Apant - Vaping Detection & Mitigation Pathway

Certificates July 2020 Certificates Drug Discovery Using ML Self-Assessments
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1

Weeks of July 06, 2020; July 13, 2020; July 20, 2020; and July 27, 2020

Overview of Things Learned:

  • History of tobacco use

  • Health risks of cigarettes

  • Health risks of vaping

  • How vaping works

  • Different types of vaping devices

  • Different types of vaping detectors

  • How to refine and analyze survey data

  • How to create charts effectively encompassing survey results

Technical Area:

  • The components of of an FPGA board (LUTs, ALMs, LABs, MEMs, and DSPs) and the setup as well as a basic history of FPGAs and their uses in modern society

  • How to apply Boolean logic with logic gates and truth tables

  • How to download and work with a Linux operating system, Ubuntu

  • A basic overview on the Quartus software and the virtual FPGA boards

  • A method of running code without having to re compile it

  • Working with .qar files

  • Understanding basic Verilog

  • Understanding the different components in a HALO/FlySense vaping detector

Tools:

  • Google Calendar

  • Google Sheets

  • Google Forms

  • Intel website to create an Intel account, register for courses, and watch lectures

  • How to use the Quartus software to run a virtual FPGA board

  • How to use a virtual FPGA board to practice logic gates

  • Downloading and working in Ubuntu

  • How to use Trello

  • How to use the forum

Soft skills:

  • Helping others with problem solving

  • Helped with troubleshooting on Ubuntu and VirtualBox, getting Quartus up and running and on Intel course labs

  • How to teach others what I’ve just learned

  • Best surveying and interviewing practices

  • How to organize a weekly plan

  • How to use multiple platforms to create an organized communication flow

  • How to lead meetings efficiently

  • How to quickly prepare a presentation

  • How to adapt when the situation changes

  • Independence in leading

  • Being comfortable around new people

  • Communicating technical issues clearly

  • Quick communication

  • The differences in communication with peers and team vs. with experts from the industry

  • How to lead people older than myself

  • Assigning tasks

  • Quickly updating the platforms on any changes

Achievement Highlights:

  • Hosted introductory webinar

  • Prepared for and led team meetings

  • Uniformed, refined, and separated all 809 data inputs on Google sheets

  • Planned each week’s tasks

  • Successfully downloaded and ran Quartus software and Ubuntu operating system

  • Helped with troubleshooting for downloading Quartus, despite being new to the technology myself

Meetings attended:

  • Introduction to Vaping Project Webinar Prep Meeting on July 6th

  • Introduction to Vaping Project Webinar on July 7th

  • Conducting User Surveys Webinar on July 9th

  • Leadership Training Webinar on July 10th

  • VP Lead Meeting on July 13th

  • Introduction to FPGAs Webinar on July 14th

  • Team meeting on July 14th

  • VP Lead Meeting on July 14th

  • VP Lead Meeting on July 15th

  • FPGA Training on July 16th

  • VP Lead Meeting on July 19th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on July 20th

  • Team meeting on July 20th

  • Office hours on July 22nd

  • FPGA Training on July 23rd

  • Happy hour on July 24th

  • Team meeting on July 27th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on July 29th

  • Office Hours on July 29th

  • FPGA Training on July 30th

  • Happy Hour on July 31st

  • Co-team meeting on Aug. 1st

Goals for the Upcoming Week:

  • Have everyone finish 20 graphs and analyzing the data

  • Improve the pros/cons, similarities/differences, and improvements lists for detectors

  • Move into research with news articles on schools that have implemented detectors already

  • Have the team begin thinking about what works/doesn’t work for schools trying to prevent student vaping

  • Assign presentation work

  • Create a group presentation

Tasks Done:

  • Did initial motivation research for project

  • Created an introductory presentation and ran the introductory webinar with the other leads

  • Did research on vaping detectors (Flysense and HALO)

  • Wrote weekly overviews for weeks 2, 3, and 4

  • Made an Intel account, registered for 4 FPGA courses, and watched the video lectures

