December Newsletter

Hey, I'm Ciara, a 15-year-old interested in leveraging emerging technologies to solve the world's biggest problems. I'm an Activate student at The Knowledge Society, where I'm learning more about important global issues and working on real-world challenges. I'm also an intern at Kira Learning, helping with content for their AI curriculum. Additionally, I co-host the TechnoGypsie podcast, where my co-host and I meet with professionals in different emerging tech fields and go deeper into the area, the technology they use, and how it impacts the world for the greater good.

PeeZe updates

This month has been quite the growth period for PeeZe. One of the biggest updates with PeeZe is our pivot toward a new product/device. In prior months, the team was looking into the technology, like electrochemical and optical sensors, that could fulfill our vision for creating a reusable IOT toilet sensor for Ovarian Cancer detection. After having some much-needed external meetings, we've decided to pivot our first prototype to something a bit more feasible, but still incredibly useful. Our new prototype is an enzyme-based lateral flow test that uses antibodies and enzymes to detect and quantify the CA125 biomarker in urine. This device is very similar to a pregnancy test, as it uses the same lateral flow technology and would be tested with urine. The major differences between our test and the pregnancy test would be the analyte being looked at, the antibodies being used, and the enzymes, which aren't typically in the traditional pregnancy tests. It's been exciting putting all of this research together into the lovely memo our team created with the intention of being used for the Activate Mentor Showcase, but also as a reference point for others to see our progress, journey, and goals. Our next steps as a team are to apply to challenges and funds like MIT Solve and the 1517 fund and continue meeting with experts. We also plan to further our research into this prototype to make as much of detailed explanation as possible. I've certainly loved diving deep into biochemistry and biosensors, and plan to do much more of that in 2023.

Twitter #buildinpublic challenge

Towards the end of November and throughout December I started doing the Twitter #buildinpublic challenge along with many others in the TKS Activate community. It has definitely been a very fun journey and it certainly has kept me motivated and consistent with the work I'm doing. For most of the challenge, I mainly gave updates on PeeZe research as well as personal research into electrochemistry/potentiostats. Through the process of writing the threads, I've found that there is a lot of clarity that comes when trying to explain things to people who may or may not know what you're talking about. In most of my updates, I tried to make the explanations as simple as possible (though sometimes that wasn't necessarily the priority over just putting the updates out there.) It was also amazing seeing all of the progress made by other TKS Activates, the challenge was definitely more engaging when there were others consistently posting as well. The challenge overall was pretty enjoyable, and I plan to give it another go starting January 1st. Here's the link to my Twitter to view my tweets from the challenge.

New personal website

I've been recently needing to create a new personal website to hold all of my projects, articles, newsletters, etc. So I decided to take on the task of creating one before the new year. After going through the many troubles of domains, hosting, and website creation, I've finally created the new website. I plan to be adding some additional content to the projects page, as well as adding a completely new section for my weekly blogs (more info down below.) One of the most recent pieces of content I've added to the website is my experience interning at Kira Learning!

Top lessons from 2022

While I've learned a lot in 2022, I wanted to keep this section of the newsletter a bit more intentional and concise and only share a few key things.

1) Experiences > shiny objects

For the majority of 2021, I spent most of my time indoors doing work. Since I had only just moved to Maryland, and pretty quickly moved out of in-person school, there wasn't much incentive to do any social activities outside of the house. This wasn't ideal. In fact, it was the quite opposite of what I would consider ideal. So, in 2022 I'm incredibly grateful for the opportunities I had to meet with people in person, explore new places, and soak up so much knowledge through experiences. The events like Disney Dreamers Academy, Kode with Klossy, and Web Summit, really showed me the importance of taking time to explore the lovely world outside of my room. The in-person experiences weren't the only memorable ones though. Getting to do challenges and projects for TKS and my internship has also been very exciting as well. If there's one thing I've learned from these experiences, is that they are so much more valuable than the stuff I always thought would make me happy. The temporary stuff. Like the gadgets, awards, games, etc. The lessons and feelings taken from experiences can last a lifetime, compared to the often short-lived "happiness" from all the shiny objects that look appealing from the very surface level. Going on more adventures outside of home is something I'm really looking forward to doing in 2023 and am definitely going to prioritize it.  

