User:Ann5
My User Page
About Me
I'm from Cary, North Carolina, which is a town about twenty minutes away from Duke's campus. I've lived in NC prety much most of my life, except for a few years in Michigan. I'm a freshman undergraduate in Pratt, who's leaning towards majoring in BME and possibly minoring in Economics.
Interests
Here at Duke, I'm really interested in genetic engineering. I work in the Rausher lab, looking for the variations in genetic code that cause color changes in Iochroma, a relative of the tomato plant. I'm also a big fan of music; I listen to pretty much everything, from 1964 Rolling Stones albums to modern hip hop and rap. I play the violin, and was in the Duke Symphony last semester. I'm also trying to learn the guitar, which turns out to be harder than I thought. I'm a huge fan of Duke basketball, which is a product of me living so close to Durham, and an even bigger fan of Carolina Panthers football.
Engineering Grand Challenges
Here are the articles I put up:
- Reverse-Engineering the Brain, Fred Hapgood, Technology Review, updated 11 July 2006, accessed 18 January 2009
This article details the research going on in the Earl Miller lab up at MIT, where scientists are charting the neural pathways of the brain's more complex functions, which include sequential behavior, number management, processing of concepts and beliefs, and the understanding of what other people are thinking. This is being done in an effort to more completely understand how the brain works, in order to better integrate neuroscience and artificial intellegence.
- http://www.abc.net.au/ra/innovations/stories/s1339270.htm Innovations - Water Filter], Australian National University, updated 4 April 2005, accessed 18 January 2009
Follow the link to find information about Tony Flynn, a professor at the Australian National University, and his revolutionary new way of filtering water. His process of making a filter from easy to find organic materials allows for cheap production, and could drive down the cost of providing clean water to developing nations and people who need it the most.
