User:Sergeassaad

About me

My name is Serge Assaad, I am currently a freshman at Duke, planning on studying Biomedical Engineering and possibly Mathematics.

I lived in Dubai before coming here, and attended the Lycee Francais International Georges Pompidou, where I earned a French Baccalaureate degree, summa cum laude. I am from the small but wonderful country of Lebanon (although it neighbors all the conflicts going on right now), and from an even smaller village called Beiteddine.I've decided to study Engineering, because, while this may seem cliche, I really like science and mathematics.

Thanks!

Grand Challenge

Here's the link to an article about the Grand Challenge, "Reverse engineering the brain":

Reverse-Engineering the Brain, Fred Hapgood,Technology Review, updated 11 July 2006, accessed 18 January 2009 (Reverse-Engineering the Brain)

Favorite MATLAB Demo

My favorite demo in MATLAB was the one called "Viewing a Penny", because it clearly shows that, on a 2-dimensional computer screen, one can, at some angles, lose the sense of depth perception. I, for one, initially thought the penny lied on a flat surface parallel to the -xy plane. As it turns out, the penny I saw was just the level curve of a more complex surface.

This is also of interest to me because I am taking a Multivariable Calculus class, in which we study level curves, and how several surfaces can have the same level curve. This demo is a perfect example of this concept.