I loved hearing about what everyone has been working on in their labs this summer. I can tell that everyone has learned so much in this short time. You have to fully understand your project in order to be able to explain it to someone else. I think these chalk talks were a great way to clarify any gaps in our own projects. I also enjoyed getting to explore different areas of science by hearing about everyone else’s projects. It’s hard to focus on just one topic when all of science is so fascinating, but Rachel Yang’s project on atrial fibrillation really caught my attention.
I think trying to diagnose something before it even happens is the best way to treat diseases. Being able to detect and prevent atrial fibrillation from just a normal physical exam would be amazing. I think Rachel did a wonderful job of describing what an electrocardiogram does and how you can look for specific patterns from the data. I think it is very clever to study the normal rhythms of the heart beat and compare them to the normal rhythms of someone who has atrial fibrillation. Her project really interested me because I enjoy looking for patterns and finding mathematical relationships behind them. If Rachel is able to determine a pattern between these rhythms, there may be a way to create an algorithm for an early diagnostic tool. Rachel really engaged me during her chalk talk and really interested me in her topic and how she planned to perform her experiments. Good luck Rachel! Can’t wait to see what you find!
