User:Rees.ridout

About Me

Hi, my name is Rees Ridout, and I am from Searcy, Arkansas. I am a Biomedical Engineering major at Duke University. My hometown is very small, and while I was there I played tennis and baseball. I love to take things apart, design, and build my own machines for fun. I am extremely excited to be in Duke's engineering department. I have always been a huge fan of the school, but an even bigger fan of the basketball team. Go blue devils!

Grand Challenges

Healing Minds with Virtual Reality, Christina Couch, Nova Next, 2 April 2015, accessed 18 September 2017 (Enhance Virtual Reality)

I found this article interesting because virtual reality is a technology that seemed like something straight out of a science fiction move many years ago; however, in the past few years, it has become one of the fastest growing technological fields. Thanks to companies like Samsung and Oculus Rift, virtual reality headsets are now common items to find in one's home. By utilizing this new technology, researchers are using VR to help people with traumatic memories and may be suffering from PTSD. This is a problem that I do not believe is addressed enough when it comes to the United States: there are many veterans suffering from PTSD with no real treatment. This new research provides hope for those retired heroes.

Favorite Demonstration

My favorite MATLAB demonstration on the "Getting Started with Matlab" page was definitely the "3-D Surface Plot" demonstration. I really enjoyed viewing math in this new 3-dimensional way, because I am currently only in Math 122L. Difficult as it is, we only work in two dimensions. So, I never tend to really think that math actually can be demonstrated in more than two dimensions. The graphs are also really cool to look at; they are almost like little pieces of art and sculpture. I think I would enjoy seeing what different surface plots look like for different functions.