Journal Entry 1/21: For my first ISM mentorship, I went over the general examination procedure

with Doctor Pope. It was exactly how mentorship had gone last semester, with the exception of
who I was shadowing this mentorship. During the second semester, Doctor Pope told me he
would be allowing me to interact with patients more often as well as giving me the ability to
operate select machines on patients (with their consent). I plan on building a professional
relationship with Doctor Pope more so than last semester as this semester, I believe I am more
confident in my ability to translate my thoughts, questions and comments to him.

Journal Entry 1/28: For this semester, I'm planning on continuing my research on artificial
intelligence networks. My mentorship under Doctor Pope will provide an additional dimension
to my product as Doctor Pope is able to connect me with patients and is able to give me general
advice in the field of optometry. I plan on making my product different from last year by going
further into the field of artificial intelligence. I am currently researching artificial computer
vision, a necessary part of research for my product.

Journal Entry 2/4: For my mentorship project this semester, I chose to research the aspect of
computer-generated vision systems. I planned on making a program that would allow a computer
to simulate "human vision." My mentor, Doctor Pope, was highly encouraging in this aspect as
he was also curious in this field. Artificial intelligence has been making a rise in the optometry
field, and combined with my previous project on artificial intelligence, Doctor Pope was highly
inquisitive for this up and coming project. During this week, I was observing Doctor Pope's
assistant Christina in her pre assessment of patients.

Journal Entry 2/11: One new thing that interests me in Doctor Pope’s office this semester was the
Corneal Topographer. The machine creates a map of the front part of the cornea, the surface of
the eye. The machine is helpful in fitting and evaluation of contact lenses, diagnosing corneal
disease, irregular astigmatism and keratoconus, and is necessary for laser vision correction
evaluation and follow-up care. Patients look in the center of the rings at a red light, the rings
reflect off of the tears of the cornea surface of their eye while an image is taken and converted to
topographical data. The data is then plotted on a map where it can be analyzed in a number of
ways depending on Doctor Pope’s specific needs. Another machine that interested me was the
Ocular Coherance Tomography machine. The machine is a laser scanning instrument that scans
the eye with light and allows for evaluation of layers of the retina, macula, cornea, or optic
nerve. The OCT is particularly useful for those patients whose vision cannot be corrected as well
as previously possible, and for glaucoma patients and evaluation. An analysis of the retina can
evaluate macular thickness, wet or dry macular degeneration, separations, holes, hemorrhages, or
raised areas of the macula and retina.

Journal Entry 2/18: For this semester, I think I applied sufficient effort into my presentation. I am
primarily focusing on researching my product with Neuroevolution of Augmenting Topologies
(known commonly as NEAT), Q-Learning (a form of learning that is classified under
reinforcement learning), and video classification software. The aspect that I’m particularly
interested in for my project is video classification software for my product (and project as it is
the primary emphasis of my ISM spring topic). Throughout my mid-term presentation, I used
relatively the same information and format as my previous fall semester PowerPoint as my topic
projects were very similar, both dealing with artificial intelligence and machine learning. I have
the same mentor from last semester (Doctor William K. Pope). That being said however, my
project topic is very different than my previous semester topic, though both deal with artificial
intelligence and machine learning. Instead of building a machine that will automate the physical
examination/general examination process in the center, my project this semester will take
advantage of Doctor Pope’s education in optometry as it a more human aspect of optometry and
is a topic that he can help me on. Furthermore, Doctor Pope has been very helpful in
recommending me artificial intelligence programs in optometry, including MyEye.

