week 7: final research video planning, and weekly learnings

part 1

For the final research project, our team collaborated asynchronously, via Discord. Rene started off by sending over a document of some proposals, and the rest of the team added in comments on what we thought it should look like. From there, we made a plan on discussing each section, and who would present which part. What's left to do is draft up a script, plan out how we're going to record each part, and then sort out editing the final product! It feels like we made a lot of progress, but still have quite a bit to go.

part 2

Ted video about a computer science topic: https://www.ted.com/talks/demis_hassabis_how_ai_is_unlocking_the_secrets_of_nature_and_the_universe?utm_source=homepage_featured&utm_content=5&utm_term=video-title&subtitle=en

It is titled How AI is unlocking the secrets of nature and the universe.

The talk dives into how AI can help tackle big scientific and philosophical questions faster. Demis explains how starting with games like chess and Go helped develop smarter AI models like AlphaGo and AlphaZero, which learned strategies all on their own. A huge milestone was AlphaFold, which cracked the protein-folding problem and predicted millions of protein structures, saving years of research. They also discuss how competition in the AI space pushes companies to rush out tech, stressing the need for teamwork to safely develop AGI. Demis is optimistic that AI could lead to mind-blowing discoveries, even helping us understand the core of reality someday.

Ted video on an interesting topic: https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_to_discover_your_why_in_difficult_times?vwo=featured

It is titled How to discover your "why" in difficult times.

The talk dives into how the pandemic made everyone more aware of mental health and the importance of staying connected. Simon talks about how trauma can hit at unexpected times and shares his own experience with depression, stressing how important it is to lean on friends and not handle things alone. He explains that real human connection, like calling instead of texting, became even more meaningful during tough times. Simon also points out that leadership isn’t about having a title—it’s about helping and supporting others, especially when things get hard. Lastly, he says that helping someone else, even when you’re struggling, can be one of the best ways to heal.

I thought the video and reading about presentation skills and using visual aides was very insightful, especially because we're going to be presenting a video to everyone soon. What I learned from this: PowerPoint can easily become overwhelming with too much text, excessive animations, and unreadable fonts, which makes presentations boring and distracting. Slides should only highlight key points, not replace the speaker’s interaction with the audience. Using too many bullet points, confusing graphs, or pointless visuals dilutes the message and loses the audience’s attention. Props and visuals can help, but they need to be relevant, simple, and aligned with the speaker’s message; otherwise, they can become distractions. The overall goal is to keep presentations engaging by using slides as a support tool, rather than a crutch.