[june24] ai @mit CSAIL & electric scooters?
june '24 updates by lauren pearson - @inside lauren's brain
Hi, I’m Lauren. I’m passionate about neurosci & AI At the moment, I’m building at the intersection of neuro-oncology and artificial intelligence while living in boston atm.
what I did…
moved to @harvard hacker house, where I joined
to work on building out my spatial growth simulation model for high-grade gliomas 🧠🎗re-started posting daily #bip updates on twitter, which served as a way to stay accountable & consistent as I work on increasing my technical depth in ML & DL.
I rode an electric scooter (for the 1st & last time), forcing me to pause my daily updates & becoming concussed 🤕
ventured into Boston’s tech scene: volunteered @ MIT CSAIL’s IIA+ AI symposium, met Jamie Metzl (prev. US National Security Council) & met fellow biotech nerds on the Charles River :)
what I learned…
your identity lies in more than just your work…
^My concussion prompted this after the doctor suggested rest + strictly removing screentime. I came to the realization that much of what I do is directly related to my persona. My main takeaway from this is that I want to challenge myself to avoid restricting myself from taking risks & failing at things.
learning to take “real” breaks is equally productive as the work itself.
This takeaway was also brought on due to my concussion-induced hiatus from project work. I felt immense guilt for not “choosing” to focus on making technical progress instead of following doctors’ orders. I had a conversation with a mentor, who shared their experience of feeling more refreshed after taking time offline.
I decided to take their advice. I took two days completely off—this wasn’t easy for me, but I did gain more appreciation for my health, which I had taken for granted.
what I consumed…
accurate structure prediction of biomolecular interactions with AlphaFold 3 (highly recommended to anyone interested in AI + protein structures :)
sam altman’s blog post re: technological development + socioeconomic dependencies (@ “the Moore’s Law of Everything”)
the social network soundtrack → I code to this, I run to this, I write to this…
✌🏻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