Author: letsdoourpart

There are many accomplishments one can be proud of. It might be getting a good grade, scoring a goal in a sport, or getting a job they wanted. For me, the list is extensive, but it comes down to two of my proudest achievements. Creating this non-profit “Let’s Do Our Part”, focused on spreading global awareness and impact around our social responsibility; and writing two research papers.

Research papers are what we understand is after college, or that last senior thesis as you head off to the workforce. Being given the opportunity to do so through a summer course, made me stressed but also really proud I did something so large as young as a rising junior in high school. My research papers focused on two things, water potability and air quality. Through a summer course, a group of five to six students, including myself, worked with Prof. Goldsztein of Georgia Tech, to learn machine learning and how to utilize machine learning and data science in a broader topic of our interest. I was also able to work with Ms. Davida Kollmar from New York University who assisted me with programming the models. 

When questioned what we were gonna apply machine learning to, for our final project, i.e. the research paper, I was surprised to hear that many knew what they wanted to do. Some said medical related topics, one said fantasy football, and one said AI, but I was still not sure. But, what I noticed was that most of my interests focused on the environment and how people dealt with change within the environment and how we utilize it for ourselves. So I started to look into datasets on an interface called Kaggle, that compiles a broad variety of datasets that are easy to use by anyone. Through that I found a water potability dataset, specifically the data focused on the impact of pollutants on the potability, or usage of the water source by people. Capturing various water samples and the complex relationships between different chemical and physical parameters affecting potability, machine learning techniques hold great potential in increasing efficiency and accuracy. Through the use of Python coding, specifically pandas, and applying it to this binary classification problem, I came to a conclusion. Using artificial neural networks I was able to determine the significant parameters that affected the potability of water sources. Out of the nine features, or parameters, it came down to Hardness, Chloramines, and Organic Carbon.

The next summer, prior to my last year of high school, I was so excited to gain another opportunity to work with Prof. Goldsztein again, on another paper focusing on machine learning. This time I was able to learn a little more machine learning and data science, which allowed me to realize how it could be used for other datasets, such as an air quality dataset.  The research project focused on applying machine learning techniques to assess air quality. Data set from Kaggle, pertaining to air pollution collected from urban cities in India, was analyzed. Python based analytics was implemented using Google Collaboratory and I was able to determine the specific factors that impact air quality, as well as prediction accuracy.

I am amazed to see how machine learning and data science could help in the future, and makes me excited to see how far my efforts can take me.

Like Nelson Mandela once said, “Education is the Most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

Education is important to all in this world. One of my main focuses is bringing that to everyone in the world through our non-profit. Seeing that many people aren’t able to reach their aspirations due to some social, physical, or economical challenges, created a push within me to help them, donating towards other non-profits within India and around the world, focused on providing education to all.

My passion toward education grew slowly, but one jump was from research into education in undeveloped countries in middle school. Learning that mainly girls were married as children to make money for their families, and urged to work at home and get jobs instead of learning in schools, shocked me and jumped my want to help, and gain awareness toward this. Children don’t need to be forced to work and get married because of the social or economic constructs their families face, but are at the age to prosper and gain the everlasting education they can hopefully gain.

One thing that I was proud to hear from stories from my parents was this same passion for education was within my family as well. My grandfather was a physics college professor and had a hope that for his kids’ top priority would be their health and education, and that his grandchildren would also be educated. My aunt became a teacher, and other people within my family pursuing such jobs in teaching, grew my interest in seeing that others such as me believed in teaching and growing the knowledge within our society.

Although my step forward might be small as donating a penny to an organization, I hope it grows to help other children like me gain their education.

Recent news like the  water scarcity in Cape Town in Africa or the one more close to home in Jackson Mississippi are stark reminders of multiple ways in ways water management is crucial. The WHO predicts that by 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas.

While governments across the world are looking for solutions, I feel there is also a real need for education and awareness amongst all age groups on how environmental and other factors have the potential to impact something as basic as running water. Education can be incorporated in simple ways. For e.g., In my final assignment for an Estudies course in DukeTIP I was to create an app focused on your interest, and if published could have some use. Some people created games, and incorporated maps, but my idea became somewhat original. I created an app that taught kids about water scarcity and how it is affecting the people living in the countries around us. It had a map that had small pins on different areas on the earth, and if you clicked on it, it brought up a slideshow of images of the situation people are in due to droughts and water scarcity in their area. For example, for a pin in Africa it included children in a drought affected area, digging deep to reach the small amount of water that was found underground, groundwater, that isn’t freshwater, but the only source of water they had.  

I will be watching closely to see how the imminent crisis in Mississippi and Cape Town are resolved.

My family and I travel down the road and I look out the window to see all the construction starting up around us. There was one constant thing that bugs me when I see these construction sites, they use a large orange net with the sign “Tree Protection Area, Do Not Enter”, so to a person that probably means the trees are being protected so don’t touch them. Then why are the construction companies cutting the trees down within that parameter?

