Working alongside a team of 4 other undergraduates at Precise Labs in the University of Pennsylvania, I was able to significantly contribute to creating a standardized method to both send and receive medically relevant data such as heart rate from everyday devices, specifically smart watches. The project is called OpenICElite which aims to provide this simple and lightweight protocol for the transmission, reception, and display of Internet of Medical Things data. The system works by utilizing a messaging protocol called MQTT to send and receive data from the sensors on smartwatches and other devices to the broker server. After the server receives data from the sensors, an interpreter will take in packets of data and send them to a final server where they will be on constant display via dashboard. My specific contributions to the project include designing a fully functional android smartwatch app that is capable of continuously collecting and sending sensor data, writing the interpreters for Samsung, Apple, and Android watches, and finally helping on the overall dashboard.
From working on this project, I have learned quite a few technical skills as well as improved on my ability to work on a team, specifically one in the computer science industry. Creating a smartwatch app, I learned not only more about app development but also how to effectively design a user interface that is both functional and easy to use. In addition, I learned a lot about how computers talk to each other and the code required to have communication between servers.
Overall, I have learned more practical skills in these 10 weeks than I did in both semesters of freshman year. In fact, the largest takeaway from this experience has been that there is no better way to learn than working on a project whether it be for fun or for a corporation. I hope to continue finding opportunities to learn as much as can as well as working on projects that I find to be as interesting and relevant as OpenICElite.
Working alongside a team of 4 other undergraduates at Precise Labs in the University of Pennsylvania, I was able to significantly contribute to creating a standardized method to both send and receive medically relevant data such as heart rate from everyday devices, specifically smart watches. The project is called OpenICElite which aims to provide this simple and lightweight protocol for the transmission, reception, and display of Internet of Medical Things data. The system works by utilizing a messaging protocol called MQTT to send and receive data from the sensors on smartwatches and other devices to the broker server. After the server receives data from the sensors, an interpreter will take in packets of data and send them to a final server where they will be on constant display via dashboard. My specific contributions to the project include designing a fully functional android smartwatch app that is capable of continuously collecting and sending sensor data, writing the interpreters for Samsung, Apple, and Android watches, and finally helping on the overall dashboard.
From working on this project, I have learned quite a few technical skills as well as improved on my ability to work on a team, specifically one in the computer science industry. Creating a smartwatch app, I learned not only more about app development but also how to effectively design a user interface that is both functional and easy to use. In addition, I learned a lot about how computers talk to each other and the code required to have communication between servers.
Overall, I have learned more practical skills in these 10 weeks than I did in both semesters of freshman year. In fact, the largest takeaway from this experience has been that there is no better way to learn than working on a project whether it be for fun or for a corporation. I hope to continue finding opportunities to learn as much as can as well as working on projects that I find to be as interesting and relevant as OpenICElite.