wednesday for presentation. Our Machine Learning models have not yet been created as the computer to run them has been occupied over the weekend. Lunch today was rice, meat, cheese and a soda. We spoke to the other REU interns from other SPIRE programs. It was excellent conversation. I predict this afternoon should be much of the same with a calm evening.

The hypothetical study I designed related to smart phones and driving safety is testing the safety of GPS on the phone vs. GPS on the car console. Since the cellphone GPS has more built-in distractions than the car GPS, this study wants to evaluate how participants drive while using car or cellphone GPS. The hypothesis for this study is that participants using GPS on their phone will make more mistakes while driving than those who use the built-in car GPS. To test this, participants will be randomly assigned to either the phone or car GPS group. The participants will then try to navigate a certain route in a driving simulator using the GPS. The phone group will have notifications appear … Continue reading →

This morning I had a big whoops: I woke up at 10:43am. You know those mornings when you wake up and freak out that you have to be somewhere only to realize that it’s Saturday, and then you can breathe again…that’s how I felt, except worse because it wasn’t actually Saturday, and I was already almost 2 hours late to the lab. I made it to the lab by 11ish and had a chance to talk with everyone about the situation. Everyone was so kind about it, but I still felt so bad for the inconvenience I caused.  Aron came to talk with us for an hour at 11 to tie up some loose ends and answer any of our … Continue reading →

My study would be about comparing how drivers pay attention to the road while using Apple CarPlay vs while using a phone mount in their car. I would use eye tracking to gauge where the driver is looking and the percent of time the driver spends while looking at the screen while in the car. Vs.

This morning we worked more on the deeper dives. I am almost done perfecting the teleportation aspect of our game, which is exciting, because that means I can finally move on to the animal sounds and assets. Not much else has happened today. We finally had a little bit of a break last night on the STEM XR project, since the grad mentors told us to put a hold on our game idea development. It was nice to relax a little bit after working really hard to develop our ideas the past few weeks. We’re crossing our fingers so that the faculty end up choosing one of the topics we liked the most. Until next time 🙂

Day 31. If I were to design a phone and driving experiment, I would test the GPS mapping functionalities. Stephen mentioned a school shooting and direction detection experiment here at Iowa State and I think something like that would be excellent for testing phones while driving. Question Does GPS type (audio vs visual vs combination) affect distracted driving level? Variables Independent: The type of GPS and the type of driving environment Dependent: The level of distracted driving Design We will have two lists of routes: a list of cities with high, but similar, traffic styles. we will also have a list of long distance routes with complex directions, long stretches of roads, and similar traffic and stops. We will select … Continue reading →

Last night was pretty fun because we went swimming like I thought we would, but only me and Rodney ended up going. After that, I just did work and went to bed. This morning was a lot of fun! We had a lecture with Stephen about research in HCI and after he was our luncheon lecture speaker! In the first lecture, he talked about research methods in HCI, which was very similar to the research methods I have learned for psychology. Afterwards, he told us about his personal history, current research projects, and his time in Namibia. It was really interesting hearing about how he got where he is today and he used such a good storyteller. The overall message … Continue reading →

Wednesday is such a weird word.. like just spell it wendsday bro Here are some pictures from our day out in storm lake: Today I finished my sword and started ideation for my MCA project abt joints!!!

Day 30. here are my current notes from yesterday and today.

Yesterday we went to Storm Lake. We met some of the students that we are designing the application for, and we met with one teacher. Our interview with the teacher was incredible: she was a high school science teacher, but she had worked in the middle school as well at Storm Lake, so she knew about how teaching methods changed between the two levels and had many opinions about how to best engage students in the classroom. She also told us about the pros and cons of integrative learning, so we have a better idea of what kind of teaching style we should use in our game. Working with the students was also really helpful. We learned about their previous … Continue reading →

This morning we had our last craft of research session with Yvonne. We pretty much just talked about the different forms of plagiarism and how to avoid them. I think the information I learned today will be very useful when it comes to writing the final research paper considering all the papers we’re planning to use and reference. After that class, Holly Oberbroeckling spoke with us for the lunch and lecture. I really enjoyed listening to her because she was in our position 10 years ago as an intern here at ISU, so she had a unique and relatable perspective. She began by talking through the actual slides that she and her teammates used for their final presentation. This was … Continue reading →

