STEMJazz Talklet with Tayla von Ash
Abstract
Tayla von Ash graced us with her presence today to tell us in very clear terms about something parents are quite familiar with: sleep and kids. Since health (of the kids and the parents) is related to sleep in powerful ways, this is very important work, especially for at-risk populations(underrepresented minorities and low-income individuals). The basic idea is to assess environments (homes where possible and daycare centers) and understand where that sleeping is happening and the associated behaviors. For intervention, Tayla will leverage the cell phone (building an app) that covers things like sleep and health, tips and tricks, tracking sleep and sounds to chill everyone out (types of “noise” to help sleep). The assessment of people’s behaviors and perhaps more importantly of environments (home, daycare) is both critical and labor-intensive. But that’s where the extended STEMJazz community might be able to help the cause and get involved ourselves. That is, the environmental assessment that Tayla uses is (from the perspective of data science) a “data poor” endeavor that would require legions of workers/inspectors to gather the info. So anything that can extract information from cheap sensors would be a boon. For instance, how much information about sleep/movement/noise/light patterns could you learn from a simple mic or a cell phone that snatched audio and pictures. It’s also been said that the 5GHz signals from WiFi that bathe us all could be used to do localization of people (and their positions/stances) in indoor spaces. If some combination of WiFi and cellphones could be employed to extract the things Tayla’s inspectors would be looking for, a lot more data could be had. More data could lead to interventions that are not possible with the data collecting methods currently in use. Tayla’s work has the potential to positively impact many in both the personal and professional spheres, and we look forward to her progress!
