My first day at RTI was an exciting one. This first day was mostly used as an introduction to the company, facility, staff, and projects of RTI. Dr. Ginger Rothrock, my main contact and mentor at RTI, prepared a presentation for me and Kiera, who is also working at RTI. This presentation described the magnitude of RTI as an international company, and explained some exciting projects that had come out of RTI, or are currently being worked on. Of these, the most interesting to me are the projects to create an HIV prevention implant for women in Africa (HiP) and RTI’s project to create a better toilet. HiP was really fascinating to me, as Dr. Rothrock explained the challenges and stigmas women in Africa face around taking HIV prevention medication. The project to create a better toilet is trying to create a self sufficient toilet that doesn’t need electricity or water, and it’s target is villages in India. I really enjoyed learning briefly about both of these projects, as they are both a perfect intersection between lab science and real world problems.
After eating lunch in the RTI cafeteria, Kiera and I went to one of the labs with Dr. Chasity Norton, Kiera’s main contact. Dr. Norton has worked on a variety of projects at RTI, but her main project involved creating a stronger cement to surround wells, to prevent oil and gas leaks. The work we did today was more of a demonstration for us, rather than contributing to a current project. Dr. Norton showed us how to measure out water, cement powder, and additives to make various cement mixtures. One mixture was purely cement and water, one had 0.5% Calcium Chloride, one had 1.0% Calcium Chloride, and one had 1.0% Maltodextrin. We then put our mixtures into a calorimeter, which will show us the heat of hydration, or the amount of energy produced when the cement sets, over the course of the next few days. The different additives will supposedly change the speed at which the cement sets. Overall, it was really interesting to use lab equipment in a real industry setting, even though we weren’t working on an actual project.