Last night was pretty fun. I got my MCA project pretty much nailed down after talking with Alex for an hour or so! At home, I talked with my friends from home for a while and then we watched yet another episode of GoT. This morning, we had a Craft of Research session about blogging and plagiarism. Yvonne talked about how it is important for us to blog everyday for a number of reasons and gave us tips on blogging. In the afternoon, we had lunch with a former REU intern, Holly, who eventually ended up going to ISU for the HCI masters and is now working in industry. It was really interesting hearing about her experience and how the … Continue reading →

It is day 29. Today I will include my notes from this morning’s lecture about blogging: Furthermore, I will share my notes about plagiarism also from this morning’s lecture: Later today we will be traveling to the City of Storm Lake to converse with a teacher and students. I will also plan on taking out the trash sometime tomorrow.

Hi hi Today we spent a couple hours working in our deeper dive groups. Andrea, Chu-Chu and I were able to narrow down our focus for our project so it’s more feasible to complete in just a little over a week. We also spent a little bit playing some games with the VR headsets. I played one that had such cool and realistic graphics. The game also helped me see what kinds of features we can implement in our own project in terms of locomotion and user-controlled interaction. On Saturday we all went thrifting for a few hours after breakfast, and then spent a few hours at a mini outdoor waterpark near campus. That night some of us went out … Continue reading →

Hello friends I swear I am alive, just went MIA from blogs. At least y’all aren’t asking for a proof of life (my mom has done that twice). Last Thursday for out extracurricular we watch Spirited Away. This is an anime movie about a young girl that gets swept into the spirit world and must work to save her parents. I won’t go too far into the plot, so I don’t spoil it. I have seen this movie before, so there weren’t any big surprises. The next day we were starting our deep dives. My deep dive is about machine learning. The plan is to create a model that will be able to drive a self-driving car. I haven’t done … Continue reading →

Today was mainly deeper dive topics, basically we were discussing our problem statement which changed a lot and that alone was already not to mention that we also kept change the focus of our project, eventually we came to a decision. We also got to play a few vr games to get some inspiration and luckily that part wasn’t stressful. PS it has been unbelievably hot today don’t go outside.

On Thursday, we had a movie night and watched Spirited Away. I feel like I belong here now that I’ve watched a studio Ghibli movie. It was pretty good though, I liked it.  Dr. S came in to chat with us yesterday. Her area of research is so different from what we do in the VRAC, but it was still really cool to hear about the impact that her research has on individuals with Parkinson’s disease. There has also been a trend in the speakers that come to talk – most of them don’t end up where they thought they would when they were undergrads. To me, that thought is somewhat intimidating but also exciting at the same time  Yesterday … Continue reading →

Day 25 and I am falling asleep. So I’ll make this short. The question of the day is: have you ever shaved a cat?

haven’t been posting so I’ll do a summary again.

I have not posted my blogs for the past two days so I thought since I woke early today, I should take time to reflect.

Last night was another chill night with homework and some video games. Rodney fried pork chops in spiced oil that was making their eyes burn, so him and Harrison came to our apartment for a while to get some fresh air. Today, we filled out some surveys related to the classes we took and then had our lunch lecture with Dr. Elizabeth Stegemöller, the faculty mentor for the Curiosity EEG team. It was really interesting hearing about her research. Her main area right now is music therapy and singing to help treat symptoms of Parkinson’s. I really liked the incorporation of music and neuroscience. She is also just really fun to talk to! Tonight we will watch Spirited Away in … Continue reading →

Last night, we did Zumba as our extracurricular! I thought it was fun but it was hard for me to match the instructor’s hands and feet at the same time. I liked getting to be active together and enjoyed the songs we danced to. Today, we did more in Unity and eventually made our Blender models into simple, but functional, games! In my game, you walk around a small amusement park to eat all of the cotton candy you can find. It is not a complex game, but I am still proud of how quickly we made the game. At the end of the day, we were assigned our Deeper Dive groups. I am excited because I got put into … Continue reading →

Today was programming or blender work in unity, which was very frustrating because it was not easy to do , but I got through it.It also rained and my bike got wet which was also very frustrating. I guess you can say today wasn’t such a good day.

