Essay V3

wright-application/stem-essay/main.tex

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 \vspace{12pt}
+294 Squiggly red underlines. Nearly every line of my code had errors. Null
+pointers, incompatible types, undefined variables, Gradle sync errors---I had
+encountered them all. It was February 2024, my freshman year, and we had ten
+minutes to take the field for our First Tech Challenge (FTC) League Finals.
+My heart pounded as keys clattered beneath my flying fingers. My code was
+broken, and for the finals, it had to work. The merciless clock ticked away,
+and with seconds to go, I finally compiled the code. There was no time to
+test, hardly any to breathe. We took the field, and my finger hovered over
+the play button. Time paused. The buzzer sounded, and I pressed play. Success.
+In two minutes and thirty seconds, we won.
 
-294 Squiggly red underlines. Nearly every line of my code had errors.
-Null pointers, incompatible types, undefined variables, Gradle sync errors---I
-had encountered them all. It was February 2024, my freshman year, and we had
-ten minutes to take the field for our First Tech Challenge (FTC) League Finals.
-My heart pounded as keys clattered beneath my flying fingers. My code was broken,
-and for the finals, it had to work. The merciless clock ticked away, and with
-seconds to go, I finally compiled the code. There was no time to test, hardly
-any to breathe. We took the field, and my finger hovered over the play button.
-Time paused. The buzzer sounded, and I pressed play. Success. In two minutes
-and thirty seconds, we won.
-
-Seven months earlier, I didn't know what a variable was. I was fully into music,
-and programming wasn't even on my radar. When my friend started a robotics team,
-I joined on a whim. My journey began with a Google search. Progress was
-painstakingly slow; it took me two full months to make a motor turn. But
-gradually, I became hooked. Like a sponge, I absorbed everything: tutorials,
-documentation, and even Stack Overflow threads. Eventually, I taught myself
-enough Java to become a functional FTC programmer.
+Seven months earlier, I didn't know what a variable was. I was fully into
+music, and programming was yet to cross my radar. When my friend started a
+robotics team, I joined on a whim. It was that abrupt decision that started
+my journey into robotics. Progress was painstakingly slow; it took me two
+full months to make a motor turn. But gradually, I became hooked. Like a
+sponge, I absorbed everything: tutorials, documentation, and even Stack
+Overflow threads. Eventually, I taught myself enough Java to become a
+functional FTC programmer.
 
 As the season progressed, we became a competitive team, and my knowledge was
-expanding in parallel. On that competition day, something just clicked. The
-joy I experienced wasn't just from our robot picking up and scoring pixels,
-but from seeing my code produce tangible results. In that moment, I'd found
-my calling. I was no longer just a high school student; I was a STEM student,
-and I was ready to see where my code could take me.
+expanding in parallel. On that competition day, something just clicked. It
+wasn't the win that truly made me happy. It was the realization that my own
+code produced tangible outputs. At that very moment, I knew that I wanted to
+continue working in a STEM field, and I was ready to keep coding on.
 
-But that readiness was tested in September 2024. Somewhat naively, I committed
-to building a machine learning model to predict gait patterns in Parkinson's
-Disease for my sophomore-year Science Fair project. The problem? I had no clue
-how. So I dove in: Python syntax, NumPy arrays, signal filtering, feature
-extraction, and model architectures. I had entered unfamiliar territory, and
-each concept brought new confusion. After two months of relentless reading,
-coding, and debugging, I managed to transform raw sensor data into a working
-classification model. Somewhere between the first error message and the final
-96\% accuracy, I had begun to absorb a new discipline.
+But that readiness was tested in September 2024. Somewhat naively, I decided
+to build a machine learning model to predict gait patterns in Parkinson's
+Disease for my sophomore-year Science Fair project. The only problem is that
+I had no clue how. So I dove in: Python syntax, NumPy arrays, signal filtering,
+feature extraction, and model architectures. I had entered unfamiliar territory,
+and each concept I learned brought new confusion. After two months of relentless
+reading, coding, and debugging, I managed to transform raw sensor data into a
+working classification model. Somewhere between the first error message and
+the final 96\% accuracy, I had begun to absorb a new discipline.
 
 I could have stopped there, but I realized that a working model on my laptop
 wasn't going to help any Parkinson's patients, and I needed to embed my model
@@ -109,18 +108,15 @@ to the International Science and Engineering Fair (ISEF), placing 3rd in
 Robotics and Intelligent Machines. What struck me most wasn't the placement,
 but the fact that six months earlier, I wouldn't have understood any of it.
 
-Throughout high school, I've taught myself disciplines, from Java programming
-to machine learning to circuit design. The Wright Scholar program offers an
-opportunity to apply my knowledge to critical research. I'm drawn to AFRL's
-Sensors Directorate, where I hope to deepen my understanding of signal
-processing while contributing to sensor exploitation technologies. I'm equally
-fascinated by the Human Performance Wing's work with multimodal sensing to
-monitor and enhance human performance. What excites me most isn't just the
-cutting-edge technology, but the chance to work alongside domain experts who
-can accelerate my growth as an engineer and developer. Whether working with
-sensor fusion or biomedical sensing, as a sponge eager to learn, AFRL is
-exactly where I need to be.
-
-
+Throughout high school, I've taught myself many disciplines, from FTC
+programming in Java to designing circuits. The Wright Scholar program provides
+an opportunity to apply my skills to current and critical research. I'm
+intrigued by AFRL's Sensors Directorate, where I hope to deepen my understanding
+of signal processing while contributing to sensor exploitation technologies.
+I'm equally drawn to Human Performance Wing's work with multimodal sensing to
+monitor and enhance human performance. Moreso, the chance to work alongside
+domain experts who can accelerate my growth as an engineer and developer is
+invaluable to me. Whether working with sensor fusion or biomedical sensing,
+as a sponge eager to learn, AFRL is exactly where I need to be.
 
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