Carter Chu

Ms. Meece

Capstone Period 7

21 September 2017

Track Reflection #1

When I first met Dr. Amol Pednekar early in the summer at the Clinical Care Center of Texas
Childrens Hospital, I could tell that he was passionate about his work. More importantly, he cared most
about the practicality of his work and stressed to watch and observe results at every step. On the first
day of the job shadowing/internship, he introduced me to left ventricular noncompaction and
questioned how I would approach identifying a method to diagnose it. At first, I was clueless, but
through his explanations, I remarked that a possible way to identify LVNC would be to compare the
perimeter of the trabeculations and floating mass compared to the diameter of the encompassing round
figure. Dr. Pednekar seemed delighted, he stated that he hadnt thought of the diameter as a possible
measurement, telling me that its important to understand other peoples opinions on research topics.
Others may see different solutions and offer insight to resolve an issue. After discussing possible
diagnosis techniques of LVNC, he shared with me some information regarding why computer science is
important in medical diagnosis, as it allows for high reproducibility. He explained to me the flaws of
current criteria for diagnosing LVNC and why his work was important. Dr. Pednekar read papers from
online, learning more about LVNC and fractal analysis, eventually creating the fractal analysis algorithm
and gaining important insight.

He later took me into his office, introducing me to MATLAB, a numerical computing

environment that has significant use in implementing algorithms, creating user interfaces, and analyzing
data. Dr. Pednekar wanted me to use my time exploring MATLAB and its functions, utilizing the help
function and Google in order to accomplish tasks. Since I have had experience with computer science
prior to meeting with him, the MATLAB language was roughly familiar to me, besides that arrays started
at 1 and I would be working with plotting and graphing functions, which I have not done much of in
other languages such as Java. Dr. Pednekar only assigned me two simple jobs, he wanted me to graph a
circle and explore MATLAB functions in preparation of helping me design simulations to test his
potential algorithm on simulated LVNC hearts. After talking with him for a few hours, I spent the next
few exploring MATLAB, learning how to use breakpoints to run and compile a program one line at a time
(which is slow but is great for debugging programs). At home, I explored functions that I knew in other
programs, but most importantly, I learned the basics of function plotting and data analysis in MATLAB. I
eventually plotted a circle in MATLAB using the plot function, eagerly awaiting my next meeting with my
mentor. I would find out that plotting is not the most optimal way to draw a circle for the simulation,
but that experience would be for another day.