Merry Christmas, happy holidays, and a happy new year to everyone! Before the clock struck 12 on new year’s eve, my team and I were chosen as finalists to consult for 501CTHREE, I spent lots of time tinkering away at a muscle memory programmer serving as a typing tutor, and took a step back and to appreciate all that I have.
Appreciation
The mindset I really tried to zero in on this month was appreciation, and let me tell you, I have a lot to be grateful for.
When living a life of abundant privilege, it's easy to lose track of everything you should be grateful for because there's just so much. Everything from having food on the table, a roof over our head and clothes on our backs are all things that I believe we should be infinitely grateful for, but instead, we find ourselves starting to take these things for granted. Here are a couple of things that I’m infinitely thankful for:
My Family
I know this sounds like a super cliché, but I genuinely can’t express how much I’m grateful for them. My parents decided to leave everything they’ve been working for their entire lives to get to Canada, with two young children, mind you. All of this was just so that those two young children, my sister and I, could have a chance to grow up in Canada instead of Afghanistan. But it’s not just my parents that I’m grateful for, there’s also my sister. Although we get into the occasional sibling quarrel, I couldn't imagine growing up without her and how lonely I would've felt. This doesn't just apply to me, but I feel like many people take their older sibling for granted.
The Internet
Not only do we take this for granted, but we also rarely ever use it to its full extent. We essentially have an entire repository with all of the human knowledge in our pockets. Yet, instead of diving into all the wonders and mysteries of our world, we instead opt to spend our time with the internet looking at memes and trying to figure what's the best we can get as many fake internet points as possible.
Making a Haptic Muscle Memory Programmer/Typing Tutor
What better way to learn about haptic technologies than to actually start building! During my adventure through the world of haptics, I’ve come across several awesome projects, one of them being a haptic typing tutor by David Schneider.
For this project, I’m trying to create a system consisting of an Arduino and vibration motors attached to a pair of gloves used in tandem with a program that flashes up words. Every time you would need to type in a letter, one of the vibration motors on the corresponding finger would buzz, indicating that you need to use that finger to hit that specific key. For example, if you needed to hit the letter “w,” the vibration motor on the left glove’s ring finger would buzz. Associating a physical sensation, like a vibration, with actions helps you develop muscle memory allowing your fingers to glide through your keyboard without needing to glance down at it constantly. As you can see from the image above, I’m far from done but still making progress nonetheless and learning a ton as I go.
Merge
Out with the old and in with the new. After talking with our team many hours, we realized that Hack Vancouver could be so much more than just a one-time event and the result of all that discussion was Merge! Now incorporated as a non-profit by the name of Hack+Policy Foundation, we’re now looking to make a more significant impact. Merge will remain a 30-hour global intercollegiate hack+policython to bridge the gap between or merge, if you will, the gap between STEAM and policy. I hope to see you there!
Consulting for 501CTHREE
As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, a team of 3 of my friends and I were working to create a solid and viable recommendation for one of 501CTHREE’s new projects. Just as a reminder, 501CTHREE is an American-based non-profit organization trying to end the water crisis in cities like Flint and Newark. I’m super excited to say that our team has been chosen to consult for the organization directly! We will be presenting our pitch, which outlines a potential strategy they can take to help residents of affected cities purchase a water quality sensor, to them within early January, and I keenly look forward to seeing them implement aspects of our recommendation!
My Book Recommendation for December
The Lessons of History by Will and Ariel Durant
This month I’ve been reading “The Lessons of History” by Will and Ariel Durant. With both the Durants being historians, this book summarizes all of the major trends seen throughout the world's existence with the goal of distilling, you guessed it, the lessons of history. Seeing the history described in the book through the lens of the Durants’ years of study was honestly quite enlightening and introduced me to hundreds of different perspectives that would’ve never come to my mind organically.
That just about wraps it up for this month and the year! I can’t wait to see what’s in store for next year, but I said that last year we all know how that turned out 🙃, so instead… I’m looking forward to making the most out of 2021!
For those of you who don’t know me…
Welcome to my monthly newsletter! My name is Ahmad Shams, and I am currently a sixteen-year-old innovator at TKS. I love learning about emerging tech. Personally, nothing really gets me going and sparks my curiosity quite like science and emerging tech does. I’m interested in everything from quantum computing to haptic technologies. Don’t hesitate to connect with me via Linkedin, Medium, Twitter, and can’t forget the trusty email too. And while you’re here, why not subscribe to my newsletter as well!