It is day 22. A ponderance upon the self was embarked on. Elodin once asked who art thou? And only through the ramblings of the wind and the journey of names can one discover themselves. For while Tom Petty is claimed to have once said, “You have four years to be irresponsible here. Relax. Work is for people with jobs. You’ll never remember class time, but you’ll remember time you wasted hanging out with your friends. So stay out late. Go out on a Tuesday with your friends when you have a paper due Wednesday. Spend money you don’t have. Drink ’til sunrise. The work never ends, but college does” you must question the wisdom of his ways. For Epistemologists’ … Continue reading →

Today we started our day with another craft of research session with Yvonne. She walked us through the discussion section and how to present our results.  Then, Harrison and I worked on getting the trivia question system running on the builder component in Psychopy. A bit ago, Sophie was able to fix some of the issues we were having in the coder component, but Harrision and I wanted to get it running in a layout that was more readable for Aron and others who aren’t as familiar with Python code. Today was a semi-success though because we were finally able to get it running all the way through, but we still have some things to fix.  At 11, Eliot came … Continue reading →

Last night was pretty uneventful- I just stayed home and worked on homework. I read an interesting article about how we must consider all of the meanings, life circumstances, and experiences of users when designing technology. I also got to see some of the data that the CommHEAT team collected last year and took some notes on that as well. Today, we had another craft of research lecture where we talked about the methods, results, and discussion sections of research papers. I really liked the article Yvonne used as an example. It talked about how certain balances of warmth and competency in AI teammates affected the reception of the AI in human teams. This reminded me of the warmth-competency matrix … Continue reading →

Today we had our last Craft of Research meeting, and we learned about how to create the Methods, Results, and Discussion sections in a research paper. We also learned a little bit about what Yvonne is studying, which has to do with how people respond to AI depending on the AI’s perceived warmth and competence. It was very intriguing to see how different physical and non-physical characteristics of the robot examples she showed us changed people’s perceptions of the robots. We also had our lunch lecture with Elliot today. We learned about how he ended up working at VRAC, and how his path was in no way linear and continues to be varied; he doesn’t just work on the exact … Continue reading →

Hey again, today we started working with Unity. We pretty much learned how to use the platform by importing the scenes we made in Blender last week, and playing around with textures and lighting. We also connected Unity to Virtual Studios so that we could use C# code to control how we moved in Unity. For example, one of our tasks was to find a way to move forwards, backwards, left, right, and turn (by rotation) using the W, A, S, D keys on the keyboard. I was able to get the basics working, but I still have some adjusting that I want to do because I don’t want to be able to go down under my scene when I … Continue reading →

It is day 21. It is a Monday. I received an email from my brother detailing the unusual activity he encountered over the past week. However, since his stories are not mine to tell, I will leave the story at me having read an email. I spent many an hour in the world of Minecraftia. I cooked some rice.

We started learning Unity today, and it’s a little bit easier than Blender. Either that or I’ve just gotten used to the trials and tribulations of modeling. I learned how to use the bloom function to add a glow to objects, but this afternoon I’m going to work on adding lighting, since I’m working on creating an in-ground pool. Side note: The Mongolian beef at the cafeteria was really good 😊 Until next time!

I am a big fan of wireless earbuds because they allow me to listen to music without having to have my phone on me at all times. With that being said, I do have some grievances with their design. I currently use JLAB Go Air Pop to listen to music. They do a great job for budget earbuds with music quality and connectivity, however, some of the touch functionalities are not the best. In order to change different settings such as volume, listening quality, and songs, you need to use the side of the earbuds. Each setting has a different tap pattern. My problem is if I accidentally bump the side of an earbud, it might pause the song or … Continue reading →

1: Slack new update I use this interface at my college to communicate in my classes and clubs. As an user of this website the choice to organize all of the channels by name rather than by the group they belong to makes it really difficult to search for them. While some have specific names, they all have a general and random channels. In the general channels is where I have found most of our communications happen. While it is not difficult to identify in which channel the message was sent since it is highlighted, writing a message is so tedious. When I try to find what I am looking for, the font and color that indicate which group the … Continue reading →

