10 Sep 2014

What I've been up to

Thanks to this post, I finally linked my github page to this custom domain!

Other than that, here are some things I’ve been up to:

• Origami: Origami make for really cute gifts, and folding them can actually take a bit of thought/concentration (especially with directions that skip a bunch of steps). Last week I made this armadillo for a friend – also tried to make a camera, but it didn’t turn out so great (I’ll try again later!).

• I’ve been working on a bioinformatics research project lately, which has been super exciting. It’s involved a lot of learning about genome wide association studies (GWAS). GWASs are used to survey the associations between SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) and disease incidence, allowing researchers to interrogate genetic links to disease. They’re complicated by the large presence of roughly 10 million SNPs in the human genome, meaning it is difficult to create a study with enough statistical power to identify significant SNPs. There are also lots of cool machine learning applications in bioinformatics (e.g. natural language processing).

• Been trying to re-learn piano (currently learning Chopin’s Nocturne in E-flat Major, Op. 9 No. 2).

• This is a neat machine learning course, although I haven’t completed it yet.

• Tip if you’re trying to learn a language: text/e-mail in that language with a friend! I’ve been doing this in French with a friend who’s trying to learn it.

• This is hilarious! If you’re not satisfied with boring Latin filler on your website…

Til next time,
Audrey at 08:24