2) Reflection is the setting spray to learning

This is a lesson I only really internalized towards the end of 2022, but I'm glad I learned it then rather than later. It's the idea that reflection is a core part of the learning process. When I say that reflection is the setting spray to learning, I'm referring to how it allows learnings to stick with us and it allows us to actually gain the lessons from those learning experiences before they wipe away. I've had many experiences in 2022 where I would learn something, take note of it for a little bit, and then it would eventually fade away, until the next time I'd decide to remember to use it again. Even if that method was sustainable enough for some occasions, it didn't really help when I'd subconsciously learn things. For example, we tend to subconsciously learn a lot of things through failure. The thing is, we can never actually unlock those learnings if we don't actually reflect on them. I decided to experiment a lot more with reflection in the latter months of 2022, and I was quite surprised by the number of things I was able to realize about myself, mistakes I was able to avoid, and solid lessons I could take with me in so many other situations. One of the easiest ways to reflect consistently is through daily updates. Through TKS, Innovate and Activate year, consisted of many daily updates with other members in our different squads. For a majority of these updates, I saw them as just another task to tick off, but that mentality quickly shifted when I found the real value in them. I'm sure that at the core of what a successful year looks like for 2023, reflection is at the center.

3) Good environment + clarity fuels momentum

I'll keep this section a bit shorter, as I've already gone into depth with this idea, in a recent Twitter post. Essentially though, what I've found, through the insights shared by former TKS director Harrison, along with some personal reflection, is momentum is a by-product of a good environment + clarity + action. The main things you need to gain momentum are:

1. A goal/objective

2. Clarity on the next 2-3 steps

3. Good environment

4. Belief in your ability to execute

5. Well-defined interests and values

Numbers 1, 2, and 5 all have to do with clarity, and numbers 3 and 4 have to do with environments (both external and internal.)

At any point in the year when I felt I was stagnant, it was most likely due to the lack of one of these factors. Another important thing to also note is that action is also a reactant to this equation. Even though all of these things are extremely useful for gaining momentum (and they can basically get you right to the starting line), you have to take the first step. It doesn't have to be a sprint, it just has to be one foot in front of the starting line. As long as you hold a commitment to putting one foot in front of the other, these other factors mentioned above will skyrocket you to the finish line. 

What's next?

With lots of reflection and intentional planning, I'm excited to start January with the momentum gained from the past few months, along with new ambitious goals. I started in 2022 being interested solely EdTech and ended the year introducing the new interest of biotech into my life. I still hold both of those topics/subjects close to my heart and am glad to have the opportunity to continue fueling those interests in 2023. I'm excited to continue making progress on PeeZe and opening up to new opportunities in that realm. I'm also very excited to continue my journey at Kira, taking time to continue exploring how to effectively make engaging learning content and also explore deeper into what curriculum development actually entails. In the spirit of reflecting and improving my writing skills, I've also decided to start a weekly blog, starting the first week of January, where I post my thoughts from the week and have a platform to voice the ideas that typically stay inside of my head or in private updates. My love for biosensors has continued to fuel these past few months, and I'm excited to continue learning more about them and practicing explaining concepts through first principles. With the podcast, there will be some brand changes coming up as well as new content. Rachel ad I am very excited to also bring on some very legit guests and have many more insightful conversations. As TKS Activate continues, I'm excited to share updates on the PIE and Earthshot challenge coming up this year. Finally, I'm committed to being more intentional with relationships and prioritizing those memorable experiences, so expect to hear more about upcoming trips that'll be happening.

Thanks for tuning in to another edition of my newsletter! Just a quick note, Beehiiv will be the new home for my future monthly updates, already loved creating this newsletter with the platform!!!