Don't Pressure Me

   My goal for the last 2 weeks was to modify the blood pressure monitor with the Arduino microcontroller to make the device wireless. This wireless blood pressure monitor device would then connect to a smartphone. I achieved some progress in my goals, however not in the correct order. I realized I had to start goal #3, building the application, before I could build the wireless component for the blood pressure monitor. In the last 2 weeks I was able to download and familiarize myself with the software for the application, Arduino, as well as study the circuitry necessary for making the blood pressure monitor wireless. I was able to successfully connect the microcontroller to my phone's application, however the microcontroller does not send any meaningful data to the application yet.

   One setback this week was time. My equipment of the blood pressure monitor, pressure sensor, and microcontroller all came later than expected, giving me little time to work with the technology. To overcome this setback I plan to invest more time into this project and make up for lost time. Another setback is my own will and how overwhelmed I am with this project. I am truly under pressure (pun intended) to make progress in this project, which acts as a positive source of motivation, but at the same time this pressure is a source of stress that I avoid, thus stalling my progress. However, I hope to overcome this in my next steps, including catching up on my overdue goals and going forward with my next goal of developing the smartphone application. I have to physically build the circuit I studied: below is a diagram of my planned circuit. A pressure sensor should connect to the air tube of the blood pressure monitor, convert the pressure receive to a voltage, and transmit that voltage to the microcontroller.

   After building this circuit, my goal #3 is to have the microcontroller send that data to the phone, where I plan to program the application to understand the voltage and convert it to a blood pressure value. This blood pressure value should then be displayed to the user.
   I learned a lot about circuitry and programming, both topics I am extremely excited to expand my knowledge on. I am beginning to learn new programming languages, as the application software Arduino uses C and C++, both of which I have never learned until this project. Furthermore, I am not only beginning to learn the conventions of drawing circuits, but I am beginning to understand how physical hardware is able to communicate with digital software.
   I learned that I truly have a passion for pursuing projects like this for the rest of my life. I learned that excitement and passion can truly fuel learning, even when the work is arduous and difficult. However, I also learned that it is difficult to jump start this learning. This passion project is difficult to manage with all my other curriculum, and I leave little time in my day to do what I truly want to do, whether it be building circuits or merely taking some time to myself to relax.
   I hope my newfound knowledge in coding and circuitry will help prepare me for my future endeavors in my planned major, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. I've always had a passion for teaching, and I hope after learning C and C++ programming I can give back to my community and teach everything I've learned to other students who don't have the resources to learn programming on their own. Finally, I hope this project teaches me to manage pressure and stress and use it to combat procrastination rather than handling this pressure and stress by merely running away from it.