[july 24] hosting hackathons + running + boston's biotech hub
july '24 updates by lauren pearson - @inside lauren's brain
Hi, I’m Lauren. I’m passionate about neuroscience & AI. At the moment, I’m building at the intersection of neuro-oncology and artificial intelligence while living in Boston atm.
what I did…
hosted the Cambridge, MA house in collab w/ a 72-hour “hacker house” hackathon with hackers from Bangalore to Berlin, Berkeley & SF.
[spoiler - we ended up winning the $1k overall prize #c-house]
I had an awesome conversation with Sarah Alamari about scientific research in academia vs. tech and her work in deep learning and protein design.
got to nerd out on all things neurotech + EE while hosting Neurable @ c house! huge s/o to Ramses & team for coming :)
—
met prof. Michael Elowitz, I talked abt systems biology + research with friends!
enjoyed learning abt everyone’s work and the open dialogue discussion.
side quest to become a collegiate athlete —> started running consistently! hit my PR of 12km, prev. max distance was 6km (slowly getting better ;)
what I learned…
Don't let your long-term goals scare you. The most important thing you can do for yourself is to consistently show up. All you need to focus on is making incremental progress 🚧
There's no shortcut or way to “hack” doing the “hard” things.
While the rigor of content may become more familiar, it doesn’t necessarily get easier. So it’s up to you to decide if you want to take the challenge & enjoy the process… or accept the norm :)
what I consumed…
“mode switching in organisms for solving explore-versus-exploit problems”
the tldr: high sensory salience (ex.💡 on) increased task-oriented behaviors (exploit) in comparison to low sensory salience (ex.💡 off)
michael neilsen's “Is there a tension between creativity and accuracy?” - explores how these factors play a role in contributing towards innovation.
this album has been on repeat! honorable mentions to birds of a feather (s/o to PJ if you're reading this) & chihiro.
✌🏻till next (month)…
If you've made it this far, you’re a real one! While you’re here, check out my twitter/x or find me at laurenap.com. You can also email me at laurenapearsonn@gmail.com!
as always, stay curious + be kind - lauren