Our 1st powerpoint

hyperlink attached above

STEM Seminar

We are going to have our first STEM Seminar this coming Thursday (9/15) and next Monday (9/19). Each team should prepare to present a key topic of your research field in depth based on both your study and research experience. The contents should be informative and educational to the class. The presentation should be no longer than 12 minutes (including 2 minutes for questions). You are encouraged to use PowerPoint, videos, demonstrations and handouts to help the class understand and grasp the new materials in a short time. Presentation materials should be in professional quality: concise, accurate, logical, rich in contents, and visually pleasant.

Please plan, coordinate, and rehearse your presentation in advance, and submit your topic by the end of Wednesday (9/14). The order of presentation will be announced before the presentation. If you need any special setup for your presentation, please notify Mr. Lin as soon as possible.

Once your team has finished your presentation, your presentation and multimedia files should be posted  onto your team blog. You can upload your file to Google Drive first and then share the link on your blog.

 

 

August! For Real?

Hello Everyone!

It's hard to believe that it's August! How is your summer so far? I know that some of you have summer jobs, internships, research, overseas trips, or are simply relaxing...... You are more than welcome to share your summer with us by posting on this blog. 

I have spent my past three summers in research labs, but this summer I am simply staying home and doing past-due "homework". I got an assignment to fully upgrade our old kitchen and laundry room. Although there is a skillful contractor helping us with the renovation, the project demands much more than I expected it to.

Old Kitchen View 1

Old Kitchen View 2

Torn-down Kitchen View

In addition to having to move everything out of the work area and living without both a kitchen and laundry room for over a month, I have had to design the floor plan (over 4 versions of it) and cabinet combinations according to our preferences. I have also had to shop around dozens of stores to find quality products (cabinets, counter-tops, sinks, faucets, cabinet handles, floating shelves, garbage disposer, floor tiles, backsplashes, paints, lighting, range&oven, hood, over-the-range microwave, washer, dryer, doors, locks, storm door, door thresholds, etc.) at lower prices, pick up materials, and/or arrange for shipping in a timely manner. Lastly, I also had to supervise and support workers' demands.

New Kitchen in Progress 1

New Kitchen in Progress 2

New Laundry Room in Progress

That's the reason I didn't spend enough time working on my STEM projects in the past month. However, when I reflect on what I have done so far, I realize that I am facing the same type of challenges you will encounter in your STEM projects.  

1. It's a real-world problem and will bring real impact to people's lives. Obviously, the process and results of our little kitchen & laundry room project will change our family lives. 
2. It's new to me, and there are lots of unknowns. Vague and uncertain situations are common. I had to do lots of research and read through tons of incomplete specifications/manuals/information to resolve specific issues.
3.  It's complex, and there are many factors (design, quality, availability, cost, etc.) intertwined together. There was no easy decision that could be made on almost every issue. For example, unavailable/over-priced backsplashes tiles could cause the change of the wall paint color selection. I had to understand, analyze, and evaluate all the factors before making trade-offs.
4. It requires lots of iterations to refine the solutions. The more I learned from new information or experiences, the better I could improve my project. It's a constant learning and improving process.
5.  It involves having to work within a certain time limit and a certain budget.

This is my summer so far. How about yours? Wish you all enjoy the second half of your summer! I will soon be wrapping up my little project and joining you in your STEM research activities.

Happy Research!

Bioinformatics I: Project Resource

Bioinformatics I: Project Resource: Genetics and Molecular Biology An Introduction to Genetic Analysis . Bioinformatics Bioinformatics Methods I , Coursera . Bioinforma...

Statistics 
Bayesian, ISBA
Markovian Models, Berkeley  

Summer Research Kick Off

Hi All,

Happy July 4th! At the same time, we kick off our STEM 2016-17 Summer Research!

A few announcements:

1. By now, everybody should have received your summer assignments for the first week (07/04 - 07/08). If not, please go to the class blog, and then click your team link on the right. You should be able to see your assignments. Please check whether the links are working properly and pointing to the right documents. If anything is not right, please email me ASAP. If you have any question about the assignments, please feel free to email me.
2. By the end of the week, you (and your partner if applicable) should post your progress and results on your team blog.
3. When you read the assigned materials, or watch the video tutorials, please feel free to use your team blog to take notes, record your reflections, and write down your questions. If you have not accepted the invitation as the author of your team blog, please check your email (or spam folder). If you cannot find it, email me and I will re-invite you again.
4. Each team blog has an "Project Resource" page (the link is on the right side). It has a list of project-related resources. I have started putting some links of papers, books, courses, tutorials, etc. Whenever you find something valuable for your project, you should add them to the list.
5. For people who haven't make final decision about your topic or team, you are encouraged to discuss any issues with me. You might want to browse our class and team blogs to get more concrete ideas about what other teams are working on. If you decide to form a new team, I will furnish your assignment starting week 2.

Happy Researching!

STEM Research Project 2016-17

Thanks for your responses! At the beginning of the STEM projects, it is always extremely confusing, but exciting. Unlike most of the other subjects, we don't have any textbooks, fixed course contents or tests. Problems are what we really concern; grades are never at the center of the course. Currently, you are choosing the research areas that are interesting to you, identifying the problems that you are eager to wrestle with, finding partners who sharing the same vision, and participating in the process of defining your own projects for next year. Instead of viewing this as an ill-defined stage of the course, it is actually an important part of the STEM research process! Learning how to ask good questions or forming meaningful hypotheses is a major step in research. Your focus might change, your team might regroup, and your topic might become more specific as your understanding of the research field grows. It's a brand new learning experience! So, the following list is an evolving document. As you decide or change your topics or teams, just send me an email, and I will update the list accordingly. Hopefully this process will be settled down before the summer starts, and we can kick off our summer research!

• Team 1: Autonomous Drone Navigation System in Indoor Environment (Tai wei & Ayoush)
• Team 2: Autonomous Drone Navigation & Swarm Drones (Jacob & Alan)
• Team 3: Big Data & Machine Learning (Belinda)
• Team 4: Bioinformatics I (Parvaneh)
• Team 5: Bioinformatics II (Desirae)
• Team 6: Bioinformatics III (Alex)
• Team 7: Navigation Apps for the Visually Impaired (Avleen)

Advanced STEM Research Introductory Meeting

Here is the PowerPoint file presented in our Introductory Meeting that lays the basic framework for our STEM 2016-17 course. It includes some important info about our research topics & teams, upcoming summer research activities, and the initial planning of next year. Please send me email about your grouping at the end of today. If you have missed the meeting today, please read the file carefully. We are going to use the class blog as our main communication channel. A good course can never be designed by the instructor alone. Your co-design input will make the course great! Feel free to share your thoughts and initiate any discussions on the blog. I am looking forward to having a fun and fruitful year!