Nikhil D'Souza

I use this blog to write about my opinions in the modern tech world. Also, I find it awesome to interest other people with cool things and my experiences. I dedicate some of my time just to share this awesome information with you!

Want to check out my blog? You can check it out right now at pugiblog.com. Comment on a post if you are interested!

• July 2014
• Blogging

Most high schools require that their students need to complete a certain amount of service hours. However, most students don't really enjoy doing service hours for things that they don't like such as "babysitting" or something. Our app gives the user a list of volunteering opportunities that are relevant to the user. If they specialize in technology, then they could choose a tech support for example. People could also request for volunteers if they are hosting an event.

Want learn more about this app? You can check it out right now at devpost.com. Like it if you are interested!

• January 2015
• App Development

Prioritize analyzes real time factors and organizes tasks based on which is most convenient and essential. Based on when the stores are open, Prioritize will order things you need to do based on when they can be done. The tasks involving places that close first are put as priority. Prioritize will also organize your tasks based on which is closest to you, eliminating traveling time from one place to another.

Prioritize makes your life better by giving you more time to do what you want. Prioritize values efficiency, saving you time by organizing the tasks that need to be done in such a way that will limit required preparation and ensure the completion of tasks by verifying store hours. You can access your tasks across all devices, using a web-based system that allows you to view your tasks anywhere.

Want learn more about this app? You can check it out right now on the App Store. Comment and rate if you are interested!

• February 2015
• App Development

The 2015 Nepal earthquake, also known as the "Himalayan earthquake", has killed at least 7,000 people and injured more than twice as many. The earthquake also triggered an avalanche on Mount Everest, killing at least 19 and trapping hundreds, making it the deadliest day on the mountain in history.

I made this website to raise awareness about the detrimental effects of global catastrophes.

Check it out right now at nikhiljay.com/helpnepal.

• April 2015
• Web Development

If you do not know about the WWDC Scholarship, you can check out this post on my blog.

One of the awesome things about being a scholar is to learn so much and meet many more people. In fact, we have already started a group with 200 scholars in it right now. We talk about interesting topics, ask questions, share our ideas, help each other, and get to know each other more. But that wasn’t enough for us. We decided to create an app and a website. We wanted to do this because we wanted to show everyone the talent that every WWDC Scholar has. For the past couple weeks a group of 16 people, each in a different time zone, have worked so hard to make this possible. We’re scholars from all around the world and we combined our knowledge, our innovation and our love for software to build this app to inspire kids, students, and future iOS developers to build apps that can change the world.

What does this app do? Well, it contains us, WWDC scholarship winners, our works and how you can connect with us. With this app, we are able to showcase our talents and inspire future generation to build things, to make a difference and to change the world. We are the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, and the ones who see things differently. We are the epicenter of change. We are the WWDC student scholarship winners of 2015.

Want learn more about this app? This app is available for iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch. You can check it out right now on the App Store. Comment and rate if you are interested! You can also check out the website right now at wwdcscholars.com.

• June 2015
• App Development

The Hack Chair is a creative analytical tool that is built from a chair. We used an ordinary plastic chair, cardboard, duct tape, 2 iPhones, a muse headband, and empty nacho boxes.

First, the Hack Chair uses an iPhone's gyroscope to detect how far back a chair is titled. This is useful to determine the safety off student. Of the 7,000 schoolchildren admitted to hospital each year as a result of chair-related accidents, 70% were rocking back dangerously, according to the analysis of government statistics by a south London teacher. By measuring when the user reaches a tilting hazard, we give an immediate notification that also suggests other alternative chairs. This feature used the Target API.

The muse brain-sensing headband on the user is used to check how sleepy a student is based on their eye movements and how the chair is positioned. Using the iPhones that we used for other features, we were able to vibrate the user if they fell asleep. This feature used the muse SDK.

The Hack Chair uses the camera as a proximity sensor on the iPhone to detect how good a student's posture is when sitting on a chair. When the posture of the user is bad, Hack Chair will constantly remind the user to have a good posture. This can prevent medical problems such as scoliosis.

Also, the arm of the Hack Chair has a camera that allows teachers and other students to collaborate. This tool can also help prevent academic dishonesty. This feature used the Moxtra API.

At the end, we wrapped together the whole project into a Javascript Library called “hackchair.js” so that anyone could use our technology to find analytics of their chair.

You can view this project at hackchair.club.

See the hackathon project submission on Devpost.

This project is open-source! Visit the repository on Github.

• October 2015
• Hardware

As a sophomore in high school, I participated in the Advanced Authentic Research program in my school. For my project, I developed an iOS app that measures emitted brain waves using an Emotiv headset and gives feedback based on a person’s behavior.

The human brain is the most mysterious biological organs on our planet. It is so advanced that even humans are not able to understand it to our full capacity. However recently, scientists have been able to recognize that there is energy being emitted from the brain. All of our brains are made up of billions of neurons or, specialized cells transmitting nerve impulses. These neurons use electricity to communicate. When millions of these neurons communicate at once, this generates a significant amount energy. Scientists say that the brain can produce as much as 10 watts of electricity. This energy is in the form of waves, also known as “brain waves” or “neural oscillations”. Brain waves are important because they represent the activity inside our brain. All our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors are results of our neurons communicating with each other.

There are over 1.4 million people annually in the United States that suffer a traumatic brian injuries and over 50,000 of those people die. By improving neurotechnology, doctors will be able to save thousands of lives each year.

Check out this article, featuring a picture of me at the top.

This project is open-source! See the whole project on my Github.

• May 2015
• Research