Don’t Forget that it’s Summer!

After my first year as a physics major, my advisor and professor reminded my class to enjoy the summer— relax, travel, visit family and friends, do things that aren’t physics— this would be our last free summer before grad school.  I’m a physics major in the College of Creative Studies (CCS), which often makes people double-take.  They think: “Creative” sounds like an arts school, you’re a physics major?  While CCS has some phenomenal arts programs, the focus of the school is to promote creation.  Whether that creation be of new knowledge in science, an original piece of music, or a sculpture, the school aims to involve its students in the process of creation as soon as possible.  For physics majors like me, this meant an extra rigorous course load and researching with labs by the end of the second year.  Now that I’m entering my final year as an undergraduate and working my second summer in a lab, I’ve learned a few things.

Don’t forget that this is summer. This is a break in the school year designed to allow you freedom from homework, exams, papers, and daunting schedules (trust me, I know daunting, I’m hoping I’ll get my first opportunity to take less than 20 units this next fall).  Summer break is necessary for avoiding burn out and maintaining your sanity.  So, now you’ve chosen to complete a summer internship and have been awarded that opportunity. What about your break?  What about your sanity?

First, relish the fact that you have no homework, exams, or papers!  Then figure out your work schedule.  Personally, I aim to start working, whether it be in the office, in the lab, in the cleanroom, or at home, around 9:30-10 am.  Then I work

IMG_4759

Enjoying my morning skate to campus! (I may not look too happy because I’m trying to get a clear picture and not drop my phone!).

around whatever events are built into the internship and typically leave a little before 5 pm (most of my research group heads out then).  This doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the freedom, weather, and relaxation of summer.  Take a walk down to the beach during the lunch break, or, in my case, when you start to go a little crazy after a few hours in the darkness of an optics lab.  Enjoy your morning commute, this is Santa Barbara!  Or in Reagan’s words: “…if not heaven itself, probably has the same zip code” in reference to Rancho del Cielo.

You learn very quickly that research is not fast, not instantaneous, but slow.  You will have time when you’re not sure what to do.  Because of this, you should often have things working in parallel, but as an intern, you’re typically just working on one project.  I use this time to knock out some of the internship side projects, presentations, and workshops.  Freeing myself up at 5 to go practice my trumpet, skateboard, surf, bike, socialize, play games, watch movies, whatever summer avails me.  During your time doing summer research, remember, it’s still summer.

 

Gorman  Posted by 13 Sep 2016 / 0 comments

Offbrand Cereal: A Chronicle

It was either the sixth or seventh time I took a shower using hand soap before I realized I was probably doing something wrong. The whole living on my own thing was not going quite as I had planned. Living on roughly $50 a week has been a brutally humbling experience that has altered my appreciation of pretty much everything. Somehow the absence of wifi leaves even the most furnished house feeling like some shack in a rundown shanty. Even without wifi I would settle for just a furnished house, but after sleeping on the hardwood floor for the past three weeks my back has probably suffered the full extent of irreversible spinal damage, so I think I will hold off on buying a mattress for a little bit longer. With my spine in the shape of an S, I hobble from place to place. I had a truck but that was before it died on me, right before I was going to see Finding Dory at the drive in with my friend, Sarina. Bummer. Although it’s not really as bad as it sounds. The past three weeks have been filled with a lot of redeeming upgrades. I no longer eat cereal straight out of the box with my bare hands. Nowadays I eat my tootie fruities (no not Fruit Loops, off brand has quickly become my go to brand) with a fork. My favorite memory though has to be using the open flame from my stove to toast (burn) my bread. Don’t worry Berta I will not burn down your flat, and that reminds me, thank you. As much as my difficulties may disagree, I’m grateful for the last three weeks in their entirety. If I had the ability to opt out and move to the Bahamas, I would still choose to stay in Isla Vista nine times out of ten. Why? Because Isla Vista has quickly become my home in a way I never thought possible. The community here is unmatched. A paradise filled with beach bums and beautifully intelligent people is not supposed to exist, but it does, and I get to call it my home.