  • Downloaded lab materials, Quartus Prime Lite, ModelSim-Intel, and Max 10 files

  • Downloaded Ubuntu and VirtualBox

  • Found and watched introductory video about Verilog

  • Communicated and met with experts from Intel

  • Completed Digital Logic Trainer exercise given by Intel experts

  • Created survey questions

  • Organized all team survey data

  • Refined and uniformed all team survey data

  • Made the data easy to work with in terms of graphs (ie. separated all the lists manually into different cells in google sheets, and added colours)

  • Made 24 graphs on the data and specific instructions on how to create them

  • Assigned all tasks for weeks 2 and 3

  • Put assignments in Trello

  • Created Google Calendar events and planned meetings

#leadership #communication #platforms #presenting #planning #adaptability #troubleshooting #project-management #survey #critical-thinking #data-analysis #fpga

2

Week of August 03, 2020

Overview of Things Learned:

  • School’s experiences with vaping detectors

Technical Area:

  • How to code a basic module in Verilog

  • How to understand a given set of Verilog code

Tools:

  • How to manage files in Quartus

  • How to use a virtual FPGA board to practice implementing Verilog code

  • How to use the “chat option” in Google Slides

Soft skills:

  • Quickly preparing my part in a presentation

  • Quickly communicating with others in preparation for a presentation

  • Planning out a presentation efficiently

  • Organizing and running a structured meeting

  • Providing more information to others when I see that there is confusion

Achievement Highlights:

  • Organized a successful team 1 week 4 presentation

  • Came up with the idea to analyze the data qualitatively with personas

  • Successfully coded and implemented two modules in Verilog, a language I haven’t worked with before

Meetings attended:

  • Team meeting on August 3rd

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 4th

  • Office hours on August 5th

  • FPGA Training on August 6th

  • Week 4 Presentation on August 7th

  • Happy Hour on August 7th

  • Co-team meeting on August 8th

Goals for the Upcoming Week:

  • Create basic block diagrams for a model vaping detector

  • Refine the survey analysis to be published

  • Add ages to the personas

  • Do the 3 Quartus labs with the team

  • Research if vaping device companies are targeting students (and how)

Tasks Done:

  • Assigned parts and organized the week 4 presentation

  • Researched articles on how schools are dealing with vaping

  • Brainstormed 4 ways to reduce the cost of vaping detectors

  • Added to the FlySense research document

  • Created slides on and presented my findings on our project’s importance, schools’ experience with vaping, and the overall survey data, survey data from MA and talked about what we did in terms of surveys and analysis

  • Came up with the idea to do personas as a product of analyzing the responses

  • Did 3 labs with the virtual FPGA board, coding in Verilog

  • Put tasks on Trello

  • Wrote weekly overview for week 5

  • Created calendar invites

#leadership #communication #platforms #presenting #planning #project-management #time-management #task-management #data-analysis #research #pattern-identification #creative-thinking #problem-solving #feedback #fpga

3

Week of August 10, 2020

Overview of Things Learned:

  • Federal restrictions on vapes

  • Federal restrictions on cigarettes and smokeless tobacco

  • How flavours and packaging of vapes and e-liquids are made to be attractive to youth

  • Scholarships that are offered by vaping companies

  • Prices of vapes vs. cigarettes

  • E-cigarette marketing tactics

  • How to write citations in APA

  • The cost breakdown of a HALO detector

  • The goals of the HALO detector

Technical Area:

  • How to assign variable data types in Verilog

  • How to instantiate modules with set variables

  • How to write code with only a block diagram to follow

  • Basic syntax of Verilog

  • Debugging in Verilog

  • What the user dashboard of a HALO detector looks like

  • Which sensors are most important in detecting vaping

  • How a HALO detector can use the sensors to tell when there is vaping

  • What is needed to build a vaping detector at home

Tools:

  • How to build modules from the IP catalog in Quartus

  • Becoming comfortable with Quartus console setup

  • How to see the names of all the components on the GUI

  • Giving others feedback through comments in Google Docs

Soft skills:

  • Patience while waiting for code to compile

  • How to reach out to team members who haven’t completed their work

  • Communicating technical issues as soon as they arise

  • Helping others troubleshoot technical issues

  • Asking for team input

  • How to give team members feedback

  • How to adapt

  • How to quickly prepare to run a meeting

Achievement Highlights:

