Week 10: A bittersweet farewell

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD MORNING FREMONTTT!!!

Can you believe that it is the last week of senior project? Time sure flies when we’re having fun, huh? What a whirlwind! I feel like it was just yesterday when I was writing my first blog (blog 0, for those who just joined my journey!). 

This week, I finished building up my model using k-means clustering and random forests to predict the sensitivity/specificity of my training data. 

This project has been filled with challenges and mini-victories, but I wouldn’t trade a second of it for anything. I’ve had to navigate creating my own dataset after failing to find one online, parsing through hundreds upon thousands of research papers to collect data points, code (as a somewhat novice programmer) an ML model, and learn to adapt quickly every time something didn’t go as planned. 

Along the way, I’ve gained technical skills by reading numerous research papers, taking online courses on machine learning, consulting my mentor, and referencing online documentation. There were definitely moments when I felt stuck or overwhelmed, ready to give up, but each hurdle made the final results that much more rewarding. Of course, more work needs to be done (a lot more 😞) so I intend to keep working on the model following the senior project symposium. 

As I wrap things up, I can’t help but think about the people and resources that have helped me grow in these ten weeks. My advisors—Dr. Akulov and Dr. Lively—have given me invaluable guidance in my project and the confidence to persevere through ambiguity and uncertainty. Thank you to my peers, my advisors, Ms. Nagpal, and everyone—I would not have been able to do any of this without your support!

I can’t wait to share my final presentation with you all (be there or be square!!) next week!

Thanks for following along with my journey. I’ll miss you all, my dear readers 🙁 

Until next time.

-Joy