Reflections

Hello everyone!

This is the last week of my senior project timeline, which I’m using to prepare for my presentation this weekend. I wanted to share some quick reflections on the project.

1. This project was a great chance for me to get a glimpse into what I’m going to be studying in college. My current major choice is Artificial Intelligence, but I hadn’t had any thorough exposure to the topic prior to this project. There were so many concepts I had to learn from scratch, like fine-tuning, and every platform I used in this project was completely new to me. Not only do I feel more confident in my ability to study and research AI in college, but I’m also proud of myself for stepping out of my comfort zone.
2. Also, this was my first time doing research, so I owe a huge thank you to my two advisors, Lu and Ms. Jay, for catching the flaws in my research method and providing advice to fix them.
3. This was also my first time analyzing this much data. I kind of regret not taking AP stats, but I did figure it out by researching online, and I’m glad I was able to work it out in time and understand enough to put together a research paper.
4. My original plan for this project was to track my tabla learning, but I received advice during my proposal defense that this wouldn’t be a sound research method. As such, I didn’t learn as much about tabla as I originally had hoped to. I definitely still want to learn how to play the instrument at some point, so I’ll keep an eye out for workshops or intro tabla classes in college!
5. Though most of my findings were inconclusive and my hypothesis couldn’t yet be confirmed or denied, I still take pride in how much work I did do. If anything, the inconclusive outcome gives me more clarity on how to continue this project in the future. I still had enough findings to put together a quality research paper and confidently say that I learned something, so I’m happy about that.
6. The findings of my project are aligned with the concern that AI training data overrepresents Western cultures. This is something I’d like to continue looking into through further AI research in college. I truly believe this is a concern worth addressing as AI gains more widespread use all around the world. It should be trained to serve people of all backgrounds equitably and with adequate cultural sensitivity.

To close, I’d like to thank my advisors once again, Lu and Ms. Jay, for their time, guidance, and constant encouragement for the past nearly 9 months. I’d also like to thank Mr. Cunningham for his management of the senior project program and for providing all the necessary resources to complete the project smoothly. Finally, I’d like to specially thank the three musicians, Archita, Shruti, and Abhishek, for their help validating the tabla-related steps in my project. I really appreciate their volunteer time and interest in the project.

Linked below is my final research paper for anyone interested. Hoping to connect at my presentation this Saturday at BISV at 10 AM!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1uiFyV-q0AT-sVFH6QMXOl2eYHj-hUt4_Bufv-5Hh9xA/edit?usp=sharing