Our task for our HCI course with Adam is to brainstorm two interfaces that are frustrating for the user. This took me some time to think of things because so many of the niche problems I thought of already have solutions to – like how they now make inserts that sit on top of car cup holders to hold water bottles that normally are too wide to fit, and they have wristlets that you can wear while you wash your face to avoid water from dripping down your arms and onto your sleeves. I was able to come up with a few though.  My first idea is bathroom stalls…why is it so common for public bathrooms to have such big … Continue reading →

HCI 1: Research Rabbit Reset HCI 2: Those levers under swivel chairs that you have to use to know what they do

We were asked to identify two types of interfaces (such as a physical object or computer software/website) that are difficult to use. My first idea was a nail clipper, since sometimes it’s difficult to get a precise cut or squeeze the clippers when you’re using your non-dominant hand. Behold, the electric nail clipper. It is formed the exact same way, but it is electronic, so all you need to do is position the clipper where you want it and press a button to cut your nails. The second interface that is difficult to use are computer mice. Sometimes when moving your cursor, you have to lift up the mouse in order to continue. *Fanfare* an extra button! All you will … Continue reading →

Hey blog. Today I’m writing from outside. The sun felt so good on our way back from lunch so we all just decided to bask. This morning we spent about 3 hours working on our blender projects. I was able to get the grass, basket, and bushes done. The strawberry is a work in progress, but it’s getting there. I’ve been able to find a lot of tutorials on YouTube, and Angelie and Heela have been really great at helping. So far, I’m honestly really enjoying blender – more so than SolidWorks. To me, it’s more fun to use because I feel like I have more creative freedom.  After lunch we’ll get another 2 hours to work on our projects.  Oh … Continue reading →

Last night, most of the interns hung out at our apartment and just told stories and gossiped. I liked getting to know people better and hear some of the funny stories! Today we are doing even more Blender. I am still finding it difficult, especially because a lot of the tutorials have a different version with different options and buttons. I have made some simplified shapes for my project but I still have a lot to go. I am currently writing my blog as we are sitting under the water tower in the sun I’m not sure what we’re doing tonight, but I’m sure we’ll have some fun. Here is a picture from right now:

Today we started our mini project in blender… i got the fluid stuff to work and now im trying to make the grass work.

Today is day 17. It feels like the Thursday it is. Thursdays are bad days– it is the day the world ended in the popular novel where the key part of hitchhiking is always having a towel. There is nothing wrong about today, today has not had anything go wrong. But it is a Thursday so, therefore, today is inherently a bad day.

Today we spent an hour with Adam to discuss conferences. He gave us some good advice and knowledge about what they’re like and how we could get involved. Directly after, Dr. Carmen Gomes, an associate professor in the department of mechanical engineering came to talk to us about her research. After lunch, we’ll go back to the EEG lab with Aron to run another experiment using the trivia question system. Hopefully we’ll put the gel on correctly today so that we can pick up the brain signals better.  Last night was very chill. We all agreed to kinda just do nothing for the night, and then a few of us got together to watch another episode of Game of Thrones … Continue reading →

Last night, I was really tired after work so I just stayed in the apartment for most of the night and tried to get work done. Before we went to bed, we did watch some tv, so that was fun. This morning, we had some work time and then had our first Intro to HCI lecture. We talked a little about the history of HCI and talked about how important it is to go to conferences in your fields. I liked learning about all of the different conferences in HCI and might end up going to some of them in the future. After that, we had a lunch and presentation with Carmen Gomez. She showed us some of her research … Continue reading →

Howdy Y’all This week we have been doing a lot of 3D modeling. We started with Solidworks and Blender. I have really enjoyed Solidworks. We created 9 different parts and then assembled them, which is kind of tedious and kind of fun. Blender is interesting and is a little more complicated for me, but I am figuring it out. For example, we were supposed to make a cat for an activity, and instead I made a bat. Hopefully the cozy library I am planning on making will turn out better. Best, Sophie

Whats up my loggy foggy boggy doggies idk what to post for today so here’s a picture of me on the roof. Oh and I guess these pictures too I guess