Not only have I found my home in IV, but I have also found a pretty stable job out here. For summer sixteen and throughout my second year, I’ll be working in the Daugherty Lab hoping to revolutionize diagnostic medicine. Our goal is to develop a method by which we can use antibodies to diagnose disease. If antibody antigen combinations are specific, and antigens are also specific to their disease then by the transitive property or something antibodies are relatively specific to different diseases. Rather than looking for the foreign invader hiding throughout our entire body, we want to start looking for antibodies, the location of which is more well known. We do this through a process called bacterial display. With a bit of protein engineering, some nutrient filled broth that bacteria like, and some FACs analysis, one day we will reach our goal, hopefully. In reality what I do is a lot of pipetting and a lot of babysitting bacteria. During my short time in the Daugherty lab I came to the realization that the cure for cancer is not locked behind some unlockable door, or even behind some immovable mountain. The cure for cancer is behind hours and hours of pipetting. So until that day I will pipette. I will pipette and I will babysit bacteria and feed them a broth that probably has more nutrients than my current diet. Joking aside research is serious work. It can be seriously fun work too, but at the end of the day there is a goal and there is funding and those are the two most important things in a lab. You can’t work on a project that doesn’t have any funding and you have to make sure you’re always making progress towards the larger picture. Research labs live and die by their ability to earn grants. You could have a Nobel prize worthy project but without any funding it will never come to fruition. I say this not out of any spite but to give a clearer picture of how labs work and what drives them. Money drives research.

Working with Joel this summer has been one of the single greatest most gratifying things I have ever done. This experience has affirmed my desire to pursue an MD/PhD (the degree Christina Yang has, so I’ve been told) and think of research as a life-long career. Genentech here I come. With all that being said, I believe my first blog update has reached its conclusion. I’ll let you know all about interrogating e. Coli and using enzymes to separate and sequence DNA in a future update. For now this is Rafael signing off.

Gorman  Posted by 25 Aug 2016 / 0 comments

A New Research Experience as a Freshman Mechanical Engineer

I have been asked how I got into research so early in my undergraduate career, so I’ll break it down.

Summer 2015: The Summer Institute of Mathematics and Science

The summer before my Freshman year I got an email inviting me to apply to the Summer Institute of Mathematics and science (SIMS). I didn’t know it when I applied, but SIMS was a two week intensive program that introduced research and introductory classes in a condensed and fast-paced way. These short few weeks was my first research experience. Working with Ryan Need and other SIMS students, I melted together iron and germanium to make crystals that have a square shape in their lattice structure. These exhibit a phenomenon called skirmions, which may one day lead to a more efficient way of storing data. What does any of that mean and how do you communicate it in a way that other people can understand? Welcome to research.

Fall 2016: Finding Another Opportunity for Research

I knew after SIMS that I wanted to continue down the research path, but I wasn’t sure what to do next. I went to a couple of seminars that had been advertised, and learned a bit about what research others were doing. I found a couple of projects that I was interested in and emailed the professors. Unfortunately I did not have the experience that they were looking for (understandably). After some other attempts, I emailed Sumita Pennathur essentially asking if I could sit in a corner of lab to observe. She kindly replied that I could attend the weekly group meetings. Yay, I got an in! And after the first few minutes of the first meeting I attended, where one of the lab members presented on their research, I realized that I knew very little as a freshman. All the more reason to pay attention and learn what I could.

Winter 2015-Summer 2016: Gorman Scholar Internship

In winter quarter, the SIMS alumni were recommended to apply to the EUREKA! program, which rewards a stipend to students during 8 weeks of research–in a lab of your choice–over the summer. What a great deal! I applied and got in, actually as a Gorman Scholar, which is a similar program that differs a little when it comes to funding. I emailed my acceptance to Sumita and she was happy to make me an offical part of the lab. So here I am now, a Gorman Scholar Intern, working in Sumita Pennathur’s lab, with Mike Garcia as my graduate student mentor.

The morale of the story is keep trying. Keep emailing professors and graduate students and go to showcases and seminars. Put yourself out there and grow out of your comfort zone. Keep persevering and you’ll make it.

 

Gorman  Posted by 09 Aug 2016 / 0 comments

Tips for Surviving Your First Undergrad Research Experience

If you were like me when I started doing research, you’re probably equal parts excited and anxious to get started. I thought I could use this blog to help give some tips making your first research experience worth while.

