Journal entries imported from the previous iteration of wisrd.org

GRACE

February 20, 2020

We are just about done with our second white paper on stress in the adolescent brain! We are also officially on the E-nable global map as a chapter. A problem that we have encountered with the headset has been fitting the cap on people with smaller heads, so we recently ordered a new, smaller cap so that we can test the headset on more people.

December 11, 2019

We have tested a few students using the headset! There have been many difficulties along they way, but we have done our best to find solutions for them. We are gathering data from students completing homework assignments. Afterwards, we ask them to complete some deep breathing excersises to compare how the brain reacts, since this is the first stress-relieving method we are testing.

November 19, 2019

I have been working on my bibliography and making our procedure more efficient for the brainwaves lab. I have read numerous scientific articles on brainwaves and the use of EEG headsets to get a better idea of how to improve our lab and greater understand the concepts we’re working with. I changed some parts of the headset set-up which will help us recieve a higher connectivity on smaller heads, which is a problem we have had! We tested this out on Bob, and the connectivity was much higher than it was previously.

November 6, 2019

We have successfully tested the headset at 100% connectivity on Joe! We collected data and looked at the brainwaves connected with each sensor. We have tried setting up the headset on 2 students, but they were both unsuccessful because of too much hair making it difficult to get a good read of the brain. Another issue we came across is that the headset is too big for most of the female heads we have attempted to test on, so we are currently researching ways to overcome this barrier. We have a few students who are available to participate in our study, so we will begin testing on students when we either figure out how to work around the head size or hair issue, or find other students who fit the exact criteria to be tested! We now know how to look for stress and which sensors are connected with this feeling, so we know specifically what we are looking for in the data during the studies.

September 9, 2019

Today I worked on setting up the Emotiv software and connecting it to our new headset. I was having some difficulties with this, since it wasn’t connecting, so I searched their website and tried a few of their suggestions. These didn’t work as well so I will be emailing them so I can get the headset and software working!

April 24, 2019

We are just about done building the hand! We had to custom print some pieces that didn’t fit, mold some pieces by putting them in boiling water and then placing them on top of other printed piece and a lot more in order to make a functioning elbow driven hand for someone in need of it!

March 7, 2019

We have started to assemble the hand! The fingers are attached to the palm by pins and rubber bands and the palm is molded. We are printing the final piece still.

February 25, 2019

We are almost done printing all of the pieces for the hand! The only problem is one of the pieces is too big for the build plate so we are figuring out a solution for this. We first tried calling different libraries to see if any of them had a bigger build plate, but none of them had bigger build plates than we do. We are now trying to print the piece face up immersed in a dissolvable block.

February 11, 2019

I got all of the measurements from the person we are making a hand for! I put them into a customizer, so now I have all of the files that we are going to print for the new hand! We are waiting a day to print them in case we get another, clearer picture so we can more accurately get measurements.

January 22, 2019

The E-nable website wasn’t working for us for a while and today we fixed it! Now we are in contact with someone in use of a prosthetic hand, who we can potentially provide one for. Also, the proposal for the headset is done so we will present it at the board meeting next Tuesday. This proposal consists of a completed white paper and power point presentation that proposes a new Emotiv headset.

From this process, I learned a lot about how to ask for something in a professional setting. I learned to back up my claim and am working to prepare for the board meeting presentation which involves public speaking skills and persuasive skills.

January 14, 2019

We are ordering the new Emotiv Flex headset! Emotiv may be able to give us the software that works with the headset for a few months, meaning from mid-February to the end of the school year, we will be testing various labs on stress in the school-environment. We are writing the white paper and procedures currently, so when the headset arrives, we will be ready to test right away.

December 10, 2018

I am reprinting the pulley system parts. I am having trouble doing this because the settings are different on the printer than what I need them to be. I am unloading the material and print core from the printer.

