December Newsletter

What I've been up to during the month of December!

Jan 04, 2022

The month of December is one of the best! ❄️ Filled with love, family, giving and new beginnings! Here’s to a new year for growth, learning and laughing! To 2022! 🥂

Velocity

As some might remember, Velocity is an extra human accelerator program that is a part of TKS. ⚡ I enjoy Velocity because of the strict deadlines and toughness of the program. It is perfect for learning and growing 10x faster! 📈

During the winter break, the biggest thing given in both the Velocity guide and the Winter Break guides had to do with reflecting and thinking in the form of writing or meditation. 🧘

I loved the reflection exercises. It made my goals much clearer. However, I didn’t enjoy meditation as much. I am an overthinker, so meditating for 10 minutes might be okay, but if I meditate for too long, my mind starts to wonder. 🤔 I couldn’t stop overthinking while trying to meditate for longer periods of time. So, I turned to something else: writing. ✍️

Overthinkers should write. I wrote down what I was thinking and perhaps why I was thinking it and I felt as if it really helped me. 📝 My biggest takeaway from this experience is to write if you find it hard for your mind not to wonder during meditation. Then, try meditating again once you feel like your mind is cleared after writing down your thoughts. 🧘

This has helped me a lot and hopefully it’s a strategy that can also help others.

TKS

There weren’t as many sessions of TKS because of the winter break, but there were still things to be done! 🧠

First, there was my BCI Replicate project. I had some major problems to figure out. ❓ I will talk more about them in the Failure section that I decided to include in this newsletter because it is important to recognize and learn from failure.

Second, there was the task of completing the Quantum Computing Explore. 💻 I found Quantum Computing very interesting! I thought that computers themselves were super powerful and they are, but they cannot solve a lot of the problems humanity faces. Quantum Computing can though. 📡

The most interesting thing about Quantum Computing that I learned about was the concept of Superposition. 👨‍💻Superposition is when a quantum system can exist in multiple states or places at the exact same time. How cool is that! Imagine begin able to go both up and down at the same time! 🤯

Failure

This is a new section in my newsletter, but I plan to continue it because failures are important.

This month, I failed to complete my BCI Replicate project. I ran into multiple problems. 😕

First, there was a connection issue because the Muse 2 I purchased couldn’t connect to my PC (it could only connect via IOS or Android). 📡 Then, the code I extracted from GitHub didn’t contain the code for the cacti in the Dino game that I was working on. 👩‍💻 This meant that the game couldn’t be played properly.

For the first problem, I found a solution by connecting my Muse 2 to another platform called Brains@Play. However, because this platform is different then the ones given in the article I followed, I am not sure how to connect it to the game I am working on. ❓

Even though I have not yet completed this project, I have learned a lot. The biggest thing I learned was how important code is. ⌨️ I had close to no coding experience when I started this project and it caused a lot of issues. The biggest being that I couldn’t read the code and didn’t understand what I was doing and how I was doing it. To fix this problem, I am going to take the Python 3 course offered by Codeacademy. 🧑‍🎓

During this process, I have also made a lot of new connections. I met with people who are doing a Brian Computer Interface focuses with TKS and I have met with people who work on BCIs professionally. 📈📋✔️Most notably, I have scored a meeting with one of the founders of Brains@Play!

Although this project has had a lot of obstacles and is not yet complete, I have learned a lot and will continue to learn more. From connection issues to coding issues, I have failed multiple times during this project, but that is how I will learn to be more patient and exhibit a “Figure it out” mindset. 🧠

Opportunities

This month, I went for two new opportunities:

I applied to join MIND Magazine as a writer ✍

MIND Magazine brings the world of STEAM to readers including new discoveries, projects you can do at home and new information!

I am applying to John Hopkin’s Biomedical Engineering Innovation Summer Program 🧬

This summer, I really want to explore one of my interests at the university level. One of the fields I have been looking into is the Biomedical Engineering field and Johns Hopkins University offers an amazing program this summer just for that! 🔬

Goals for January

Finish BCI Replicate 1 🖥️
Meet with one of the founders of Brains@Play 📞
Meet with 2 people doing a BCI focus to learn more and share knowledge 💬
Start to learn coding in Python from Codeacademy 👩‍💻
Be more active on Slack 🌐
Pick up the intensity and pace of your workouts 🏋️‍♂️
Learn more about the explore topics for January which are Quantum Computing and Nanotechnology! 🦾

Thank you for reading my December Monthly Newsletter! 💖 I hope you enjoyed it and I will see you next month! 👋🏻

Emma Li's Newsletter

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