1.      Read, Read, Read, and Ask Questions

It’s imperative to know the big picture goals of your project, as well as being able to explain them to other people in laymen’s terms. One of the best way to get a good idea of this is to read your lab’s most recent publications. It is also a good idea to ask your mentor or a graduate student in the lab if they have any others suggestions about relevant books or papers that form the basis for the research your lab does.

A lot of the papers and books you read will most likely be confusing, which is perfectly normal considering they often contain a lot of scientific jargon that can be intimidating. When this happens or you don’t understand a concept or detail about the research, you shouldn’t be afraid to ask a grad student or your professor to help you understand the problem. Additionally, it is most helpful to read the material first and then ask for clarification on things you don’t understand, rather than trying to get a busy grad student to explain the whole thing to you.

2.      Learn by doing

As an undergrad in your first research experience, you may be asked to do a lot of hands-on tasks or to use some instruments/software that you have seen or heard of before. Staring at these boxes with a lot of buttons and lights on them can be pretty intimidating, but just try your best! You’ll soon develop the necessary skills to be a contributing member of your lab if you work at it and try everything yourself first. That being said, there’s nothing wrong with getting help from your mentor if you are having persistent trouble, but you should try to do what they assign you to do by yourself before giving up.

3.      It’s okay to make mistakes, persevere

One of my main fears when I first joined the lab was the fear of messing up. However, everybody makes mistakes; it’s part of being human. Even my mentor has made calculation errors or overlooked something in a design, and when I make mistakes, it’s not a big deal and everyone understands. When you do make a mistake (trust me it will happen), it’s important to not beat yourself up about it. I’ve botched several soldering joints in my lab days, but though it is frustrating, I shrug it off and continue working with a positive attitude.

4.      De-stress

Sometimes, after working for a long time in the lab, things can get quite overwhelming, and it seems like there is simply not enough time to get everything you have to do done. Even though it feels this way, I feel that it is important to take some time and give your mind a break. I find when things are getting frustrating and stressful in the lab, walking around outside or having a hobby can really clear your head and get you revitalized and ready to tackle the obstacles you’re struggling with.

5.      You get out what you put in

Lastly, I would like to say that doing undergraduate research is a great opportunity for you to learn and gain experience, but if you don’t put the time in to read the material or actually go into lab to work, you won’t get anything useful out of it.

Best of luck on your future research endeavors Gauchos!

Gorman  Posted by 19 Jul 2016 / 0 comments

Computer Simulated Research

When many people think about research, they think of laboratories with chemicals, beakers and test tubes. To be honest, this is what I thought before I began working in Professor Meiburg’s lab this summer. In this lab, all of our experiments are done using computer simulations. This different approach to research really surprised me at first.

In Professor Meiburg’s group, we are researching fluid dynamics. In particular, we are studying the behavior of particles in a dense suspension experiencing shear forces. This research has a variety large scale applications, from rivers, pipes, and channels with large amounts of sediment and debris, to ocean currents after an earthquake. These situations are extremely difficult to study in real life, so my lab uses sophisticated computer simulations to model them instead. The computer simulations allow us to analyze the flows on the particle level and compare the particles’ position and velocity across very small time intervals. This level of analysis would be very difficult, if not impossible, to achieve in physical situations. Although this is not quite what I expected going into my first research experience, this approach makes a lot of sense when considering the type of research that we are doing.

At first, I was a bit disappointed that I would not be working in a lab with exciting hands on experiments. However, I soon realized that there is much more to research than exciting experiments. Solving problems, obtaining results, and drawing conclusions is what makes research exciting. The applications of the research, and knowing that you are advancing scientific knowledge and helping the world is what makes research thrilling, and what I love about it.

In the past three weeks, I have grown to really enjoy working in Professor Meiburg’s lab. Before beginning work, I was worried that I would not fit in to the research environment since I am an undergraduate, who just finished her first year, and everyone else is a graduate student. However, my experience was exactly the opposite. All of the people are so friendly and helpful. I got a very warm welcome the first day when I entered the lab, and have felt very included and at home ever since. We all go to lunch together almost every day, and I was even invited to a dinner and game night at my mentor’s apartment. The lab group is a very close family that I am really glad to have joined. I am excited to go to work every day and really enjoy what I am doing.

Gorman  Posted by 12 Jul 2016 / 0 comments