December 6, 2018

I attached the one string to the center of the 3D printed part where the five strings come together. This will pull the strings and attach to the motor. We are looking at a new headset, since the stress function on the Emotiv software and headset currently does not work.

December 3, 2018

We attempted to test the Emotiv headset on Myles to see stress. The stress did not work on the software and flatlined so we didn’t get data that we can use for our article. We are emailing Emotiv to see if there is something we can do to help get stress to work.

November 29, 2018

I am currently working on writing a white paper for our brainwaves lab. We are in the process of testing different stress reducer techniques using the Emotiv headset, and will be writing a paper about that.

November 7, 2018

The hand is assembled. Now we are working on connecting all of the strings to the same point so that when the motor pulls them, they are equally pulled. To do this, Emily printed a part for us where we are going to put all of the strings through! We also have to measure the amount of force it takes to pull the strings.

October 31, 2018

We have finished assembling the hand!!

October 29, 2018

We are setting up for our Dark Matter Day party tomorrow! I am working with the nodding bird and will explain how and why it works. I am also working on finishing up my poster for poster presentation and progressing on assembling the hand.

September 26, 2018

Cole, Zachary and I are brainstorming new ideas for our lab. We are currently working on finishing the hand and attaching the Arduino, but as we finish this up we want to have some ideas for afterward. We are leaning towards the idea of expanding our prosthetics and brain research and creating a bigger, more efficient hand/arm. We are thinking of creating a tool-type limb for factories or hazardous working conditions.

September 24, 2018

Hi, I’m back! The past month I have been working on a few tasks:

I have connected 4 out of the 5 fingers to the hand!

I have printed all of the remaining parts including the pulley system.

I have started working on my article which is on the brain and eating disorders.

Today I am working on attaching the pulley system in the best way. The goal of creating this hand is to finally attach the motor to the hand and then control the hand with the E-motiv headset! This is a long-term project and we are significantly progressing. We just have to add the pulley, print the thumb parts, attach the strings and then finally attach the motor!

May 14, 2018

I designed a pulley system to place on the hand so the strings will pull at the same time. It will print once all of the fingers are printed.

March 22, 2018

I printed the new hand that I designed and edited based on other hands. It successfully printed! Here it is:

Now we are going to attach everything together so the hand can move when someone wearing the headset concentrates!

March 5, 2018

I have some important updates! The bowl printed almost perfectly except for a small hole in the side. Also, the motor and the Emotiv finally connected! When someone smiles, the motor moves!! We also programmed it so that if someone thinks about a certain thing, the motor will move!

Now that we have figured this out, we are going to connect the hand to the motor and the emotiv

February 22, 2018

I fixed my bowl design and went down to the ceramics printer to print it. But, the clay wasn’t wet enough so it didn’t extrude. The ceramics people are going to refill the clay and then I will work on printing the bowl again.

February 12, 2018

I designed and printed a bowl using the ceramics 3d printer. The base of the bowl din’t work out completely, but some parts worked out fine. I will be working on fixing my design and printing again! Then I will work on making more complex designs.

January 29, 2018

We are working on taking apart the old red E-nable hand so we can attach the arduino (which is connected to the motor which is connected to the Emotiv) to the hand. This way, once everything is finished we will be able to think certain feelings (while wearing the Emotive headset) that cause the hand to move a certain way. Today we ran the arduino software successfully.  The motor that was connected to the arduino moved when the codes were running.

January 16, 2018

The E-nable hand is finally approved! Now we are an approved, global E-nable chapter!!!! We are on the list now, so if there is someone in need of a hand, we will print and assemble it for them!

I have successfully tested two people for the brainwaves study. The Emotiv stayed connected throughout the whole experiment and the data was fully recorded. Any errors were recorded in the observations and data tables. The entire experiment is not fully perfected yet, so the little errors or problems are currently being worked out. This includes figuring out how to record the meaning of certain peaks in brain waves in a way that can be tracked later on. Since there is a lag time between the computer and the brain itself, the time can be difficult to maintain.

