As an undergraduate, I have had a hard time figuring out which major I want to pursue and what type of job I will love to do until I retire. From middle school, I always wanted to do something with computers, but I never knew what. Later in high school my view point changed a little and I wanted to explore Pharmacy. I took a class which prepared student for Pharmacy Tech Certificate Exam, hence I knew the ins and outs of a Pharmacist life through that class. As the class progressed, I did not enjoy what I was doing. But I loved the field of medical science by understanding how it is helping the entire world today. Hence after quitting Pharmacy I decided to do Computer Science after my first year in college. When I started taking computer classes I realized that with the little knowledge I have for medical science, sometimes in future I want to integrate medical science and computer science together.
I laid out my goals for future and decided to move to University of Texas for my Bachelor’s degree. In April 2014, I came to know I was accepted to UT. Additionally, by the end of April, I had received an invitation to join the DIY Diagnostics Stream. I looked at their website, and I knew this is what I would love to do. The Diagnostics Stream had all kind of app ideas/research that they were performing on their site. I thought I could make a difference in the stream by adding my computer knowledge. Moreover, it was a perfect do it yourself stream where I could learn more about medical science and apply that with computers. Moreover, the most important thing I noticed was the DIY stream was focused on helping the community, and making their life simple. I always want to give back to my community, and hence I picked DIY stream.
I am excited about two projects right now:
- Pillbox app – it is an app which will help the community to take a picture of the pill from their smartphone and through image analysis it will scan it through my database and find which pill that might be. This is used for people who have to take a lot of medicines in a day, and if they mix a few medicines and forget which one is which, this app will be a great use to them.
- Saliva Extraction – I am doing the statistical analysis side – and I am looking forward to making algorithms to do so.
So far in my experience with the lab, I think FRI was a great way for me to start doing research. It introduced me to how I can start thinking how a researcher does, and it also taught me on how to work with a team of researchers.
The biggest moment I had in this stream till today is getting us a database and a server from the UT IT department.
Being a transfer student, and as a first semester at UT this Fall semester, working with the DIY stream taught me time management skills in general which I am able to apply to my day to day life today.