  • Ran co-team meeting on short notice

  • Created a survey write-up with team to be published on the STEM-Away website

  • Successfully coded and implemented a calculator in Quartus without detailed instructions

Meetings attended:

  • Team meeting on August 10th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 11th

  • Office hours on August 12th

  • FPGA Training on August 13th

  • Meeting with VP of Operations at HALO on August 14th

  • Co-team meeting on August 15th

Goals for the Upcoming Week:

  • Make sure the team is able to complete the 3 Quartus labs

  • Finalize any research

  • Meet with project lead to learn good paper writing techniques

  • Create plan for final paper

  • Begin writing final paper

Tasks Done:

  • Researched how vaping companies target youth

  • Researched federal restrictions on vapes and cigarettes

  • Wrote survey intentions, overall data, and Massachusetts data sections for the survey write-up

  • Created a persona for the survey write-up

  • Checked personas and other portions of the survey write-up

  • Added to and finalized the group block diagram brainstorming list

  • Took notes on the meeting with the VP of Operations at HALO

  • Wrote addit module for calculator lab

  • Created ctr module using given IP

  • Instantiated given modules correctly

  • Debugged code for calculator lab

  • Built a calculator with the virtual FPGA board, coding in Verilog

  • Made sure that team members were completing tasks

  • Lead Saturday meeting because of technical issues others were experiencing

  • Put tasks on Trello

  • Wrote weekly overview for week 6

  • Created calendar invites

#leadership #communication #planning #project-management #time-management #task-management #data-analysis #research #problem-solving #feedback #patience #adaptability #logical-thinking #debugging #fpga #verilog #instantiation #syntax #brainstorming #virtual-collaboration

4

Week of August 17, 2020

Overview of Things Learned

  • What makes a good research paper

  • What sections need to be in a research paper

  • Nicotine is linked to neural degeneration

  • More about disposable vs. non-disposable vaping devices

  • The history of smoking usage in the US

  • The difference between different citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.)

Technical Area:

  • How to use Wireguard to connect to a VPN

  • How to add a launch GUI button to the task manager in Quartus

  • How to add IP into the design properly

  • How to make a ROM in Quartus

Tools:

  • How to use NoodleTools to help with creating citations

  • How to cite different types of sources in NoodleTools

  • Using Wireguard to get access to a VPN

Soft skills:

  • Communication to figure out next steps

  • Helping others complete labs

  • Taking advice from team members with more experience in different areas

  • How to check in to make sure tasks are done and properly submitted on time

  • How to give technical feedback

  • Giving and receiving feedback on writing

  • Editing in response to feedback

  • Constant communication

  • Organizing many parts together

  • Time management

  • Perseverance when not feeling well

  • Diligence in working on something that needs constant attention and reworking

Achievement Highlights

  • Was able to thoroughly explain code for calculator lab soon after completion

  • Condensed research bullets from Week 5 into a written segment

  • Arranged the segments into one report

  • Was main communication pathway to many outside of our team

Meetings attended:

  • Team meeting on August 17th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 19th

  • How to write papers with Dr. Mandy Pant on August 19th

  • Office hours on August 19th

  • Meeting with Associate Marketing Manager at Soter Technologies on August 20th

  • FPGA Training on August 20th

  • Happy Hours on August 21st

  • Co-team meeting on August 22nd

Goals for the Upcoming Week:

  • Ask Dr. Pant for editing advice on final report

  • Finish final report

  • Finish calculator lab work with team

  • Finish sensor lab

Tasks Done:

  • Assigned everyone research segments to write

  • Assigned everyone final paper segments to write

  • Wrote Marketing tactics segment

  • Wrote Federal restrictions segment

  • Wrote Abstract

  • Wrote Acknowledgements

  • Cited sources properly and added in superscripts to my individual segments

  • Put all segments together into one report

  • Edited Chemicals in e-cigarettes segment

  • Edited Types of vaping devices segment

  • Edited Decline of cigarettes segment

  • Edited Existing vaping detectors segment

  • Edited and added to Recommendations segment

  • Edited Future work segment

  • Revised Marketing tactics and Federal restrictions segments in response to feedback