My interest in environmental science wasn’t very apparent until we went into the environmental unit in middle school, and we started talking about pollution, and the different factors that are occurring because of climate change. AP Environmental Science grew my interest in this topic even more, as learning about the different layers of the lakes, rivers, and soil, and learning more in-depth about the human impact on the earth around us, grew my interest even more. Going out into the wetland that sat behind the school, and looking for the benthic invertebrates, and other animals that lived and used the same area we are in, started to grab my attention. 

It was apparent that I was interested in the earth, the people who live on it, and how the environment works together to function as a whole when we were asked to create our final app in a DukeTIP course that involved app development and learning ways to code an app from scratch. The idea that I ultimately chose to create the app upon, happened to be water, educating children on how to conserve water, and teaching them about water shortages around the world. It involved creating an app that had a map that when you clicked on one of the pins, there was an image of drought and a description of what the people in that area are having to do since there is a severe water shortage in their homes.

This idea from the app I created further developed into me writing a paper a few years after, after water potability. It involved using machine learning and data science to examine a dataset on water potability and understand the effect of different chemicals on the potability of a sample of water. Environmental science also became a large interest when I began writing another paper the following summer, as I began to write a paper on air quality and the effect of air pollutants on the air, and how the air quality index differs depending on measurements of particles in the air.

I knew nothing about what RYLA was or what the youth rotary club was when this topic was brought up. My dad told me about his experience as a Rotarian in college, being the leader, and getting sponsors to let me go to competitions and events that the Rotary club had held but, I didn’t think of going to one of these events when he told me these stories. When he brought up how someone had told him about how they were part of a Rotary Club here in Cary and were wondering if I was interested in going to the Leadership Camp at Camp Oak Hill during spring break I was totally surprised and it sounded like a cool idea. There was an application process that delegates first went through since there was a limited amount of space for the people attending the camp; it included a form, a description of what you have done, and if you were vaccinated. I got accepted rather quickly, with a postcard in the mail, and I was surprised and nervous to go to the camp.

My dad and I were invited to join the Cary Rotary Club at their Friday meetings as parents were not allowed to drive the delegates up to Camp Oak Hill. When we reached we were instructed to set up at our assigned cabins, then we would meet up for our first activity. After the introduction activities organized by the counselors, and the leader explaining how it was good to step out of your comfort zone into your stretch zone, we met up with our assigned mini groups for the weekend; mine was the Mighty Ducks. Each group had assigned counselors from previous years, who had the same experience we were having now. It was amazing to hear their experience, while also hearing their suggestions on how we could do some of the activities. Our first day encompassed mostly an introduction day, what we should get out of this experience, and an all delegates activity. We all were able to find out what exactly our MBTI personality letters were through an activity organized by RYLA; we did the Myers-Briggs assessment that told him that I had the letters INFJ, Introvert, iNtuition, Feeling, and Judging, and were able to see that my best fit career was a humanity worker or a teacher. 

The second day was the most eventful since we were able to do many leadership activities with our mini groups, so we could build up our sportsmanship and teamwork to do well as a team. Some of the activities were a Trust Fall from about a 6-foot plank into the hands of your teammates. There was also the  Spider Wall where with the help of two other delegates you had to get up a flat 12-foot wall, with no foot holes, and grab the arms of other delegates at the top to hoist you up, and an ‘Acid’ River activity that involved these bricks that we had to use two planks to build a path to the other bricks, and if you touched the leaves/ground you would be blindfolded for the rest of that challenge. We did group discussions right after each activity, and at the end of each day, so we could talk about how the activity showed leadership, what we improved on, and what our team did well in accomplishing.

It was amazing to work and meet other delegates of the same age, and the same area, who were able to experience the same things we did. It was quite scary to be away from my parents for the first time, but it set up a situation where you had the company of people you didn’t know but were able to become close friends with many other delegates by the end of the Leadership Retreat at Camp Oak Hill.

The Mighty Ducks

Let’s continue to do our part!

“The future depends on what you do today.”

Mahatma Gandhi

I am excited to continue this journey in joining hands and doing our part for nature and each other! I hope we can reach far and wide to improve global awareness of various social causes, and do our part in addressing them. Let me address two of them.

Water shortage and water depletion, mainly due our overuse of water resources, has deeply affected countries worldwide, and devastated many people around the world. I hope we can bring back our water bodies back to what it once was, for us and for the future generations.

In so many countries, it is hurtful to see that young children are forced to stay home and work instead of going out and enjoying education, like we do in other countries. What we cherish as a given, education, is something that many children struggle to gain. Some children in the United States might see school as a chore, instead of something that not many have. I hope for more boys and girls to be able to experience the world of learning, and for more generations to join us together within the next years in education.

Each of us can do a small part in improving the lives of many, and seeing the flourishing nature we want it to be. I am Ramya Nataraj. I look forward to this exciting journey!

-Ramya Nataraj, President, Lets Do Our Part Inc.

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