Meetings, Thanksgiving, and Walks for Days. November | 23
Good to see you back again!
Hello! I’m Alex, a sophomore in high school who loves to learn about AI + neuroscience, play guitar, hang with friends, cook, and more! I hope you enjoy my monthly newsletter series “Insights by Alex”. Welcome to my November! Thanks for reading!
This month’s Quote:
“No matter what you choose, build stuff and be around smart people.” (Sam Altman)
1. Continuing Exploration in AI x Neuro
This month I have made some major progress on my personal projects! Last month I published an article about detecting Glioblastoma with AI. This month I’ve been working on building a ML neuroradiology project: an AI model that classifies brain tumors from MRI images using Convolutional Neural Networks (with the aid of a guide). Here’s a sneak peek of the code! This is the visualization of each classified tumor using a plotted graph.
Reflections:
Done > perfect. Ship your projects. Nothing is truly perfect. This isn’t an excuse to halfheartedly finish your work. Hold high standards for yourself and just do it.
Failure is part of learning. Learning isn’t easy and following your passions isn’t easy as well. It is a process of constant iteration and improvement. Although it is a struggle sometimes, make sure you enjoy what you are doing.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help. In the back of my head I’ve been thinking that I have to everything myself as of my projects. That is completely wrong. Always ask for help, find friends to do stuff with, look for a mentor, find people online doing what you want to do in the future. There is a whole world of people out there!
2. Meetings, meetings, and meetings!
I love people. Period. I’m so lucky I’m able to tap into a community of people I genuinely love being around. This path month I’ve just been so appreciative of the ability to talk to so many people from diverse backgrounds. I wanted to also highlight my time playing skribbl.io with
, , , and ! It was so fun. Here’s a couple of pics of all the Zooms, Google Meets, and Slack Huddles this month:
3. Wait, walking?
One of the things I just love doing the most is walking. This month I have walked almost every day either with my mom, my friends or by myself while listening to music. I find it to be very therapeutic, breathing in fresh air and just taking a break from life. Here’s some more pics:
4. Meetups
This Thanksgiving I went to my cousins house in San Antonio (see below for collage). Thinking about it now, although it was a short visit, I had a lot of fun and I realize keeping up with family is crucial. They will always be there to help you when you need it and my younger cousins are just the sweetest.
Just this past week I went to The Domain (a shopping area) with 3 of my TKS friends based in Austin. This “Austin IRL” meetup was honestly so fun. We walked around, ate ramen, and event sent a video to
saying how much we love being a part of TKS! Looking back on it, I truthfully feel grateful for all my friends and I’m really excited for the next Austin IRL (with hopefully double the people!).
5. Music
Music is my life. I love making Spotify playlists, playing guitar (I’ve been playing for 10 yrs!), and singing with my friends.
Take a peek at the my favourite Spotify playlist right now:
And here is my personalized Christmas playlist with all the classics:
6. Gratitude
I’m genuinely so grateful for all the opportunities I’ve been given these past weeks and my life in general. I’m so lucky to have a great education and have amazing friends and family. Here is who I want to highlight specifically:
My family: My brother Jacob, dad, and mom. They are always supporting me and my crazy dreams and always provide me with everything I need whether it is actual physical needs or mental support. I love all of them!
My Neurotechx Team: Ali, Chloe, Tanvi (mentioned above). These people are always pushing me to do my best and we have the best group meetings ever. I appreciate all of you and can’t wait to see how we do in the hackathon.
ALL of my friends from school for always being there for me when I need it most. I really do appreciate every one of them and without them I would be lifeless. I can’t mention all of them but you know who you are.
My TKSquad:
, , , and Ali (and who had to leave it). My squad meets weekly to talk about what we accomplished in the week, what we are going to accomplish next week, and our long term goals. I love making the screen hearts with them and just talking for hours on end,- , , and in the Turkey picture above for always bringing the most amazing energy to the virtual room and making me fall over laughing.
- for being an amazing mentor + director. He is always giving me the detailed and specific feedback I need and is just honestly so amazing, inspiring, and motivating.
Thanks to all of you, even to the people I didn’t mention!
What I want to accomplish next month + Goals
I’m excited for December and I think I can get a lot done in this upcoming month.
Win the first TKS Challenge! Teams have formed and I’m extremely ready. We are in this to win it!
Finish my brain tumor classifier project + publish my video and article
Win the Neurotechx Hackathon!
Publish 1 YouTube video
Publish 2 high quality Articles
Collage for November from Right to Left:
Potluck my friend and I hosted for my philosophy class, “Great Ideas” 🍪
My cousins at Thanksgiving 🦃
Ube and Banana Milk ice cream from OMG Squee 🍦
Parks (featuring my friend’s dog) 🐶
Walking with mom and neighbors 🚶🏾♂️
Birthday dinner for my brother 🥳
Gym with my dad 💪🏾
TKS Austin IRL 🗣️
By the way you can find me on LinkedIn and Medium here! Please contact me with any questions on LinkedIn or with my email: alexbmaustin@gmail.com.
If you enjoyed my newsletter please share it with others!
I hope all of you had an a amazing month and I’ll see you soon :)
love it, always proud of you
ALXMAT