Neural Networks and Bountiful Books
Along with wordplay in the title...
January marks the start of what will hopefully be a most amazing year, filled with learning, new relationships, and the creation of wonderful projects. First off, I want to share a project me and some friends created in a hackathon at TKS.
In the 24-hour hackathon, were tasked with using a specific technology (for us AI) to solve a problem. Yup, that’s pretty broad. Anyways, we quickly decided on solving a problem in healthcare and chose to create an app that can detect Parkinson’s in under 5 minutes, and right from the patient’s home.
The idea was to have the patient read a paragraph of text into the microphone of the phone, which would then use multiple metrics of the voice, for example, Volume variance, Pitch variance, and pronunciation clarity, to diagnose the disease. It would use a Neural network as loosely illustrated above. Altogether it was a really fun project, and we won “most impactful” out of the 80+ participating teams.
“Never trust anyone who has not brought a book with them.”
That famous quote is from Lemony Snicket and is one I stand fully by. In that context, I want to share some of the books I’ve been reading, and a little surprise at the end too!
First off, The Richest Man in Babylon
This masterpiece in personal finance details the story of multiple people in old Babylonia, and their moral-containing stories about how to handle your money wisely. It is where the famous quote: “One-tenth of what you make is yours to keep” comes from. This should undoubtedly be the first book on personal finance anyone (and everyone) reads, as its teachings may be simple, but they are oh-so true and have stood the test of time.
Secondly: How to Win Friends & Influence People
Regarded by many as the best book of all time, How to Win Friends & Influence People has been a cultural hit since 1936. I think the majesty of the book is how it teaches how to apply strategies to make yourself more likable and influential in real-life situations, and not just the theory behind how it works. Some of my favorites from the book are to really consider what someone says no matter if you think you’re going to agree or not, to favor rewarding good behavior over punishing bad, and to always find out what the other person wants in any kind of sales situation and then show how you can give it to them.
NOW! for the surprise… I actually made a video review on How to Win Friends & Influence People! Click this link to watch it! I know you want to….