  • Met with team member to do the 3 labs together

  • Helped decide who to send the offered Soter Technology materials to

  • Gave everyone feedback on their block diagrams

  • Read through everyone’s bullets on other’s research and the HALO meeting

  • Taught everyone basic syntax of a Verilog module in FPGA meeting

  • Knight Rider with ROM lab

  • Connected to new virtual board successfully

  • Put tasks on Trello

  • Wrote weekly overview for week 7

  • Created calendar invites

#leadership #communication #planning #project-management #time-management #task-management #problem-solving #feedback #patience #adaptability #logical-thinking #debugging #fpga #verilog #instantiation #syntax #virtual-collaboration #teamwork #report #perseverance #virtual-collaboration #diligence #organization #questions #writing #editing #delegating #teaching #assistance #modules

5

Final Self-Assessment

Overview of Things Learned

  • The ins and outs of vaping

    • History of tobacco usage

    • Federal restrictions on tobacco products

    • Marketing tactics of e-cigarette companies,

    • Prices and types of e-cigarettes

    • Chemicals in e-cigarettes

    • Recent outbreak of major vaping-related lung injuries

How to refine and analyze survey data quantitatively and qualitatively

  • Vaping detectors

    • Multi-purpose devices (all around safety, rather than just vaping)

    • School’s experience with them

Technical Area:

  • Components of vaping detectors and how they function

  • How to create a block diagram, and how to design code based off of one

  • The different citation styles (MLA, APA, Chicago, etc.) and how to create APA citations

  • What components are needed in a research paper

  • How to download and set up a new operating system

  • Working with a virtual FPGA board

    • Using wireguard and a VPN

  • Use zip files

  • Verilog

    • Assigning variable data types

    • Instantiating modules and ports

    • Basic syntax of a module

    • Working with the IP library to build new modules

Tools:

  • STEM-Away Platform

  • Trello

  • Linkedin

  • VirtualBox

  • Ubuntu

  • Intel Website

  • Quartus

  • Wireguard

  • G Suite

    • Sheets

    • Calendar

    • Forms

    • Meet

Soft skills:

  • Leadership

    • Directing the team

    • Problem solving when issues arise

    • Assigning tasks and delegating work

    • How to lead meetings efficiently

  • Communication

    • Communication over multiple platforms

    • Communication with team, team leads, project leads and mentors, and experts at Intel

    • Quickly and constantly communicating with others

  • Best surveying and interviewing practices

  • Organization

    • How to effectively plan a week’s tasks

  • Giving feedback

    • As a lead complimenting a team members work or asking for changes to be made

    • As a teammate giving writing feedback

    • Feedback on technical aspects and quality of work

    • Taking feedback from the team on leading and on writing

  • Patience

    • While waiting for software to run and while debugging

    • While waiting for work to be completed

  • Adapting when there are technical or time issues

  • Problem-solving and troubleshooting

    • Helping the team with technical issues

    • Figuring out issues in code

    • Resolving miscommunication

  • Teamwork

    • Working with the team to create one final report

  • Diligence

    • Not giving up until a task is finished

    • Working late into the night on issues and tasks

  • Helping others

    • Lending support to others having technical issues

    • Aiding others who don’t have time to finish their tasks by helping them with the work, or by assigning another person to help them

  • Independence and figuring things out without being told exactly what to do

  • Using multiple platforms to create an organized communication flow

  • Being able to quickly prepare for presenting and leading meetings

Achievement Highlights:

  • Uniformed, refined, and separated all 809 data inputs on Google sheets

  • Helped with troubleshooting for downloading Quartus, despite being new to the technology myself

  • Was able to teach others about verilog code and labs within a week of learning

  • Created a survey write-up to be published

  • Created personas to be published

  • Wrote a final report to be published

  • Organized a successful week 4 presentation

  • Created a design to simulate a vaping sensor using Quartus, Verilog, and the Virtual Board

Meetings attended:

