1st place in CSNE’s annual hackathon

A photo of Rin Yunis, Jaycee Holmes, and me—we are each holding a 3D-printed trophy that is shaped like a brain.

This week, I had the amazing privilege of competing in the CSNE’s 2nd annual hackathon. It was a grueling three days, but it was worth all of the sweat and tears. I was fortunate enough to be part of the winning team this year, but each team came up with something awesome—the competition was stiff! Here’s an excerpt from an article in The Daily:

The winning team included Brown, Jaycee Holmes from Spelman College, and Catherine Yunis from MIT. Their project, Face the Music, was an open-source creative software outlet that uses facial electromyography to make facial rehabilitation systems more engaging. Users can draw, play music, or create art using the recorded electrical activity.

“There’s a lot of aspects that fall out of the engineering realm, or even the product realm, that have to do with usability, acceptability by the patient user, and general quality of life,” MacLeod said. “They chose something that someone [who] is 90 percent paralyzed could [use to] play music, and it’s a novel way to take into consideration the patient population.”