Seeking Advice/Input for MS Project in Precision Health

Hello everyone,

I’m a student in the MS in Precision Health program at the University of Chicago. My program is only 1 year long and I’ve recently come to grips with the fact that I need to figure out what to do for my capstone project very soon. I’m supposed to turn in an initial project proposal in 10 days and I’m having a bad case of analysis paralysis. I’m really open to any good idea. I’ve been so busy working, doing homework, and applying to jobs that I haven’t devoted enough thought and time to figuring out a plan for my capstone project.

I want to do something interesting/innovative/useful with wearables but I’m not sure what. What problems do you think wearable devices can help solve and do you have any ideas of how I could do a research project to address a problem within the next 6 months?

Any and all ideas and input will be welcomed, even if it is not wearable device-related.

And if anyone is working on a project that they’d be willing to share data from there’s an opportunity to make this mutually beneficial if you’re someone who doesn’t have the time to mess around with all your data and need someone to take the time to analyze it for free.

I’ve attached the project proposal assignment here.
Final project guideline_MSPH34000_Winter2025.pdf (562.5 KB)

Thanks,
Luke

Hi Luke,
Much of your project selection involves your capability in getting and processing data. Many of the interesting projects I have seen lately involve merging data from different sources to gain new insights.
I you are comfortable with software and using API to get data then go for it.
Otherwise look for data sources that you can export and work with.
As for a project idea. In reading the book “Burn” by Herman Pontzer he talked about daily caloric expenditure not changing much with exercise. He stated that the body changes where it distributes the caloric energy, but the total doesn’t change. I have not had his caloric test to see what my nominal caloric burn rate is. My question would be are there other ways to determine it. At the moment I am trying to lose some weight and it seems my body is fighting my attempts. One thing I noticed is that my hands are colder when I am restricting calories. My body is probably deciding not to expend the energy to keep my hands warm. I assume if I increased my caloric consumption that at some point my hands would be warmer and with continued increase in calories that warming would plateau with little further increase. I believe that information would be useful in establishing target caloric consumption and would be very happy if my Apple Watch provided that number.
Good Luck

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Restricting calroies does not really work as a method for losing weight. Sure it’s been touted around for decades but it simply leads to the yo-yo effect; lose-weigh-put-it-back-on cycle.

Better weight loss diet scheme is low-carb. My surgeon told me to go low-carb before he would remove my gallbladder because my BMI was lmost 40! In the four months since I started I have lost 13kg (nearly 3stone in old weight), which is slightly more than a 1kg/week.

There are many exponents of low-carb dieting. I follow the advice of Katie and Giancarlo Caldesi in their book The Low Carb Weight-Loos Cookbook, which has the backing a qualified nutrionalist and a GP. It is a stretch for me as most of the carbs I was eatnig were in bread and other baked goods; a real stretch as my hobby is baking!!

You could go all the way to a Keto diet. Personally not convinced of its soundness, There is also the 5:2 diet; eat relatively normally for five days of the week and fast for two — but not two consecutuve days.

Of course there is QS involvement as I have a set of Bluetooth-enabled scales and hook them up to my iPhone to track my progress. It collects my weight, BMI, and other stats. Projection is that I should reach the surgeon’s BMI of mid-30s by the time I get to the from of the waiting list and that should be end of March beginning of April this year.

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Very interesting, I haven’t given much thought to this issue before. I’ll have to look into research related to this topic. Thanks for commenting!