Day 9: Voyages and Vectors

We started off the day with a "Do Now" question: If you could start a startup, what would you start? We had a short discussion about innovative ideas and what startups are. Then we walked down to the bus stop where we waited for the bus and played a few games of "Telephone". We took the bus to Sproutel, a startup in Providence which creates teddy bears that help teach young children with Type 1 Diabetes about how to take care of themselves through programming on the bear. Hannah, one of the founders of Sproutel, talked to us about the process of beginning Sproutel and startups in general and about the challenges she has faced throughout the process of working at Sproutel. She also explained to us how the bear worked. We left Sproutel, had a snack and then got back on the bus to go to Brown. We ate lunch outside and played a game of "Mafia" and a game of "leader". We came back inside and heard Beata Jarosiewicz talk about BrainGate, a biomedical engineering research project that involves turning neural signals in the brains of people who have been paralyzed from brain injury into movement of a cursor on a screen, or movement of a robot. We then moved on to a lesson about vectors, and their applications in physics. We ended the day with a quick video about girls' self confidence. Tomorrow is an exciting day! Wear your pants and closed-toed shoes and bring your enthusiasm!