  • Introduction to Vaping Project Webinar Prep Meeting on July 6th

  • Introduction to Vaping Project Webinar on July 7th

  • Conducting User Surveys Webinar on July 9th

  • Leadership Training Webinar on July 10th

  • VP Lead Meeting on July 13th

  • Introduction to FPGAs Webinar on July 14th

  • Team meeting on July 14th

  • VP Lead Meeting on July 14th

  • VP Lead Meeting on July 15th

  • FPGA Training on July 16th

  • VP Lead Meeting on July 19th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on July 20th

  • Team meeting on July 20th

  • Office hours on July 22nd

  • FPGA Training on July 23rd

  • Happy hour on July 24th

  • Team meeting on July 27th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on July 29th

  • Office Hours on July 29th

  • FPGA Training on July 30th

  • Happy Hour on July 31st

  • Co-team meeting on Aug. 1st

  • Team meeting on August 3rd

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 4th

  • Office hours on August 5th

  • FPGA Training on August 6th

  • Week 4 Presentation on August 7th

  • Happy Hour on August 7th

  • Co-team meeting on August 8th

  • Team meeting on August 10th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 11th

  • Office hours on August 12th

  • FPGA Training on August 13th

  • Meeting with VP of Operations at HALO on August 14th

  • Co-team meeting on August 15th

  • Team meeting on August 17th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 19th

  • How to write papers with project mentor, Dr. Mandy Pant on August 19th

  • Office hours on August 19th

  • Meeting with Associate Marketing Manager at Soter Technologies on August 20th

  • FPGA Training on August 20th

  • Happy Hours on August 21st

  • Co-team meeting on August 22nd

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 24th

  • Team meeting on August 24th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 25th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 26th

  • Office hours on August 26th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 27th

  • FPGA Training on August 28th

  • Meeting with Intel experts on August 28th

  • Final presentations on August 28th

Goals for the Future:

  • Organize a Quartus showcasing to demonstrate the labs done

  • Create a video walk through on the labs done

  • Get the report published in more areas

  • Do a follow up survey asking for student suggestions on vaping mitigation

  • Work with raspberry pis and sensors to create a physical vaping detector

  • Think of ways to reduce the cost of the integration system of a vaping detector

Tasks Done

  • Ran introductory webinar

  • Ran team meetings and FPGA trainings each week

  • Took attendance and filled out weekly goals planning for team

  • Wrote weekly overviews for weeks 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7

  • Assigned tasks to the team each week

    • Put assignments in Trello starting week 3

  • Found and watched introductory video about Verilog

  • Registered for 4 FPGA courses and watched the video lectures

  • Downloaded and installed VirtualBox, Ubuntu, Quartus Prime Lite, ModelSim-Intel, and Max 10 files

  • Did logic-solver exercise, LED display, multiplexer 2 to 1, Knight Rider, and calculator labs, and sensor creation on Quartus

  • Created survey to be distributed

  • Organized and refined all team survey data (reading through all the answers in the process)

  • Created 24 graphs and a persona based on the data

  • Organized week 4 presentation

  • Researched

    • History of tobacco usage in the world

    • Dangers of cigarettes, e-cigarettes and nicotine addictions

    • How vaping works and what chemicals are involved

    • FlySense, HALO IOT Smart Sensor, and school’s experience with vaping detectors

    • FDA regulations on e-cigarettes and other tobacco products

    • Marketing tactics of e-cigarette companies and how they target youth

    • Prices of e-cigarettes

    • Read through everyone else’s research

  • Wrote segments for final report

    • Abstract

    • FDA regulations

    • Marketing tactics

    • Added to existing vaping detectors

    • Survey intentions

    • Data Analysis

    • Added to recommendations

    • Acknowledgements

    • References

    • Edited all other sections

  • Took notes on meeting with VP of Operations at HALO and meeting with Marketing Representatives from Soter Technologies

  • Created a group block diagram for the vaping detectors based on each of the team’s work

#leadership #communication #networking #platforms #planning #project-management #task-management #problem-solving #creative-thinking #feedback #patience #adaptability #logical-thinking #virtual-collaboration #teamwork #perseverance #diligence #organization #time-management #virtual-collaboration #questions #delegating #teaching #assistance #troubleshooting #fpga #verilog #instantiation #modules #syntax #debugging #survey #data-analysis #research #presenting #report #writing #editing