November 27, 2017

I retaped the printer since it is now up and running again. I also designed a bowl that next class I will hopefully be printing on the new ceramics printer that I helped build. I also sent an email out to certain students to come to our lab. Here is the email:

Hello everyone,

I am in WISRD and had a question for you all. I am currently working on a lab and need some people to be test subjects. The lab is testing reflex time of brainwaves.

We would be SO grateful if you would participate in our study! All that you would have to do is wear our Emotiv headset (which reads brainwaves) as we perform a few quick tasks such as throwing a ball to you and you catching it! It would only take about 30 minutes (more or less depending on how many people per day, but I will update you and let you know for sure the time if you respond). Here is the info:

The days available for you to sign up for are on:

Monday (11/13), Tuesday (11/14), and Thursday (11/16) anytime from 3:45 – 4:15 (but if these days or times do not work with you, we can find another time).

It will take place in the WISRD lab. Please email me back (ASAP) if you are willing to participate and the day you would be able to begin the experiment.

November 16, 2017

We have come across some problems with the headset. These have made it difficult to record accurate data, so we are currently trying to fix them.

1. The headset often doesn’t respond well to people with lots of hair. Some of the sensors do not connect and respond. Sometimes, none respond because of this error. We are working on fixing this problem by selecting volunteers who have less hair. We are also soaking the headset with as much solution as possible, so it sticks to the hair more easily. It seems to be helping.

2. The connection between the headset and the software goes in and out of connection, making it very difficult to record completely accurate brainwaves. This is because when the headset disconnects, the brainwaves respond as if the brain is there, but just not putting out any signals. This causes inaccurate portrayals of the brainwaves, since it looks like at certain points the brain is responding, when it in actuality isn’t, it is just disconnected. We are working on fixing this by researching different ways to keep them connected the whole time.

3. We are coming up with a lag time based on the data we have received. We are doing this because there is a time difference between when the computer receives the signals and when the signals are put out.

4. Lastly, the recordings that we have are currently not showing up in the document folder. We have checked the computer and looked up the names of the recordings several times. This may be a problem with the software, so we are trying to see why this happens.

These errors contribute to our learning as students, since we are exposed to problems in the world around us that we must work to fix. We have to research, complete trial and error and come up with creative solutions to these problems. This differs from school and the classes in school, since often we are only given problems that were made for us to easily fix. In WISRD, because of the institute model, we are dealing with, understanding and solving problems that help us grow as learners, instead of solving problems that teachers create.

November 9, 2017

We have successfully powered a motor by connecting the motor shield to the arduino and then the motor to the motor shield. This took soldering of all of the motor pins and lots of research to understand what connects to what and how to successfully connect all of the pieces. The motor is running very smoothly. The next step is to connect the arduino to the Emotive software to power the motor with a brain!

October 24, 2017

Today I soldered the pins to the motor shield. Next we will see if it worked by connecting the arduino to the motor shield.

October 10, 2017

Update – We have set up the headset on a few people and have set up the Emotiv account. We have moved a digital box with EEG brainwaves by completing the following: we dowloaded the software, set up ‘push’ ‘pull’ and ‘neutral’ for the motion of the box (and later ‘lift’) with each one being linked to a different emotion (ex. neutral was a feeling of relaxation and pull was a feeling of anxiety/stress), and moved the box all around the screen. Our next step is to build a small play car and connect it to the headet, so we can use the same technique as above to make the car move.

October 5, 2017

The Emotiv software has been set up as well as a few games to play with the EEG headset on Elphaba computer. It can be found on the hard drive in Program Files (x86)

September 14, 2017

The E-nable hand is almost done! Here is a picture: 

Today I worked on the 3d printer. I printed a design, leveled the platform and cleaned the nozzle. I have also been working on the brainwaves project. We have come up with a project idea (within the main project of studying brainwaves) which is studying how the brainwaves of someone’s reflexes can change based on music or noise surrounding their environment. So, for example, will silence make someone more aware and alert to react to something? I am excited to work on this.

