Fall Quarter

Science of Music: Examining Waveforms via Oscilloscope

Course: PHYS 116 Waves, Optics, Atom and Nuclei​

I enjoyed the content taught in this class as light and sound are two things I encounter from the Doppler effect we experience through the sirens we hear frequently in Seattle to the rippling patterns of interference I could see on the pool bottom while swimming. It was interesting to learn how my eye focuses light on the retina, or realize that the reason why I can hear someone typing so loudly is because my elbow is resting on the table and sound travels faster than light. This class was also a great supplement to my MCAT studying. 

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I had to do another ad-hoc project this quarter, and I really enjoyed making the song for Professor Brahmia's class last quarter, so I decided to do another song for PHYS 116. This time, I focused less on the lyrics, and more on visualizing the physics of sound. My original idea was to feed a new song I wrote into an Oscilloscope, which would graph the waveforms of the input. I made the song with the help of my producer friend, Noah, and then worked with Professor David Smith to determine what platforms would be best for analyzing this song. I looked into platforms like Audacity and worked with Professor Smith and another lab tech to hook up my song to the Oscilloscope, but none of us could figure out how to graph it on three axes. 

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Eventually, I did some research of my own and found a platform called Descript that could translate songs into waveforms. It took a while to get used to but after many hours I was able to generate waveforms for every instrument and track used in the song (including one of crickets, so that I could observe the waveform of a different genre of sound). I compiled those in Canva to form my final song. 

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I remember feeling a bit nervous that I would not be able to meet the expectations of Professor Shih-Chieh. However, I have realized that this was holding me back from researching and experimenting on my own - instead, I went along with his suggestion to contact Professor David and use the Oscilloscope. Now, I understand that the learning process is full of guesses and checks, failures, and uncertainty. Sure, I felt quite defeated after we failed to properly configure the Oscilloscope. But something good came out of it - I was able to learn how to find and use a new platform and introduce it to my professors. And I still gained experience working with an Oscilloscope and with physics experts. In the future, I should have confidence in my ability to problem solve, and not feel discouraged if the project does not go according to plan. 

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Additionally, while being able to receive feedback is powerful, I learned this quarter that not all feedback has to be incorporated, even if it is coming from a person with more education than you. For example, Professor Shih-Chieh suggested that I make the instrument icons spin in circles at the end of the video. I felt that to be distracting so I decided to leave it as is. I was uncomfortable making this decision because I didn't want him to think his advice fell on deaf ears. However, I've realized that you have to read between the lines of feedback to infer whether it is suggestive feedback or feedback that actually uncovers a blind spot you missed. In this case, the spinning of the icons felt like suggestive feedback that reflected different artistic preferences, rather than something that absolutely needed to be fixed. 

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I took an eye-opening honors seminar where we read The Sum of Us: What Racism Costs Everyone and How We Can Prosper Together by Heather McGhee. It was a powerful book that embodied Critical Race Theory, and explained why racism still persists today: the zero-sum ideology. This is the idea that white people are afraid of black people succeeding, because they assume that such gains will come at their expense. However, the book debunks this myth, and demonstrates ways that racism has harmed white communities, and how dismantling it can lead to better life outcomes for all.

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Through this class, I learned the power of reflecting on why things are the way they are and recognizing how racism is embedded into society to perpetuate systems of oppression. I've learned that the solution to this problem is to embrace social solidarity, standing with each other rather than against each other. This includes pushing for cross-racial public investment, making amends for the harm done by medical racism, and learning about the communities we work with as public health practitioners. 

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I've been trying to apply the concepts I am learning in class to enact change, so I made an instagram post to be shared on the Resident Education Programmers and Residential Programming Board pages. I have included it below. ​​​​

PEARL Lab - Department of Global Health 

This quarter I finally joined the PEARL lab. I was originally supposed to only support one  grad student (Mira Reichman) on her work, but eventually was paired with another (Laila Volpe) to conduct orientations for a study done at PEARL. The first grad student is researching peer support interventions for caregivers in critical care settings – in layman’s terms, she is researching what support programs there are for people who take care of their loved ones in the places like the ICU. Peer support interventions include a veteran caregiver (someone who has dealt with similar experiences in the past) being matched with a current caregiver to provide emotional support, skills training, and other forms of help. I started out the quarter reading multiple research papers to gain background on this issue, and drafting a series of possible questions that could inform a interview guide Mira would use for interviewing current caregivers. I eventually transitioned into uploading articles into Covidence, screening them for certain criteria, and reviewing the final rough drafts of the interview guide. The screening was the most challenging for me because the criteria were hard to understand but in the end the main takeaways were (1) when in doubt, include the article (2) that usually protocol papers refer to studies that have not been carried out yet which are not very helpful (at least for this project she was doing) and (3) this research topic has such little information that usually we consider articles that may be outdated. For the other part of my work with Laila, I was trained to deliver orientations for a particular study collecting personal health data, screen time statistics, and drinking/sleeping habits from clients. It was a good test of my problem solving skills because the people I practiced with would ask me challenging questions to mimic a potential client and I had to come up with a credible and thoughtful answer. I never ended up delivering one for real, but if I continue next year, I will probably be able to. I also got experience using Redcap, a interview coding software.

