01/23 | Coding @12am + Speaking (virtually) @Stanford

January Newsletter (hello 2023!)

Hey! Fancy seeing you here. My name is Lauren, and I’m an 18y/o passionate about making the world neuroinclusive ♾️ 🧠 through technology💻. When I’m not reading scientific journals, you can find me running or flipping around (yes, I mean this literally!)

• New for 01/23 - I’m currently analyzing neuroelectrical activity via BCI tech, preparing for Neurodiversity Celebration week (in march ), + finding new ways to better my 💪🏻 physical & intellectual growth.

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This month has been quite chaotic with academic pressures and personal stressors. Regardless of the outcomes I faced, I’m pretty impressed with my progress in neurotechnology (keep reading to see my latest project 😉).

I hope you enjoy my recap of this past January, and as always, you can reach me at laurenapearsonn@gmail.com or visit my website (www.laurenap.com) 💻

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Speaking w/Stanford? 🌲❤️

In part of my neurodiversity advocacy efforts, I’ve been working under Dr. Lawrence Fung with the Stanford Neurodiversity Project NNEA (Network for Neurodiversity Education and Advocacy) Committee.

While I primarily manage outreach and international coordination initiatives, I unexpectedly got the honour to speak at our January monthly webinar.

In the past, I’ve discussed the importance of young neurodivergent voices in the media. This month, I shared my goals by combining brain-machine interfaces to improve the lives of those with a neuroatypical brain (aka me 🙃).

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Controlling My Neuroelectrical Activity @ Home

In place of my quest to understand the inner workings of the human brain, I completed my second brain-computer interface project. I finally had the nerve to python code from this “Muselsl” GitHub repo (not my code repository, credits to Alexandre Barachant). After multiple late-night calls w/my fellow BCI peeps to debug my code, I eventually got the program to work (see screenshot below).

From now on, I’m focusing more on the technical viability of my proposed solutions, especially since I plan on sharing this project publicly (coming soon, eta = end of march!). As mentioned previously, this was my first time using code to interact with my EEG headset. In the future, I plan to develop my programming skills to increase my overall skill set.

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Looking Ahead 👀🔮

• Invest in my Personal Health

  • So far, I have increased my overall activity levels. Thank you, mom & dad, for financing my personal training. I want to hit up the gym at least 3x weekly (ideally 4x times) within the next month.

• Making Accessible BCI Content!

  • Before getting into the brain-computer interface field, I struggled to grasp the difficulty and technical areas of the subject matter. I aim to start posting more consistently to inspire the future generation of BCI lovers.

    • Subscribe to my Youtube Channel here ⬇️

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Peace Out, Readers✌🏻

Thanks for following yet another month of “Inside Lauren’s Brain”!

In the meantime, feel free to check out my socials + personal website.

Twitter, Medium, LinkedIn & Youtube Channel

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Do you want to get in touch?

Please send me an email at laurenapearsonn@gmail.com.