Carter Chu

Ms. Meece

Capstone Period 7

2 November 2017

Track Reflection 4

Its quite convenient that students have around a holiday every month. During these Fridays,
more specifically September 29 and October 20, I went to Texas Childrens Hospital to meet with my
mentor.

On the September 29th, I had just finished the code that I submitted for the last track work. Keep
in mind that the code was not yet completely optimized and it lacked the randomness that was present
in my code for simulating trabeculations. When I presented this to my mentor, he noticed that the
values for floating mass simulation had a smaller range than the simulation for trabeculations. He
marked it as interesting and inspired me to look more into it. Additionally, since my code wasnt random
in generation, he wanted me to try to make it random. Having all the circles at the top could cause the
fractal dimension value to be different. Dr. Amol Pednekar taught about the importance of looking into
how data is found and to carefully analyze it for the reasons behind them and possible faults. Since the
data for the simulated floating mass had a smaller range than the data for the trabeculation images, my
mentor also wanted me to adjust the maximum and minimum of them so that they would match up
better, giving a more accurate sense of how effective fractal analysis and the isoperimetric ratio are. I
continued to work on these projects, keeping in mind his ideas regarding application, usefulness, and
accuracy. I worked on the code for both programs, making the data graph match up quite well, for the
next few weeks after September 29.

October 20 was probably one of the most enjoyable days being at Texas Childrens Hospital.
Since I became incredibly intrigued by medical imaging after starting this project with my mentor, I
asked if I could be shown around the medical center and talk to radiologists about my potential future.
Every radiologist gave important advice. Being interesting in medical school, I asked about what I should
major in for college and what sort of classes I should take. Every radiologist told me the same thing.
Students shouldnt limit themselves. Its important for them not to be rigid about what they are going
to learn, but rather explore different subjects and find one that they are passionate about to explore.
One radiologist told me that students may get into ivy league schools where they become less unique
relative to their peers. In a community where excellence becomes the norm, students at prestigious
schools often face depression and dont know what to do. They recommended that I take the first 2
years of college to explore different classes. Some of them recommended neuroscience. Neuroscience is
a field that even we are relative unknowledgeable about. The brain is possibly the most complex
structure ever known to humans. Neuroscience is a fascinating subject that I potentially may explore in
the future. I was recommended a book, When Breath Becomes Air, a story about a neurosurgeon who
battled stage IV lung cancer. I hope to read this book some time in the near future. Radiologists come
from various backgrounds, some even majored in music for college but ended up going to medical
school. Its important to keep an open mind, be flexible, and pursue my passions.