Last night, we did light painting with Paul in the photo studio! We created some really cool pictures and had some fun messing around. After that, most of us just did work independently and then we watched Game of Thrones at night. Today, we started the day with more Solidworks and put together the parts we made yesterday. I really enjoyed this because it was like putting together a puzzle! I experimented with some weird textures and backgrounds after it was assembled. After that, we started working on Blender for the first time. We had to try making a cat face out of a sphere. I think this went okay but it is definitely harder for me than Solidworks. Tonight … Continue reading →

Yesterday we started working with SolidWorks, which is a platform that can be used to construct models of objects. I had never done anything like this, so those 4 hours of lecture and work time were rough. Alex and Spencer were both really great at walking us through the tutorials and answering any questions, so that definitely helped.  This past weekend was busy. On Saturday we went to a ropes course where we did some team building activities and then walked on cables and wood planks in the air. The experience wasn’t exactly what I was expecting, but I think we all made the most of it. Right after the ropes course, I made the drive up to Minneapolis to … Continue reading →

It is now day 15 in the wild Ames. The elusive ChuChu was last spotted outside the window on a velocipede and the daring Rodney explored the alternate world of the Apple. Bakugan were exchanged and syrup based bubbly beverages were purchased. On the daring 3 Blue bus-ride, the return began well into the night. It had faded between light to dark in the time between passenger delivery and retrieval. Once the bus had been boarded and passengers seated, the journey began. The first stop was driven past as there was no one waiting, and no one requested a stop. We then stopped at what is believed to have been a transfer station. The bus came to a halt, the … Continue reading →

This past weekend was pretty eventful, we woke up a little too early for a ropes course which wasn’t bad but my fear of heights was not helping. We also attended an Reu get together on Sunday which was actually really fun, we got to meet new people and have a good time.

Yesterday we learned SolidWorks, and after starting the day learning how to use it, we finished designing products while only using drawings as references. Today we continued learning about the research process, and learned about how to write a research paper. While in class we learned about IMRD (Introduction, Methods, Results, and Discussion), ResearchRabbit, which is an awesome research resource that finds relevant articles with only a few keywords. We also had a cool talk during lunch where we learned about a research project developed to study cybersickness, why it occurs, and how to prevent it or reduce it. Overall, it’s been a good day so far :). Until next time!

This weekend, we got up early on Saturday to do some physical bonding exercises and do a high ropes course. These activities were very intense. We had to pick each other up, Lydia stood on Harrison and Chu Chu’s shoulders, and lots of people got at least a little sore or injured… Sunday morning, I made French toast for everyone that was home! I made banana bread the day before so I used that and some chocolate chip brioche I had in the pantry. That evening, there was a picnic where we got to meet lots of other REU interns and got some good BBQ! Today, we started learning Solidworks. I don’t think it is that bad, but the homework … Continue reading →

It is now day 11 here in Ames. The scenery is very much still the same but the weather has dried and the temperature risen. I have risen above the ground upon the face of a boulder and spent many an hour running through hills in search of the legendary Minecraft Dark Oak. Walmart Shopping List: We meandered along the main streets of Ames to view the arts of the city. We consumed subpar food at the local cafeteria– the only food place we can find open that accepts our meal swipes so far. Photos were taken, roofs were not walked upon. A Journey to the Center of the Earth was began. Goods were ordered from the mystical Amazon and … Continue reading →

We went to an art festival yesterday, and I found a Spanish fan, a Spanish board game, and British custard! After the festival we went to Buffalo Wild Wings. Today we learned our last lesson of C++ and ate lunch with Nick, our programming teacher. Tomorrow we’re going to a ropes course, which I’m excited about since I haven’t been to a ropes course in a while.

