The Student Spotlight Podcast

#31: Longevity, Reproductive Health, The Tech Age

Welcome to the first episode of season 4! I hope you enjoy the podcast's fresh new look as I kick off my 4th year. There's no better way to start this season than with a thought-provoking conversation with one of my closest friends, Carol Magalhaes [https://www.linkedin.com/in/carol-magalhaes-65963a20a]! She is a Junior at Northwestern University who studies molecular biology, while researching ovarian aging at the Duncan lab. Prior to her current lab, Carol spent six months doing aging research at the legendary Church Lab in Harvard Medical School. She is interested in developing methods to increase female healthspan and reproductive longevity. Outside of research, Carol also co-founded the Nucleate Dojo House [https://www.nucleate.xyz/biodojo-house/], a summer fellowship for young ambitious biotech undergraduates. We hope you enjoy this episode and feel free to contact Carol on Twitter [https://twitter.com/_Carol_Mag] for any followup conversations or catch one of her synthetic biology talks :D If you would like to provide feedback for the podcast and which directions it can go, please let me know @thestudentspotlight [https://www.instagram.com/thestudentspotlight/] on Instagram or Twitter. See you in the next episode, Spotlights!

#30: A Brain Stroke, Non-Negotiables, Mental Models

Wow, it's been a year! A lot has changed as my 3rd year comes to an end and fourth year starts soon. In this episode, I fill you in on my updated mental models after I reflect along the last year and why I didn't podcast during that period. It was a challenging year and led to a breaking point but it's only up from here as I come to conclude this long episode with. If these topics resonate with you, I also outline beneficial action items and correct previous mindsets to help moving forward. This episode marks the end of season 3, we'll see you refreshed in the next season :D!

#29: Twitter Village, Medical School, AI in Health

Twitter! Medicine! Newborn Love! What do all 3 of these themes have in common? Lan! On this episode, the spotlight is on Lan Dao, a third-year medical student at the University of Montreal and a previous intern at the Mila - Quebec AI Institute. With her plethora of experiences, we talk all things health, philosophy, and happiness! There are tidbits for everyone to learn on this episode as we went about tackling questions like: "what is the best thing about medical school?" to "how do you differentiate work-life balance?" So catch this episode while you can, as season 2 comes to a close ;)! If you are on the bird website, you should totally follow @Lan_Dao_ for thought-provoking tweets! Lan also made some twitter shoutouts to a couple of lucky people, follow them if you'd like: @ashleydzhang, @nickcammarata, @altversachi. You can also follow me @yasmeenbrain for podcast updates. It's time to cue the spotlight to future Dr. Lan Dao, enjoy! Fun fact: Lan's secret talents include eating ice cream with her teeth and flying planes.

#28: Esports, Applied Mathematics, Anime

Beep boop beep in this EP, I am joined by three computer science friends, Alex, Andriy, and Peter, where we discuss all things esports gaming (and its connection with math!), as well as a classic Anime exposé! Here's a little sneak peek about this fun-filled episode's guests:  Alex Teeter is a first-year Computer Science student at the University of Toronto, Scarborough. His hobbies/interests include: Anime, Programming, Smash and Philosophy. He hopes to study and pursue a career in Software Engineering because he enjoys programming and likes the “logical flow” it has. Fun fact: his favorite language is Java, since it’s the one he started off with. Despite a hard year transitioning into university as a freshman,. he hopes to continue to work hard and achieve his goals! Next, Andriy is as 2nd year computer science student at the University of Toronto, Mississauga. His hobbies/interests include but are not limited to: programming, reading, and trying out food from different cultures. Andriy hopes to one day pursue research in how machine learning can be directly applied to our lives and what improvements it can provide. You can check out his weebness via his curated anime list: https://myanimelist.net/animelist/Tr_psin    Lastly, we are joined by a Pikmin Master! Speaking of, have you played Pikmin 3 Deluxe yet?! Peter is a second year CS student who is also an events coordinator for UTM's esports club. In terms of interests, he enjoys playing and competing in video game tournaments, as well as watching anime. His favourite thing about computer science is the art of programming and the application of theory in code. If you fancy gaming (especially with others),  join Peter's 1000+ member Esports server here: discord.gg/utmesports This episode was very informative in terms of the virtual entertainment industry, I'm glad we were able to explore this new virtual landscape with some friends (shoutout out to DSC [Google's Developer Student Club] for connecting us in vc). Poggers!

#27: My Book, Artificial Intelligence, New Beginnings

Long time, no see Spotlights! I have not fallen off the face of Earth in my absence over the last two months, just had a lot of big projects surface at the same time. In this episode, I update you on the various facets of this podcast as well as my invested endeavours in joining Twitter (and getting flagged lol), building artificial intelligence projects, doing lab research, writing a book, and making GAN art! A lot of things, I know. My gray hairs are amassing as we speak. If I make it out alive, I'll try getting this one super cool guest on the podcast for an episode you're sure to enjoy ;D Have a phenomenal start to your week with a listen to this episode! ✨