This year, my teacher is not requiring that we keep a blog, but I will try to do it anyway, as it is a good way to reflect on what I have done. Over the summer, I investigated a way to encode molecules called smiles, and used it to create a simple program for encoding alkanes. I did this project to gain a better understanding of the library, which I plan to use in a future project. I want to work on an algorithm that solves synthesis problems. If this is successful, I could calculate costs for specific reactions and come up with more efficient syntheses for compounds. Of course, this is a long term project that I have just began. My current plan is to use retro synthesis to work backwards from a product, reversing processes that make a compound more complex. In addition, my AP Chemistry teacher wants my friend and I to work on a website where students could practice AP chemistry problems. We have started this, but we are currently very busy with school, so we are waiting to get the data from our teacher before working on it full force.
I have also been busy with college applications, as I was in Europe for the last part of the summer. I have been working on touching up my simulators so that I can showcase them in my application. Last weekend, I visited Stanford and Berkley, and on the plane ride home, I met someone who is working for a startup. He was board on the 4 hour trip, so he gave me a lesson in the Liskov substitution principle and how it means that object oriented programing and functional programing are more or less the same. He also taught me some Scala, a language that has some similarities to Java.