IntroductionThe Models II Research Experience was my first completed Honors experience that I took part in from January, 2016 to April, 2016. Teams of 3-4 students based on mutual interests were made and the goal of the project was to use MATLAB, a programming language and tool, to model a real world problem on a computer. The topic we chose, after team discussions with our mentors, was to model the action potential of a ventricular myocyte of a healthy heart and of a heart of a person consuming nicotine.
My team members in the experience were Alex Becker, Erik Klose, and Scott Schilling and we worked under the guidance of our mentor, Dr. Whitney Gaskins, PhD and assistance from Dr. Jeffrey Johnson, PhD. I feel fortunate for being a part of this team. The program coincided with the coursework of the Models II class. As such, students in the experience got an opportunity to apply what they learned in the Models II class to build and model a real world scenario. |
The Project |
Our team was grouped together because all the team members showed interest in creating a model related to healthcare and biological sciences. So that was our starting point to find inspiration for the the model. After discussions within the team and inputs from our mentor, Dr. Gaskins we chose to model the action potential of the muscle cells located in the lower part of the heart. There were two models that we simulated. One models of a healthy heart and one of a heart of a person who smokes and inhales nicotine in the process. Our basic idea was to run the two models together so that our audience could see visually on a computer the effects nicotine has on heart. Consumption of tobacco and nicotine has become a serious issue around the world and measures are being taken to counter it. Our model was a visual depiction of the effect of nicotine on the same person who smokes against one who does not. Through our model, we showed that nicotine slows the heart rate over time and is thus detrimental to the heart.
A large portion of time was spent on learning how to make a GUI or Graphical User Interface using MATLAB. We had to generate action potentials (graphs) and sync them with other variables to display what was going on. Also, we had to make sure that our model was as accurate as possible. Making the program bug free was one challenge. Progress reviews held every week with Dr. Gaskins helped the team clear doubts and stay focused. I was very confused initially as far as the topic and literature review of the project was concerned. This was partly due to the fact that I had not studied biology since middle school and many concepts were not clear to me. I am thankful to my teammates for their patience and help in briefing me through the technical terms of the project. |
Takeaway and Conclusion |
Takeaway
Working on this project for close to three months taught me a lot. When I look back at it now, I can say that I am a better programmer and posses a better understanding of how MATLAB works. Working on the GUI portion and repeatedly failing till I was able to conjure up what we envisaged taught me the importance of being persistent in my efforts. Moreover, I loved working in a team of other honors students who were incredibly talented and passionate towards the completion of the project. We had 3 hour long meetings sometimes which got me exhausted but watching other team members staying focused and working on the project inspired me to put in maximum effort during the meetings. There were many stages to the whole experience and we knew it was not going to be easy. Our team had a slow start and when we came to know about the progress other teams were making, we were concerned. Dr. Gaskins helped us come to the same page and chart a timeline that we had to religiously follow to make our project a reality. If I had a chance to revisit the experience, I would try to make the team more proactive and get the work started earlier that we actually did. The whole project was like conceptualizing a product, creating it, and finally marketing it. The brainstorming sessions we had helped us discuss and go through our concept. During the coding part, we made sure our algorithm was working correctly and we were displaying data as per the input from the user. Writing the report and designing the poster for the Undergraduate Research, Scholarly Endeavors, & Creative Practice conference was a challenging part as well. We had a tough time sometimes in agreeing to a point. Each one of us listened to what others had to say and then we discussed on the specific points. I believed that is an important part of team learning experience. Towards the end of the project, we had to hurry up some of the work as we were nearing deadlines. The work we had procrastinated for later would come biting at us as the deadlines came. Those were some of the times when all of us realized how important it is to get a strong and early start. Conclusion In the end, we were able to make a model,a report, and a poster with which we were satisfied with. We worked hard to make it possible and though we know that we could have improved certain parts of the presentation, I am glad that we made our idea into a reality and met the deadlines. Personally, I am now able to understand the technical biological concepts better. I got more hands-on experience with MATLAb and its GUi module. Working with my peers taught me several aspects of team building and leadership. Dr. Gaskins’ calm approach to our concerns when we were panicked made me realize the importance of maintaining calm and composure during trying times. One of the traits of a good engineer is creating effective and innovative solutions to solve problems faced by the society. Exploring and delving deeper into the programming fundamentals of MATLAB in this Honors experience and by working in a team, I was able to get the most out of this experience and become a better engineer. |