September 11, 2017

Today I tested the Emotiv headset on Eli L. Our goal was to see how the app works when connected and how to set it up. The content quality wasn’t great since we didn’t have a lot of solution to put onto the sensors, so today we will be getting more, so next time we can test it more efficiently.

August 31, 2017

A group of people and I are currently working on an outline for a new project! For this project, we would experiment the brainwaves using the Emotiv headset on a few people listening to music while doing homework. We will test their emotions throughout them doing homework while listening to music, and while not listening to music. I am really looking forward to doing this experiment!

August 28, 2017

We are currently finalizing our final test hand for E-nable. We have strung most of the strings together and now we just have to connect the wrist to the forearm. A goal of mine for this year is to start a global wildwood e-nable chapter. I would also like to focus on another project, which is physiology. I want to learn about brainwaves and create/work on projects based on the study of this.

May 19, 2017

All is printed! We are now assembling the pieces for our second and final test hand.

May 16, 2017

I am currently printing the palm for the new hand. This is the last piece that needs to be printed. I am also working on printing with wood filament. I am doing research and figuring out how to print, what to print, what printer to use, etc.

April 14, 2017

The Makerbot printer that we have been working on for a while has finally been completely fixed! We had to completely take the printer apart, replace the wires, and then reassemble everything. It has successfully test printed a bracelet. We also have 95% printed the hand! Here is a picture of the hand and the fixed printer 

The only thing left to do is figure out how to tie the strings in a way that will make the hand sturdy but adjustable.

March 29, 2017

We have finally printed the finger joints! Now all we have to do is assemble the strings. We have now used 3 3D printers for this hand: Makerbot for the fingers and forearm, Ultimaker for the palm and Lulzbot for the finger joints.

March 11, 2017

We have finally successfully printed all of the parts of the hand, except for the finger joints which shouldn’t take much time. We have used two different printers to print all of the pieces: Makerbot and Ultimaker. The Ultimaker is having some problems, so I am currently working on fixing it.

March 11, 2017

I have been helping Kai print pieces for his anemometer.

February 3, 2017

We finally fixed one of the printers completely. Now it is up to date and connected to the computer. It is currently printing the palm for the hand.

January 25, 2017

I made gummy WISRD blocks. We placed the ingredients into a bowl and mixed them together. Then we waited until the mix was the right texture. We then poured the mixture into the molds that were 3D printed that said “WISRD”. Lastly, we put them in the fridge for 30 minutes.

December 6, 2016

I am almost done printing the hand for E-nable. We had all the pieces (except for the pinkie which is currently soaking in limonene) and were working on assembling the hand, but the thumb broke. Now I am currently 3D printing the thumb. I have some of the pieces assembled already, so when the thumb is done, it will be attached, along with the pinkie.

November 2, 2016

I am currently working with E-nable to 3D print a hand. We are working on the test hand right now. We have successfully printed the palm, forearm and fingers. Now, we have to print the thumb and joints. I am currently printing the joints. We have printed some pieces in many different ways. For example, the palm has been printed in ABS filament with support and a raft as well as ABS filament with a dissolvable filament block surrounding it. When we print it with the dissolvable filament, we later place the piece in limonene liquid. This melts the dissolvable filament. We find that this way works better.

September 2, 2016

Today I worked with the 3d printer. For WISRD 1, I took the filament out of the left extruder. The right one was done earlier this week, so I left that one. For WISRD 2 I took out the filament from both extruders. I didn’t get a chance to finish these up, so I am planning to do it when I get back on Tuesday. I am really excited to work with the 3d printer and I am really hoping to get my certificate. After I start to understand and feel comfortable with the 3D printer, I would love to do a project with E-nable. I am looking forward to more STEM classes to come!