Today we spent our morning taking group pictures in our matching Iowa State shirts around campus. Then we sat down with Wesley Lefforts, a cardiovascular exercise physiologist, who spoke with us about his research. He was so fun to listen to. What I found really interesting was his discussion about menopause as it relates to his research on brain health. Put simply, the estrogen that women produce acts as a type of protection for the arteries. When women stop producing estrogen, they lose that barrier, which can then accelerate damage to the brain. This is a contributing factor to why women are about twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s as men.  Wes also gave us some valuable life advice. The … Continue reading →

Last evening the STEM XR team went out for boba and met Anjali’s dog. Her dog was adorable and the boba was delicious!! Then Alee and I went rock climbing, which shredded my hands and made us feel like blobs afterward, but we’re going back again on Friday. Today we took our group photo (which basically turned into a 2-hour-long photo shoot), had a really awesome lunch n learn with Wes Leffers where we learned about the stiffness of the aorta and how it affects blood flow to the brain. We also heard about his hiking stories in Nepal, and were all gobsmacked when he said he wasn’t from New Zealand after presenting the whole time in a New Zealander … Continue reading →

Last night was a lot of fun because Harrison, Lydia, Rodney, Chu Chu and I went swimming in the state gym pool for the first time this summer! We played in the whirlpool, watched Harrison jump of the high dive a few times, played lots of water basketball, and relaxed in the hot tub a little bit. It’s been a long time since I’ve been swimming so I had lots of fun and am excited for the next time we go. This morning, we went around campus with Paul to take pictures for the website. We all got matching shirts with the vintage mascot to wear for the photo shoot. After we got back, we had our next lunch & … Continue reading →

Hello friends, Is it possible to drown in papers… Well not literally drowning, but it does feel like it right now. I am someone who loves to read books, but academic papers are a different concept all together. The research papers aren’t boring, but they are full of advance terminology and concepts that delve deep into the concept. Recently I was reading a paper about curiosity, and it explored the different definitions and theories that involved curiosity. In addition, I have been utilizing the recreational center here at Ames. Today post-workout, there was some rain while I was riding back to the apartments. Once the rain stopped, there was a magnificent rainbow and right above it was a second one. … Continue reading →

Today we started the day with more C++ coding. Then we had an hour break between class and lunch, so I finished my craft of research assignment for next Tuesday and then played some fire boy and water girl with Harrison on the computers. Harrison definitely could use some improvement. Because yikes. The dining hall had grapes again finally, so I got my grape fix in today at lunch. They were crunchy. We also decided to check out the Beyer pool after lunch because it’s only open from 12-2 M-F, so that was good to see inside. Update on my last post: Yvonne offered to sit down with Harrison, Sophie, and me later today to go through the 84 page … Continue reading →

Today was another calm day just did more c++ coding and that’s was basically my day in a nutshell she’ll

Some cool stuff that has happened recently was that I met our faculty mentor. He was really nice ! . Started reading some of the papers for our project and they all have been really interesting. C plus plus is going well , not too complicated. Rodney also gifted me hades 2 which has been so fun. It’s a really good game. We are already super obsessed. Also met glen’s dogs and they were so cute

Today we studied more C++; it was a bit more difficult today, but overall it wasn’t too bad. The STEM XR team met yesterday and we’re going to be going on a “road trip” next week to see small rural communities and understand their social and cultural norms. This week and weekend I’m planning on looking over more of the materials from the previous work the team has done with the Storm Lake school and also looking for information on what the first subject we cover in our application should be. Until next time 🙂

Today we attended a lecture with Dr. James Oliver who shared the ups and downs of his career, as well as some advice for grad school and future endeavors in industry or research. He encouraged us to be confident and proactive in social settings, revealed the power in fostering connections with people we meet, and so much more. For me, his story helped bring light to the fact that we’re all on our own journey, and it’s never too late to try new things or explore different directions in order to find what makes you happy.  Later today, we’ll meet with Aron, the graduate mentor for the Curiosity EEG team, to chat about the articles he gave us, and to … Continue reading →

We started the day learning about research strategies from Yvonne, and then we had a lunch n learn with James Oliver. He told us the importance of underselling and overperforming, as well as knowing that imposter syndrome will always be present but that we should not listen to it. Our team had to read two papers that we’re going to discuss in our team meeting today, and then we’re going to see the gym, which has a rock climbing wall and dance classes!! Until next time 🙂

The program has just started picking up pace. We have already started with our mini course. I am really happy we are having them even if I know some of the basics from previous coding languages or my own research experience. It makes me more secure that I can tackle all the really complex parts of my projects. Also, we began to read papers on our topics for homework. It addressed some of what we already discuss in our first group meeting. Some of the issues that both of the papers I read struggled with was recruiting participants for the study. I wonder how we could account for those who experience hasn’t been captured in these studies. I have also … Continue reading →

