RCAbout Me
I am Ronny Cravioto-Ross, an Engineering Physics student at the University of British Columbia. In my free time, I enjoy exploring my interests, learning about new topics, and solving real world problems with the things I learn.
Interests
I have many interests across various fields, and I am still in the process of deciding what I would like to specialize in. A few general topics I am interested in are:
- Mathematics
- Computer Programming (I love Rust)
- Physics, specifically the application of advanced mathematical tools (PDEs, vector calculus, complex variables, etc) for creating models of the world around us.
- Music (My favourite group is currently Animals As Leaders.) (though I also like jazz/jazz fusion, e.g. this song, this song, and that other song.)
I am also particularly interested in fusion technology for energy production, since I believe that commercialized fusion reactor would bring a new era of near-limitless clean energy for humanity at large.
About Being Half Deaf
On March 1st 2023, towards the end of my final year of high school, I woke up with extreme dizzyness, and an inability to hear from my right ear. I went to the hospital, and I was diagnosed eith sudden sensorineural hearing loss. Throughout the next months, I got steriod shots through my eardrum, and spent many hours in a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, all while studying for my IB exams.
The treatments did little to help, and while my hearing on my right side has improved from literally nothing to a very small amount, it remains functionally useless for most applications.
I am quite grateful and lucky that the hearing on my left side is excellent; this way, there has only been a limited impact on my day to day life. One of the most profound impacts has been that I can no longer tell where sounds come from, so for example when someone calls my name, or I hear a car coming down the road as I’m walking down the sidewalk, or my parents call me from another room, I have to start looking in all directions to figure out where I’m hearing things from.
Another impact, which was more of a surprise, and somewhat more interesting, is that my ability to pick sounds apart from background noise has greatly diminished. When I’m in a quiet room, I have no trouble understanding a friend whispering, but if I’m in a noisy restaurant, or in the car with music playing, I struggle disproportionaltely more to understand.
This effect is more intriguing, as it seems to suggest our brains use the stereo input from both ears to not only pick apart which direction sound comes from, but also to focus in on specific sounds and isolate them from background noise.
My project WaveTrace explores estimating the directions that sound comes from using computers and microphones!