Bio

Shivani Angappan is a rising junior in high school, and she participated in the Wolfram High School Summer Camp last summer. She enjoys playing violin, reading, listening to music and photography. She is currently an editor for her school’s newspaper and concertmaster of her school orchestra. She has also, along with a partner, designed a skintight spacesuit for MIT’s Man Vehicle Lab. Shivani is skilled at programming in Python and Scheme, and looks forward to applying her programming knowledge to the Wolfram Language this summer.

Project: Analysis of Data from Personal Biomonitoring Devices

In this project, we analyzed bio data from two biomonitoring devices: a Fitbit monitor worn on the wrist and a Basis monitor worn on both the ankle and the wrist (at different times). The Fitbit monitor only measured steps per minute and calories burned per minute, but the Basis monitor measured steps per minute, heart rate, skin temperature and galvanic skin response (also called electrodermal activity; this is a measure of nervous system activity, often used in EKGs and polygraphs). Our primary interest was in analyzing the heart rate data, but the data contained many errors, especially when the monitor was worn on the ankle. We took two approaches to correcting these errors. First, we removed all Basis data points where the corresponding step data from the Fitbit differed by more than 50%. Second, we smoothed the raw Basis data by calculating a moving average over five-minute intervals. Finally, we compared the statistical properties of the raw and corrected datasets, both when the Basis monitor was worn on the wrist and when it was worn on the ankle.

Favorite 3-Color 2D Totalistic Cellular Automaton

Rule 7041776

Just in time for July 4! This automaton features rule #7041776 (since the first Independence Day was on July 4, 1776), 240 steps (since America turns 240 years old on July 4, 2016) and the colors of the American flag.