Exploring the World, Building Connections
When I was about ten, I wanted a tropical fish tank of my own. My mother insisted I write a formal proposal before funding my project. Armed with a book on tropical fish-keeping, and the online insights of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, I learned about nitrogen cycles, fish compatibility, aquatic plants, and maintenance. I compiled a two page proposal and passed the accompanying “panel interview”, with both my parents and a stuffed lobster representative. I didn’t simply want pets though–I wanted a world to explore.
My parents had always encouraged me to discover on my own, instilling in me a spirit of exploration. I drilled shelving holes with my father before I could talk, and read instruction manuals before I touched a book. He taught me that seemingly ridgid tools were surprisingly flexible: sometimes the best screwdriver was a knife. Between household projects, I spent hours crafting worlds for a society of marbles and magnets, complete with tetrahedral “space habitats,” personal aspirations, and a basic democratic government with marble representatives. My world was as large as anything I could imagine.
Sometimes I found encouragement where I least expected. While paging through my father’s old programming book on day, for example. I found his notes in the margins and a handwritten program on yellowing paper. Seeing the approaches he took, I realized we shared many similarities: we looked for deeper connections to simplify problems, such as patterns behind resistor band values, or relationships between default value tables. These details allowed me to feel a new sense of connection with him, and encouraged me to continue searching like he did.
I’ve moved on to building my own worlds through digital models, music, and algorithms. My true interest lies somewhere among all three. In the past year I’ve created a guide for other students in my school to learn electron structure modeling, built a password utility, tried reversing RSA encryption, and snuck in time for the occasional origami animal. While I haven’t found time yet to create a piano toccata based on the electron structure of benzene, it is on my bucket list.
Sometimes, these projects also allow me to explore my own limits. My most recent project concerns creating a robotic swarm that can map spaces intelligently, by connecting all robots to each other. Designing a communication system lightweight enough to reach across the swarm thousands of times per second has proven difficult, forcing me to devise unusual and creative solutions. Though I have a practical application planned, I am in no rush, because I have found the process of discovery to be a worthy goal in itself.
As I learned more about myself and the world, I found myself yearning to share my discoveries with others. As a maintainer and contributor of the Coala Open Source Project, I help people discover the joy of programming communities. In a typical day, I coordinate contributors, handle emergencies, and lead release plans. We are a close-knit community: someone is always helpful with issues or willing to discuss obscure design flaws, even if they live halfway across the world. Seeing everyone come together has taught me that communities don’t need people to be located close together; they just need a common goal. Watching a project grow from the ground up from small contributions has been eye-opening, and I hope to pass on that experience of wonder and achievement to the students I mentor every fall.
As I look forward to college, I want to continue exploring the world, building connections that might be easily overlooked. The synergy between the sheer analytical power of computer engineering and natural systems of biology and chemistry could lead to an endless series of new creations and revolutionary ideas. Just as the components of my fish tank work together to make a complex biome, so could the combination of computer engineering and the other sciences inspire my life’s work.