During week one, I and the other DREU interns focused on settling into our spaces and got prepared to start doing research with our mentors. We had to take a IRB training course to be certified to work with people while we do our research. We also had to begin learning JavaScript because me nor my partner are familiar with the language. I had a few frustrating moments getting settled into my room, but they were fixed immediately. Overall, my experience in the first week of research was positive. The two projects that me and my partner will be working on is 1)trying to conceptualize C language into a way that students understand better and 2)trying to implement artificial intelligence into elder people's lives in order to improve their health.
During week two, we started doing JavaScript and Node.js tutorials. I was assigned to set up Alexa Voice Service on a Raspberry Pi computer. I had to do that in order to help to circumvent the issues that come with Alexa not be able to recognize certain types of voices. During the exercise with the elderly at the senior center, there were a few issues with Alexa having trouble recognizing there voices. In my opinion, it was probably due to Alexa not be developed with different dialects in mind. When setting up Alexa Voice Service, I ran into a few issues. First, I had to learn how to use Unix commands. I am familiar with them, but I'm not very good at executing them. Second, the Alexa Wake Word isn't working properly, so I have to figure out why that's not working. Lastly, the skills that Alexa is asked to perform are working, but they need to be tweaked a bit. These issues are all things that need to be worked in during week three.
During week three, my partner and I worked on learning C# in order to properly use Unity. We are assigned with creating a virtual reality environment that can help students learn C language. This will be my second time working with Unity, so I have to brush up on my C# skills and 3D modelling skills. Hopefully, my partner and I can create at least two different environments that students can interact with to better understand how memory works.
During week four, my partner and I have started to create a virtual reality environment using Unity. My partner is taking up the environment elements and I am designing the models and textures for the elements of the environment. We also gave a presentation to aspiring Computer Science high school students showing them artificial intelligence and the robot Pepper. I am also still learning C#, JavaScript, and Node.js.
During weeks five and six, my partner and I continued to create the virtual reality environment. We are still working to perfect the models that we want to use. Another group of students came to visit our workspace as well and we showed them a demo of what we have working so far. I believe a prototype of the project can be achieved before the end of the program.
During week seven, my partner and I attempted to implement the VR elememt into our environment. The headset would not work with Unity and every time we changed the version our environment was made in with Unity, the Oculus headset would change the directory it was in. We are still trying to figure out how to connect the headset to the environment without it changing the directory it is reading from. We are going to continue to focus on finishing the environment from now on and if we have time, we will try to connect the headset.
During week eight, I started to put the memory aspect into the game. We decided to represent memory using a book. The user will be able to flip back and forth to get a complete understanding how memory stores code and why their results with certain code can be wrong and how to fix it. Hopefully, the user will have a better understanding of C code. We want the user to have an immersive experience with the program and want that to help improve their understanding and confidence in their coding abilities.
During the ninth and final week, my partner and I focused on the final touches of the program. We added pictures and text to explain what is happening with the code. We built the program and test it out several times to fix any of the problems. Because we were almost done with the program, my partner and I decided to explore around the campus more. We found a park many statues from the Art Department. We did end up getting a working prototype of the program, but we could not get the VR headset to work with the program before we left.
