Sorry it's been a while since my last blog post! These last few months have been very eventful!

First off, I got IRB approval and released the survey on Facebook Ads. We used targeted advertising so only people who searched certain terms (such as diabetes, insulin pumps, etc) would receive our survey. We also modified our ad preferences as we collected data so we could match the true demographics of California as closely as possible. We collected responses far more quickly than I had anticipated. We received 178 responses within 24 hours and collected all of our data in about 48 hours. We only spent $15 on advertising (we budgeted hundreds of dollars for this!). I promptly closed the survey and ads.

However, after looking at the data, it became apparent that we could not use much of the data. Many of the email addresses participants entered (to redeem their $20 Amazon gift certificates) were obvious repeats. For example, janedoe@gmail.com vs. doejane@gmail.com. This was surprising to me since we had CAPTCHA enabled and since RedCap does not allow survey responses to come from the same device. Many other survey responses added that they were diagnosed with diabetes the day they were taking the survey, that they had A1cs below 4% or over 15%, or some other strange response. Because of this, my team and I are working on coming up with a plan to deal with these data issues.

Another recent issue is that I cannot send out the Amazon gift certificates. Because I am taking one class at Stanford Online High School (Data Science, by the way), I have a Stanford email address (although it can only receive emails—not send them). I am also attending Stanford next year for college (I'm planning to major in biomechanical engineering/bioengineering and continue my research with SURF Stanford Med), so I tried making another email account. However, the two email accounts are interfering with each other, so I am asking the other high school student I am working with to send out the gift cards. Our meeting to discuss this is this weekend.

In the meantime, I have been learning Python, writing my research paper introduction, and connecting with Stanford students interested in diabetes. It's been fascinating for me to learn about all the different ways people are approaching diabetes research and innovation with the same goal in mind.

Lastly, I am leading an upcoming Conference on Democracy session about disparities in access to diabetes technologies, the importance of consent forms, and a sneak peak at how my project works. I will be co-hosting this session with the fabulously funny genius, Ruby, who will be presenting about growing potatoes on Mars. So if you 1) want to learn how to become the next Mark Watney (in a safe way though); 2) are thinking about applying to the MARC program next year; and/or 3) want to support me and Ruby, you should totally come to our session. Stay tuned for more info, but here's the description of our session:

Moving Science Forward: Innovation, Ethics, and Applications of New Technologies

Have you ever wondered about the intersection between democracy and science? The evolving role of science in today’s innovative democracy? Come learn about disparities in diabetes technology access, the MARC program, science ethics, and… growing potatoes on Mars. Questions about MA’s MARC program are welcome, as are all science lovers.

Here are the slides:

I have made lots of exciting progress since my last blog post. Here are some highlights (chronologically):

• I got preliminary feedback from the IRB and resubmitted my project to them. This entailed uploading promotional materials, creating a consent and assent survey, and fulfilling their other minor comments.

• I drafted the research paper introduction and methods sections with my partner using a template paper by Ananta Addala, a member of our team.

• I read a research paper about SURF's TIDE project and got started on a project making a dashboard for healthcare providers to improve this platform. I am now learning Python to help with this and am coming up with ideas for additional metrics for the system to take into account. I also made a project proposal to add my irregular behaviors project idea to this project, and the graduate student leading the project liked my idea.

• After waiting for several weeks, I got another round of feedback from the IRB. I had 48 hours to do all of their comments and successfully resubmitted to the IRB a second time before their next meeting. I am now waiting for their approval or another round of feedback.

• I created sample figures in R with mock-up data. You can see the figures below and how I made them in my third methods explainer video below. The first video explains what bar graphs are and how to make bar graphs at an early elementary-school level. The second video covers the different types of bar graphs and how to make bar graphs in Google Sheets and Excel. The third video goes over how to make bar graphs in R.

• I also worked on SURF's social media communications. Follow our Twitter or LinkedIn for interesting updates on the intersection between engineering and medicine.

This summer, I loved attending a biomedical engineering camp at the Boston Leadership Institute and a medical camp at the Stanford Clinical Summer Internship. These camps were so fun, and I learned that I am most excited about becoming a medical researcher that develops new diabetes devices. I think this will be a healthy mix of both biomedical engineering and medicine.

I also submitted my project to Stanford's Institutional Review Board, a necessary step before sending the survey out. This means that I submitted my protocol, assent form, consent form, and survey for review. They recently got back to me and requested promotional materials and a consent form on RedCap. I have created both of these and am excited to resubmit soon.

Before collecting data on the project, I also hope to have a draft of the introduction, methods, template figures, and statistical hypotheses for our research paper.

My research also got funded by the JDRF recently, so now we will be able to pay for Facebook ads and incentives. I was so excited when SURF got the check for this research!

Lastly, I will be starting at least one new project soon! One option is replicating a healthcare provider patient management/analytics system on a free platform with R Shiny. The other option is creating a program that detects irregular diabetes behaviors, like omitting insulin, giving too much insulin, or not wearing a pump or CGM for an extended period of time.

I am excited to see how all these projects and ideas turn out!

I just finished creating a poster and a video explaining my project for the end-of-year MARC presentations! I hope you enjoy looking at the poster and video below!

Also, this is my last week of MARC classes this year! This class has been such a blast since it allows me to research a topic that is so relevant and important to me. I love the freedom and opportunities that have come along with this course, and I can't wait for more learnings next year.

Also, thank you so much to Stori, our amazing MARC coordinator, for always being so supportive of my project and for bringing enthusiasm to the class. I will miss you so much next year!

I am super excited to start working on my 2021 breakthrough junior challenge video. I have submitted videos the past two years, and you can see last year's submission about the relationship between diabetes and COVID-19 embedded below.

*Note: Because I posted this video nearly a year ago when COVID-19 research was not nearly as advanced as it is now, some information may be incorrect now*

I am thinking my submission for this year should be more related to my current MARC program research project, access to diabetes technology, since I have already conducted a literature review for this topic. I will be sure to keep you posted on my ideas for the video!

Hi everyone, and welcome to my first blog post! Here are some updates on my project:

• I am working on my IRB submission form and am about 75% done with the first draft.

• I am also almost done getting my work permit to that I can intern with SURF this summer! I am excited to work on data analysis and writing up our project, learning R, and possibly starting a new project.