Week 1: Ozone update, BATMON, and more

Hello again!

It;s nice to be getting back to work. I am grateful to have been given this internship opportunity again. I had a blast last semester and know it will be just as good this time around.

Over the summer I worked on my ozone project and came to a dead end. The equipment within my price range is not going to be suitable for getting any sort of useful readings. Although it's unfortunate that I cannot proceed with it any further, I have other things that I can work on. I gained a wealth of knowledge throughout the research and build process so although I am moving on, I feel this experience had so much value for me. Working on this project helped me better understand the process of pursuing ideas from scratch and how to compose a research paper. For now, this will go in the archives.

Database table entries created from a PDF parsing script!

So far in this first week, I was able to pick up where I left off last semester with the BATMON project (PHP, HTML, MySQL). I am really excited to have this going again! I took a slightly different approach to uploading data and implemented some measures to prevent injection attacks (server will not be public but always good practice). After some reworking of the structure I was able to get the system generating new database tables for each upload, which is the foundation of what needs to be done! Next step will be to add data to an existing table that holds all previous survey records. Retaining uploaded documents, storing audio files, features for registered users, and some input validation are next on the to do list. I need to thoroughly test things before adding more complexity so working in small steps is the best approach right now. So far so good!

Over the summer I did some work on an augmented reality project using Unity (C#), which I plan on developing throughout the semester. I also got invested in learning to use a development kit called Flutter, which is a project from Google designed to allow software development in one language (Dart) which can then automatically compile to both iOS and Android. I believe integrating the two would make a custom applicatin interface with AR capability a simple and seamless process.

In other news, I am serving my final semester on the ASCEND team, assisting with special projects and working on the video streaming system. The spring launch was cancelled due to COVID, but we have rescheduled a launch for this October! The work being done this semester will not be deployed until sometime in the spring so the pace is a bit slower than usual. I find it nice that I can still be part of the team and have a bit more flexibility for other things that I need to work on (like this stuff!).

I wish everyone good luck this semester and to keep moving forward no matter what!