SF Mensa, The Intrinsic Art of Crying, Top of the Class, and Thanksgiving
Letter? I Hardly Know Her! - Newsletter 12/2021
Welcome, WELCOME to Letter? I Hardly Know Her! I’m Apoorva (the her in question), a 16 y/o researcher, artist, writer, keynote speaker, and advocate for youth and gender minorities in STEAM. This newsletter is a means for me to keep track of my personal & professional growth, and to share all the good stuff I’m working on! First-timers: it’s so nice to meet you, I’m glad you’re here! For my regular hardly-knowers, here’s your promised, extra special greeting: welcome again you intelligent, stunning star–seeing you again is like hiking: it’s hard work, but SO worth the effort.
If you too want an extra greeting, you better subscribe:
As a heads up, I publish newsletters on each MONTH/MONTH, i.e. 1/1, 2/2, 3/3, … , 12/12. Is it the most efficient system? Frankly, no. But is it the most funky fresh? Absolutely it is.
Hey Hardly-Knowers! Is this a day late? No, of course not. All of your devices (and everyone else’s) are broken. I think it was like accidental daylight savings, but you skipped a day instead of an hour. It’s okay, I forgive you so let’s forget this and get into this month’s tomfoolery!
SF Mensa: 7 Wonders of the Mathematical World
I had a fantastic time doing my first in-person talk in two years for SF Mensa - Brilliance by the Bay 2021 in November!! Together, we took a trip through seven of the many wonders of the mathematical world.
Consider yourself an art enthusiast? We walked through the fascinating intersection of math and art that reveals itself in fractals and tessellations. Fancy yourself a budding logician? We explored the nuances of the liar’s paradox with a little stroll through Pinocchio (as pictured). On our trip, we also learned how to literally run the world with spherical geometry, went back in time to follow the journey of the great hero zero, and delved into some mystical mathemagic on the way (but unlike most magicians, I soon revealed my secrets). The cherry on top of this journey was a LIVE demonstration of some properties of the Möbius Strip, which involved lots of arts and crafts to produce some mind-boggling shapes!
This was my first time presenting to an older audience, and it was interesting to hear their questions and different perspectives on the math we talked about. Despite the fact that a lot of my writing and jokes are generally geared towards younger generations, they seemed to enjoy the picture of Harry Styles that lead us into tessellations (who wouldn’t?).
If you want to hear details about any of the topics I spoke about, you can check out my column: Gems in STEM on Medium (which the talk was based on). Huge thanks to SF Mensa for inviting me and for being such a wonderful audience!
Microsoft NUMBERS Update!
In the last newsletter, I shared that I was invited to speak and lead a math workshop at Microsoft’s 2021 National STEM Day celebration for thousands of students around the world…And the numbers are in!
The celebration ran from Nov 8-12th with more than 200 groups. Over 17,000 students registered for the experiences lead by Anthony Morgan, Kenneth Harris II, and me! That’s literally insane, I can’t believe how many people joined me for some mathematical shenanigans–thank you all for coming!!
Gems in STEM: Microscopic Structures of Tears
As a quick recap: my column, Gems in STEM, is a place to learn about various STEM topics that I find exciting, and that I hope will excite you too! The column is always written to be fairly accessible, so you don’t have to worry about not having background knowledge. However, it does occasionally get more advanced towards the end.
You're an incredible artist. Seriously, that tear you cried the other day? A literal masterpiece. What do you mean what am I talking about–don't you know? Every tear has a stunningly unique microscopic structure. Intrigued?
Well, stop holding those poor horses! Without further ado, I present to you:
I hope you enjoy! If you do, please follow me on Medium and clap for it! (Your claps = me getting you a quality holiday gift…probably. <3) You’ll also get an instant update for all my upcoming articles, so it’s a sick deal.
But, you’re going to have to eagerly anticipate the next one because I’m pulling a One Direction and going on a hiatus! (Even brilliance needs a break–burnout is a horrid thing.) However, unlike them, I won’t take 6+ years to come back, you’ll see me again in January.
To tide you over till then, let me tell you that the new year is going to start with a bang: in the next article, I’ll be proving why you’re not popular…ouch. But it’s okay, if you follow me and clap clap those hands, we’ll figure out how to get you more friends!
Podcast: Top of the Class
I’m super excited to share the interview I did with Alexander Cork for Top the Class, a podcast about student achievement and how you can make the most out of high-school. We had a great conversation about time management, advice for getting into serious research as a high-schooler, and how the best skills lie in intersections.
Give it a listen here!
Engineering: Completed Companion Robot
Like I mentioned in the previous two newsletters, I’ve spent the last couple months building a companion robot with my engineering team! As some background, the motivation for this robot lab is the rising popularity in the development of companion bots. Companion bots are robots that assist people with day-to-day tasks, from helping to maximize personal efficiency to ensuring your safety.
Our robot lab is based on the scenario where your robot is helping you make dinner. It has two main tasks: turning the stove off and getting a plate for you in another room.
So, we simulated the stove and plate with two infrared emitting beacons. The stove was the red beacon and the plate was the green beacon.
The robot's tasks were to find the red beacon and turn it off, which is equivalent to the original task of turning off the stove. Then, the robot had to find the green beacon, i.e. the plate, and move it out of the arena.
As we were designing our robot, we tried to minimize its weight so that it could move around easily and quickly. It ended up weighing around 1.6 kg–mission accomplished!
Unfortunately, we didn’t manage to complete all the tasks. Our robot couldn’t successfully take the green beacon out of the area because it kept slipping out of its grasp. We didn’t have enough time to fix this issue, but I’m still proud of our hard-working robot! It’s cute and maybe a little dysfunctional, but aren’t we all?
!! ARTWORK ALERT !!
