Welcome to my Blog

I am Shivaani Methuku, a senior at BASIS Peoria. In this blog, I will track my progress at iShadow technology, a start up company that is in the process of creating a wearable device, called SiREN, which monitors a child's activity and vitals. This device was designed with the audience seniors, alzheimer's and autism patients in mind. I will be assisting the senior programmer on software protection for the corresponding app. At the same time, this blog will also explain my research outside of the internship which corresponds to my research project.

When I first decided to do the Senior Research project, I knew right away that I wanted to expand my knowledge within the field of computer science. I’d rather be the creator of an app than a consumer. Despite its frustrating moments, computer science engaged my curiosity, motivated me to think outside the box, and challenged me to solve the puzzles of code. Rather than letting technology keep people inactive, I enjoy using technology to help our community progress with my research.

At the same time, after doing National History Day (NHD) for three years I realized that humanities and technology can go hand in hand. NHD is a research and history competition where students create websites, documentaries, displays, essays and performances. Why do I bring NHD into the mix? The reason is because the theme of my project is politics and cyber security in social media. 

My project is essentially about creating the blueprint for an app that allows people to easily place any news articles they believe to be fake news into this app that will cross-reference the information from the article, with other news articles from credible sources. Determining what sources are and are not credible will be difficult. However, it should be noted that I will not be truly making the app public given the fact that I will be unable to code it in the given time frame. [At least I have something to do in the summer instead of worrying about college.] Right now, I will be more focused on learning swift (the programing language I will be using to make the app) and the database design for the backend of the app.

You may still be wondering where NHD comes into play here? This year, I will once again be participating in NHD and the topic is Edward Murrow, a broadcast journalist who criticised Joseph McCarthy for inciting fear among American citizens about communism at home than at abroad. Murrow created a series of television episodes where he exposes McCarthy and brings honesty and truth at an otherwise questionable time. Murrow used his skills as a journalist to deliver true facts regarding McCarthyism to the sacred public. With the 2016 election there is a growing concern to the infrastructure of cyberspace. According to the Pew Research Center, about four in ten Americans get their news online. Moreover, "Within the digital realm, mobile news consumption is rising rapidly. The portion of Americans who ever get news on a mobile device has gone up from 54% in 2013 to 72% today". However, the recent election has been filled with "alternative facts" and Russian hacking be it with Hillary's emails or the election poll results. This is the time where people need to remember Murrow who fought to deliver true and honest news in time of great fear and understand that fake news cannot keep circulating. Getting someone to stop checking their news via Facebook is that much harder versus instead getting that same person to use their smartphone to report the fake news. 

My project is about stopping the spread of fake news and encouraging people to fat check everything they may read on social media or online and I cannot wait to start this journey.