Vivien's Notebook

6/1/2015: Day 1 Today was the first day and I feel so overwhelmed (in the best way) and excited to be introduced to all of these new CS softwares and applications of CS in education. We began with a lab orientation, and then split off into our teams to begin brainstorming and training.

The iGEM team (Rachel, Sam, and I) started by researching iGEM medal requirements and gaining a deeper understanding of the iGEM competition. We had already done some prior research about the iGEM competition and previous Wellesley iGEM teams’ projects, but getting familiar with iGEM requirements made me begin to more fully grasp the great effort and time that would be put into these projects- but also made me all the more excited to be pursuing them.

Today was my first day working in the Wellesley HCI lab. This summer I am working with the iGEM team on their competition project. From what I can understand they are working on creating a program that will teach synthetic biology concepts to children through a multitaction cell. As of today, the design is in its planning stages. However, we are getting close to what will be the final design, which is very exciting! I am looking forward to spending the summer working with Sam, Vivien, and Rachel. I hope to learn as much as I can from them. Hopefully they can help me with learning some coding skills over the course of my time here at Wellesley. I can already tell this will be a great summer with the enthusiasm and positive energy that I felt in the lab today.

Today the upward bound kids came to help us test run our prototype. Upward Bound is a summer program that 9-12 grade students take part in on Wellesley's campus. It was interesting to see how they interacted with our prototype. I saw the full range of what someone felt coming up to the multitaction. Some were hesitant to touch it at first while others were excited to run up and start playing. This also helped is with the design process of our prototype. Without this user test, we would not have found some flaws that occurred within our program. For example, a few of the users suggested after interacting with the program that it might be more helpful if there were some more written instructions for them to read as they went along creating their bacteria. Another huge part that they helped us with was allowing us to see how different users worked with the tangibles that we provided them with. Some were not sure what at all to do with them, while others got it right away and were able to get the relation that we tried to convey through the common images on the screen. From that observation, it allowed us to know to add a statement in the instructions for the user on the screen about the tangible element. Currently, our tangibles are still cardboard cutouts. However, shortly we will be laser cutting acrylic to make new tangibles for the final product which is very exciting. But, that also means that things are starting to wrap up for the summer which means that we are so close to what will be the final version of our program.

Today was my last day here in the HCI lab for the summer. Looking back, I realize just how much I learned. Besides gaining some coding languages and skills, I learned a lot about the human component of programming. I learned that you need to think about how someone would try to interact with your program with no knowledge of what to do. As I finish this summer my main goal is to keep learning more coding languages. Also, I am looking forward to rejoining the team in September for the competition. I am excited and thankful to be able to experience this unique opportunity. This summer, the HCI lab and the iGEM team helped to give me a look into what is possible in the computer sciences and what I could do going into the future. I now have a slightly more concentrated view of what I want to do in college and possibly as a profession. Overall, this summer was one never to forget.

Nicole's Notebook

Tuesday, 6/30 -
Today was my first day at Wellesley College. The other interns and I first went to the large open area in the science building to talk about our internship requirements and other housekeeping information. Soon after we arrived our mentors joined us and took us back to the labs for a brief tour. My mentors Sam and Christina showed me the HCI lab and gave me an introduction to the projects the lab was working on. I learned about the PGHCI project and the iGEM project.

Tuesday, 7/7 -
I started working on learning Javascript and html using Codecademy. Also, I helped the PGHCI team by giving them input on how I would organize certain health conditions into categories. This helped the team decide how to sort the diseases and conditions to make it easier for users to understand their genomic information.

Tuesday, 7/21-
I continued to work on learning Javascript on Codecademy. I later helped the iGEM team research biobricks to use in their project, which was creating an interactive museum exhibit to help non-expert museum patrons understand synthetic biology concepts. The biobricks we researched were ones which could be used in bacteria on mars to create a more hospitable environment for human explorers.

Priyanka's Notebook

Throughout the month of July, I worked with the iGEM team and the other two interns, Nicole and Melissa, on the BacPack for New Frontiers project, an interactive display in which bacteria use available resources in extreme environments to make products important for human survival in those areas. For example, on Mars, resources include carbon dioxide, solar energy, soil, ice, and waste, which can be used to make oxygen, water, food, heat, and fuel. One of the tasks that we completed make the project easier to understand for younger students, we came up with simplified definitions for each resource and its use. In addition, we researched basic concepts related to the project such as the definitions of genes, bacterial reproduction, and bacterial colonies.

The third week, some interns from other labs came and tried the interactive display, and we observed them. Their feedback was useful in figuring out which aspects of the project can be improved upon, so that the display is more user-friendly. In addition, in order to explain synthetic biology, we helped add a video with subtitles to the display.

Throughout our time at the HCI lab, we learned JavaScript so that we could understand the code behind the project better. We also experimented with various virtual reality tools, so that we could learn about the kinds of feats that the HCI field can accomplish.