I recently finished a huuuge commission of six paintings, so I finally had the chance to get back into creating my own art. This piece is still coming along (maybe around 30-40% done), but I’m really liking how it’s going so far! I’ll leave it up to your interpretation. ;) Unfortunately, I won’t be able to work on it for a bit because I’m traveling for winter break (more on that later), but I’ll make sure to update you on how it goes!
Hackathon
Way back in November, I had the chance to take part in my first hackathon! The theme was pretty general: create a product to solve a problem using some type of emerging tech.
Imagine buying a Toyota and being charged for a Tesla. Pretty unfair, right? Well, what if you had no idea what happened and no way to fix it? Health care providers do exactly this–overcharging patients for emergency and health care. For a simple ER visit, you could be charged tens of thousands of dollars due to inflated prices. There’s no way to predict when or where this can happen due to the utter lack of transparency between hospitals and their patients.
So, we’re putting data back into the patients hands with Zata. Using a permission blockchain and smart contracts, Zata gives you greater control and transparency over your health data and shows you every detail that goes into your medical costs, along with comparisons to bills for the same service in your region.
With Zata, you’ll know exactly what care you’re paying for–no surprises.
Not bad at all, if I do say so myself (which, side note, is a very strange phrase). The idea to zero in on this problem came from a speech I did a couple years ago about the horrors of surprise medical billing, an unfortunate reality for thousands of Americans. Our team (shoutout to Zaylin, Anand, Amanda, and Trinity) wanted to leverage blockchain’s capability for mutual trust and protection, so we thought it was was the perfect tech to solve this problem.
Nanotech? More like NaYEStech (I sincerely apologize)
Speaking of tech, ya girl’s been getting into nanotech! No seriously, I keep shrinking and I don’t know how to stop it (I knew I shouldn’t have trusted Alice or followed that weird rabbit).
Jokes aside, nanotech is crazy interesting–I’ve been reading about how it’s behind the success of our COVID-19 vaccines and some of its potential applications in healthcare. Stay tuned for learning updates (I’m probably going to write an article/do a project soon)!
The Fun, the Fresh, & the Funky
TIS THE SEASON Y’ALL!!! The last month has been filled with food, food, food, more food…oh, and lots of love for family and friends.
We had an Indian fusion Thanksgiving dinner paired with binge-watching reality tv–truly the perfect day.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to hike as consistently lately, but a couple weeks ago I went on a really gorgeous one with my family (including my sister who was visiting from college)!
The beginning of December not only marks the beginning of Mariah Carey’s annual world domination, but also the release of Spotify Wrapped! Imagine my lack of surprise when it tells my that my top artist was, for the third time in a row, One Direction. (In my defense, my work playlist is 100+ songs of only them and I work a lot…and I love them wholeheartedly–please come back 1D, I’m begging you.)
I will not be showing the rest of my Spotify Wrapped because that is top secret information, thank you very much.
Also, my Russian Literature class is currently the best thing ever because I get to write my final paper about Crime and Punishment in Squid Game!
I’m comparing and contrasting Sang-woo from Squid Game to Crime and Punishment’s Raskolnikov, because they’re honestly surprisingly similar–you’ll hear more about it once I finish! I’m currently working on an extensive outline.
What’s up next, excluding my yearly crisis about how fast time passes?
Coming up next on Keeping Up With (K)Apoorva...
Featured in Nikkei Interview
I’m so honored to have been interviewed by Nikkei, the world’s largest financial newspaper, about what I’m working on, some of my thoughts on the future, Gen Z’s potential and impact, and issues with traditional school education. I can’t wait to share it with you!
Joint Mathematics Meeting (JMM) in Seattle
I’m SO excited to attend JMM in the beginning of January next year! I’ll be part of the Undergraduate Poster Session to talk about number theory research I did with my wonderful group at University of Virgina’s 2021 REU. I can’t wait to spend time with them, learn tons of interesting math at the 3-day conference, and sightsee Seattle!
Winter Break
Like everyone else, I’m so looking forward to a much needed break, especially after such a tumultuous year. I’ll be visiting my cousins in Dallas (including a very cute 6-month old baby)! I haven’t seen my family there in a couple years, so I can’t wait. My break will be split between family time, working out, watching movies, art & reading, and doing some good ol’ fashioned learning (specifically for AI, nanotech, and figuring out what in the world NFTs are). We’re also going to do some Christmas shopping (because there’s no time for presents like the present). Ho-ho-ho!
A Quarter for Your Quote?
I have decided, right now, that we’re going to do quotes every newsletter. My word in law in these parts, so it’s going to happen. The reason for this law is because I wanted to share one that really resonated with me:
“The only place to find happiness is in the present, because that’s the only place it truly exists.
Practice arriving into today by focusing on taking life one day at a time, and doing the most with what you have in front of you currently.
There’s a fine balance to be struck between living for the moment and taking care of your future self.”
Brianna Wiest, The Mountain Is You
I, like many other teenagers, have been known to constantly worry about preparing for the future, so this is a good reminder that enjoying the current moment is also a once in a lifetime opportunity.
And that’s it, show’s over!! Congrats on making it this far, hardly-knowers, y’all are the best. If you aren’t already subscribed, what are you doing?? Get on it, hit that button below to get your extra special greeting in the next newsletter!
Sincerely,
Her (Apoorva)
Feel free to contact me about speaker events, comments, and anything else at apoorvapanidapu@gmail.com! You can also connect with me on LinkedIn, follow me on Medium, and check out my art gallery, personal website, or Instagram.
Now that you are ready to delete “hardly” from Letter? I Hardly Know Her!, I would greatly appreciate you sharing this so that my publication name doesn’t become irrelevant & obsolete! <3
Fantastic we are waiting for you next year
every time apoorvas newsletters land in my mailbox life just gets better