Extracurriculars

Shadowing Dr. Mara Bann at Harborview Medical Center 

I shadowed Dr. Bann twice this quarter. It was truly a transformative experience - I think I found my calling. Ever since I read Mountains Beyond Mountains about Paul Farmer and his work with Partners in Health in high school, I have wanted to work with marginalized communities. That is a huge reason why I raised money for and supported local homeless shelters as a high schooler. Throughout college, especially in this last year since I’ve taken public health courses, I have become more and more uncomfortable with the idea of participating in a healthcare system that treats health as a commodity. I want to serve populations that cannot access the healthcare that our society has made so inaccessible and expensive. When I shadowed Dr. Bann, I was so happy to have found the intersection between my interest in medicine and my desire to help those most in need. Harborview’s target population – people uninsured/underinsured, people living homeless, victims of sexual assault or domestic violence, people with substance abuse, people with STIs and so on – is exactly who I want to work with, and I am glad that there are safety-net hospitals like this one where I can champion health as a human right, not a luxury.
 

Here is the discussion post I made after my first shadowing session:

"The past year in the public health major made me so disillusioned with U.S. healthcare that for a brief moment a few months ago I wondered if I would be happier working abroad in a universal health care system. The out-of-pocket model, in comparison to the more effective mandated insurance or single payer models, and the commodification of healthcare fostered a high level of cognitive dissonance - I felt unethical and uneasy about wanting to join a workforce that does not treat health as a human right. 
 

That’s why after reading Harborview’s mission statement, I felt like this was my calling. By “this”, I meant providing care for people via a safety-net institution like Harborview that treats those who have been consistently ignored, oppressed, and rejected by society. 
 

Two things struck me about this mission statement. First, it was blunt. In societal discourse, things are often sugarcoated. Heck, I just read a scientific paper that said a baby “expired” instead of “died” (seriously, like a carton of milk). People like to ignore the parts of society that are less "pretty" and prove that life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. This mission statement blatantly listed over eight groups of people with conditions/circumstances that are heavily stigmatized.
 

It’s a powerful thing in this society to simply acknowledge the existence and needs of these individuals with experiences ranging from domestic violence to sexually transmitted diseases, and an even more powerful thing to say that you will prioritize their care over more privileged groups that traditionally dominate society. And like Mara says, it is horrific that Harborview even needs to state that these are the most vulnerable residents of King County because everyone should have equitable access to healthcare no matter who they are. 
 

The second thing that I realized about this mission statement was that it was on display for anyone passing by on the street to see. What a thoughtful idea to place a mission statement across from a window where it can be read by pedestrians. It’s just one example of how Harborview is accessible even outside the confines of its buildings - for example, those who are experiencing homelessness are now more likely to see this mission statement than if it was displayed on the inside. From my time volunteering at Swedish, I do not believe ever seeing a mission statement; though, to be fair, I was never actively looking for it. At Harborview, I can stumble upon it without even entering the building. 
 

Beyond the mission statement, I was impressed with the quality of care provided given the resources that Harborview receives. I was surprised to learn that Harborview does not receive any funding from the government, despite being owned by King County. This definitely seems unique to a US-based environment, since the U.S. is the only high-income country where hospitals are not run, regulated, and/or reimbursed by the government in some form. 
 

A weakness of the safety-net system thereby revealed itself to me - while it’s there to save others, it needs something to save itself. A safety net for the safety-net hospital, essentially. I was under the impression that it was people with external power that provided that foundation, like the government or wealthy donors looking to help a good cause, but after talking with Mara, this does not seem to be the case. It’s Harborview’s own doctors that are holding up the safety-net hospital by doing elective surgeries to generate revenue to make up for the low-cost/free care they provide those who need it. They also accept that their pay is a fraction of what other doctors make at hospitals like Swedish or Virginia Mason, which keeps operating costs lower.
 

This is not to say that the doctors at Harborview do not have power like the government or donors - in fact, I would argue that they are more powerful, because they are successfully providing care to communities in ways that those external institutions are failing to do, and they are doing it without the enormous wealth or influence. It goes to show that safety-net institutions run on altruistic and selfless values, and that’s what makes them sustainable, since they are held up from within themselves.   
 

This made me think more about how almost everyone has power depending on the context. One thing I noticed and appreciated about the care Mara and her senior resident provided was that they gave power to the patients. Actually, it might be better to say that they preserved and respected the existing power of the patients, enabling them to maintain their autonomy. I was touched by the way the senior resident squatted down by the bedside, as to be on the same level as the patient, rather than towering above them. I liked how Mara asked the patients what they wanted to do, what they thought she could do to support them best, and even humbly apologized for gaps in communication. A lot of the doctors I have met were arrogant and dismissive - you would never catch them apologizing. I have not shadowed in a healthcare setting before that was so empowering, collaborative, and empathetic. Even the interactions between Mara and the senior resident revealed the nature of power dynamics at Harborview. At Swedish, I saw a hierarchy where attendings seemingly viewed residents as inferior. Here, I saw none of that. At Harborview, it seems like everyone knows that the priority is the patients - and they do not fuss about who is more qualified or important among the staff. 
 

These were just a few observations I made. I appreciated the debrief that we had at the end of the shadowing session. I ended up asking more about the social dynamics within the hospital (namely, between doctors and nurses), the prevalence of racism and sexism throughout the medical field, and the intersection between public health and medicine, among other things. I have learned that while healthcare in the U.S. is not universal, the notion that it is a commodity is also not universal. Institutions like Harborview give me hope that marginalized communities can access the care they need, and that there is potential for a future U.S. that does not place a price tag on people's lives and their health."