Journal Entry 2/25: In my opinion, I think that the most interesting element of optometry is the
system of the eye. In comparison to many other organs or systems, I think the eye is one of the
most complex systems in the body. However, I would be more interested in the or body systems
such as the nymphic system as they are much more influential in the body. Three things that I
learned about optometry during this semester was the use of technology in the medical field, the
systems in the optic nerve and patient interaction. The most interesting aspect of the three things
that I learned was the use of technology in the optometry field. This semester, I mainly shadowed
an employee named Christina which helped explain to me how the pre-examination process
worked as well as explained the medical terminology and jargon used by Doctor Pope in the
medical records. Christina also helped me understand the use of Retinal Camera, Autorefractor
and Slit Lamp and the processes, requirements and conclusions of said technology. Overall, I
think that this nine weeks was extremely helpful in helping me understand the technological
aspect of optometry.

Journal Entry 3/18: In my opinion, I think my greatest strength for completing my semester
project for ISM is my curiosity on artificial intelligence. I have also acquired previous
background knowledge on artificial intelligence as in the previous semester, I had coded my own
AI. I think my biggest weakness if my lack of communication skills in a real-world environment.
As previously stated in my mentor’s critics, I am very shy and I don’t communicate very well
with patients. In order to fix my current weakness, Doctor Pope and I have agreed for me to
interact with more patients, essentially forcing me to become more talkative with the patients. In
my opinion, I believe that my topic is fairly hard to explain to others and it’s relatively
uninteresting, so I don’t believe that patients will take the time to listen to my explanation.
Another weakness that I have but cannot fix is the common misconception of artificial
intelligence and the singularity. The Singularity is the hypothetical future creation of
superintelligent machines. Superintelligence is defined as a technologically-created cognitive
capacity far beyond that possible for humans. The first thing that most people think of when the
words “artificial intelligence” are muttered is the complete overtaking of robots which is a severe
disadvantage when talking to patients.

Journal Entry 3/25: During this semester, I learned a lot of about artificial intelligence in my
research. My summary is as follows: The use and further development of Artificial Neural
Networks (ANNs) have allowed scientists to explore how the brain processes information and in
turn how computers may be programmed to do so in respects to the human mind. The human
mind is divided into a multitude of sections, with the neocortex generally being the primary
region where logical thought occurs (Kurzweil). Within the neocortex, there are items called
neurons which are responsible for the brain’s functional activity, with functions ranging from
memory recollection to logical data processing (“Introduction to Neurology”; Kurzweil 23; “A
Basic Introduction To Neural Networks; Modeling the Brain: Simplified vs. Realistic Models; A
visual and Interactive Guide to the Basics of Neural Networks). In order to recreate neurological
processes in the human mind and transfer the basic principles of the processes into the computers
(and in turn artificial intelligence), computer scientists have structured ANNs with an input layer,
a multitude of “hidden layers” neurons), followed sometimes by a bias layer, and an output layer
(“A Basic Introduction To Neural Networks; Modeling the Brain: Simplified vs. Realistic
Models; A Visual and Interactive Guide to the Basics of Neural Networks). The hidden layer (the
layer which controls the neurons) is often further comprised of multiple “weights,” programs that
help feed information from one layer to the next, and thus eliminating unnecessary data from
being passed through (“A Basic Introduction To Neural Networks; Modeling the Brain:
Simplified vs. Realistic Models; A Visual and Interactive Guide to the Basics of Neural
Networks). Although the basic structure of all ANNs remains relatively the same, there are
multiple accepted ways of calculating and eliminating data sets, the most common being the
Kernel method which is discussed by Thomas Hoffman, Bernhard Schölkopf and Alexander J.
Smola. In “Kernel Methods in Machine Learning,” Hoffman references one way of predictive
analysis being the Kernel Method. The Kernel Method utilizes artificial learning programming to
examine the possibility of potential outcomes and uses the results of the analysis to make a
prediction (Hossman et al.). In turn, scientists believe that the Kernel method is one of the most
accurate ways in which a computer may process information in a process comparable to the
human mind (Hossman et al.). However, Kernel machine learning lacks a fundamental
component that is invaluable to how humans think, that being biases. This information is useful
in my project as my project focuses on the implentation of artificial intelligence and ANNs in the
medical field.