Landing an AI internship, Creating AI Tutor 'Brainwave', & my project update: My Science-Filled Journey!
The Limitless Mindset | Rayan Alyousef
Hi there! If this is your first time reading my newsletter - I’m a 17yr old from Toronto, and I’m working to make my impact on the climate-positive nuclear sector ⚛️ through my research in using composite materials to produce tritium fuel for next gen nuclear fusion reactors. May has been packed with new projects, internships, networking, and other cool events - let’s talk about it! :-)
TL;DR
Exploring the potential of different solid composite materials to produce fuel for fusion reactors.
Participated in the Techhours Hackathon at McMaster University, & pitching a solution to the crippling education system in western countries.
Touring McMaster University & meeting the team who built and launched a research satellite.
Landing an internship to build a startup alongside a serial entrepreneur.
May in a Snapshot
Attending the Techhours hackathon & McMaster University & High School Prom !
Exploring solid composite materials for tritium breeding
In the field of fusion many different elements can be used to produce energy, deuterium, helium, even boron, but one fuel source stands out as the true holy-grail… tritium. Tritium, an isotope of hydrogen, produces incomparably more energy than the next best, yet is being left in the dirt. Why? Well, tritium is radioactive, meaning it cannot be found naturally. So for all intent and purposes tritium doesn’t exist and must be made artificially in a lab. This is slow, and VERY difficult. That’s what my recent research project has been looking into… the use of composite materials to serve as breeding blankets within nuclear reactors to produce this sacred tritium.
Right now I’m looking into the compound Li₂TiO₃ (Lithium Titanate), for its resilience against magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) affects experienced within a reactor, high probability of reaction, and the ease of tritium extraction. Keep in mind this will likely be a multi-month project, and I’m not 100% sure yet where i’ll take it. But I think it’s pretty cool, so i’m pursuing uncertainty.
Attending the Techhours Hackathon
Last week I went to McMaster university for the Techhours event. It’s a new hackathon that’s hosted by some super cool McMaster students. The challenge of the hackathon was to solve one of the five UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) using emerging technology and startup-type product. We wen’t with the goal no.4 - Quality Education.
What’s wrong with education? - Other than the obvious stuff…
Over the past century the rapidly growing population has caused an increased in student-teacher ratios, meaning teachers today are only capable of giving a fraction of the focus to each student that they’d be able to in a 1950s classroom. This is making external resources like tutoring, Khan Academy, & even Youtube very popular amongst students wanting to keep up with their courses.
If students already rely on these kinds of resources for the better of their education, why not bring them into the classroom. That’s why my team and I, consisting of my good friends Abdur, Krishiv, & Karan, pitched Brainwave. An AI powered tutor that gives students the ability to have the 1-1 like experiences to learn anything as simple as algebra or as complicated as quantum mechanics, anywhere, anytime.
If you think this idea is cool here’s some more info and what exactly we worked on… keep in mind we created this during a 4 hours hackathon, so the deliverable’s weren’t exactly perfect. Brainwave Deliverables - Credit to my teammate Krishiv for coding the technical prototype.
Touring McMaster University!
One of the perks of going to the 2023 Techhours event was that it was hosted on the McMaster campus, and although really anyone can just walk in I’ve never had a reason to drive that far. I’m glad I did, because the campus is energetic. My teammates and I spent a couple hours with some campus bikes going building to building, from the robotics lab, to the on site nuclear reactor.
Ps. Apparently you can’t take pictures of the nuclear reactor building because campus security made us delete the pictures we took…
After checking those buildings out we took our bikes down a trail and caught some cool views.
All in, touring the campus has made be super excited to go to university the year after next and maybe even McMaster.
Landing an Internship to work on AI
Recently through one of my mentors, I landed an internship to work with a serial entrepreneur on his latest venture. The company i’ll be interning at, DS Box, hasn’t been around for very long, so i’ll have the unique opportunity to work closely with the founder. DS Box takes raw data from all sorts of places, and converts it into actionable intelligence.
Here’s an example of where the product could be applied… in the average hospital room you’ll have about 7 different devices monitoring a patient. All devices which a nurse has to routinely check manually. Nurses are already overworked like hell, so how their time is spent in a shift highly valuable. DS Box takes all the raw data collected from the patient, and monitors it the same way a nurse would. Now, instead of the nurse coming in once an hour for the routine check, that nurse can view all patient health from a single computer.
Lesson’s of the Month
Recently I listened to Impact Theory podcast episode #191, the conversation between Tom Bilyeu & Vusi Thembekawayo resonated with me so much I couldn’t stop repeating the episode. I literally listened to this hour long episode four times. Here’s what I learnt.
The first & hardest step of changing your identity is seeing yourself for who you truly are - not for who you think you are. Without a true raw lens of ourselves we cannot begin to make change. Because we’d simply be missing important factors to the equation - At first thought this may seem arbitrary - but it’s not.🪞
Excuses exist, excuses are real, but so what, if you wan’t to achieve your goal you must treat your excuses as gravity. AKA, don’t dismiss them, understand they exist and there’s nothing you can do about it. Choosing to achieve your goals is choosing to move forward despite the gravity. 🏔️
You don't need to be ready for where you're headed, you just need to be ready for the next step. Our journey’s shouldn’t be outcome based, that’s the one thing out of your control. Instead focus on input, what are you doing right now to achieve your desired outcome. 🎯
Above all the most valuable thing you can do is remain "teachable" & always identify as a learner.
Next Steps…
The most important part of the coming month will be continuing my research on different composite materials. I’m going to take this project all through summer so i’ve ever more excited to have all day free to grind it out. I’m still not sure if I want to try and get into a research facility so I can synthesize a material and conduct tests on it, or do the same with computer simulations. From here the outcome is uncertain, but i’m just having a blast. 😎
Alongside this passion project I’ll also have the summer internship to be working on. I’m not an AI expert i’m onboard to help scale & optimize the startup. As soon as I saw the investor pitch deck my eyes lit up, I’m already filled with idea’s of what DS Box can do. By next month I’ll have begun working on this, so I’ll have some pretty excited stuff to share!