It has been 8 days in the humid forests of Vietnam – sorry I meant Ames, Iowa. Survival is proving difficult here as the bus system refuses to show when the 6 Brown South bus is arriving. The options are to wait for a potentially non-existent bus or walk through the thick warm forests to the cool center of survival (VRAC). The days grow longer and sleep scarce – this definitely has nothing to do with video games. We have conversed upon the statements of question regarding the most important topic of the universe—how to create XR STEM curriculum for rural communities—and have experimented with mystical technology—Microsoft cloud programs. We have heard from the mystical industry & academic leader James … Continue reading →

Hi blog! First week in Iowa has been so much fun. This week was pretty chill in terms of workload, which gave us more time to get adjusted to the campus and the people. Going into this experience, I didn’t want to put any expectations on how well I would get along with the other interns because we all come from such different backgrounds, but I will say that I wasn’t expecting to find myself in a group of such amazing people who all get along so well so fast. We’ve been keeping busy with some intense game nights, volleyball games outside, bike rides, group dinners, an escape room, and a (questionable) show. Today we started covering C++ material. I’ve … Continue reading →

It’s been 7 days since we’ve made the treacherous journey towards Iowa and so much has happened… We got bikes, met new people, visited an escape room and so much more! Oh I also broke my arm, that’s important I guess…. Next time on REU Adventures- Will my arm heal before 5 weeks? Will we actually be able to get everything running? Find out next time.

It’s the first week of my time at Iowa State . There were a lot of new sights and people. Little by little we are getting to know each other. Some of the things we did was an escape room, played Mario Kart and played Cards Against humanities. This was also my first time interacting with the VR space. Besides the demos , we went after class and played some games. We also just started to learn C++ . It has been pretty okay but I dread the time it is going to get difficult. Here are some pictures of my first week in the corn state 🙂

After arriving to Iowa, a short, quick week of activities began. We learned the premise of each research project and received a more in depth description of our own projects. I’m really excited to begin working with the students at Storm Lake and learning more about what STEM careers might be most interesting to them. I’m also eager to begin working on developing a VR app for the project since I’ve never worked with Unity before and had never thought about creating a virtual application before. Aside from the projects, we went to an escape room on Saturday, which we managed to escape with technically only one real clue, and we also had our own pizza party. Today we worked on C++, … Continue reading →

Today is the first day I have ever tried coding in C++. We will be spending the next week having lectures and working on small projects so that we can (hopefully) be proficient in C++ by the end of the week. So far, it is not that bad because I have found it similar to Python. I’m guessing it is going to get much more difficult, but here is our first (very simple) program!

It is official! Welcome everyone to Iowa State University and our SPIRE EIT-REU Program!

Topics for the Deeper Dives have been defined! For two weeks you will have the opportunity to explore one of three intriguing topics that extend beyond your research group’s focus. 1. Machine Learning Machine Learning is like a wizard’s spellbook for computers. It empowers them to learn from data and make predictions or decisions without explicit programming. From self-driving cars to personalized recommendations on streaming platforms, machine learning is everywhere. We’ll unravel its mysteries, discuss algorithms, and explore real-world applications. 2. Additive Manufacturing Imagine printing a three-dimensional object layer by layer, like a delicious lasagna emerging from a futuristic oven. That’s Additive Manufacturing, also known as 3D printing. Additive Manufacturing revolutionizes how we create prototypes, custom parts, and even intricate designs. … Continue reading →

We are thrilled to welcome Heliya and Yvonne as our outstanding graduate student mentors for this summer’s SPIRE-EIT Research Experiences for Undergraduates (REU) program! 🎉 👥 Two Sets of Mentors: To address a common question, let’s break down the mentorship structure within the REU program. There are two distinct sets of mentors: 🔍 What to Expect: 🌐 Why Both Sets Matter: Let’s Make This Summer Memorable! 🌞 Feel free to reach out to Heliya and Yvonne—they’re here to make your REU journey exceptional! 🚀

Details for the second research project for this summer are released. XR-enabled STEM Curriculum for Teachers is a project that is special to me. The project has a direct impact on my hometown community. The third project will be posted shortly.