Despite being Monday, I was excited to continue my adventure at RTI. For a good portion of the day I was working on organizing MicroPEM filters that are to be weighed in a sterile chamber (had to wear shoe covers). I created my own little assembly line for this process; take 10 filter covers and lay them in a line, open them up and clean each one with the air gun (definitely not what it is called but only way to describe it), place the sticker with label on cover, use tweezers and place filter in cover, close cover. Obviously did not require too much thinking but still important. I then took all those covers to the chamber with my shoe covers.
During lunch I attended a meeting for a new RTI ERG (employee resource group) called Women in STEM. The group was discussing their plans for community outreach for the younger stem community (specifically elementary school girls). It was very encouraging to see these women want to help young people like myself.
My favorite part of the day was using the e-cigarette machine that I will continue to use throughout the week. RTI’s “grandchild” project, meaning researchers from different disciplines and backgrounds are collaborating on the same project, is currently about e-cigs and their effects on the body, specifically the lungs. The machine I got to use was the classic “mad-scientist” aesthetic; it has tons of wires and many different pieces of equipment somehow all connected together on a cart. Even though I basically just pressed two buttons to make the e-cig vape, I still thought it was so cool that RTI was doing this type of research. Up until now, I hadn’t heard of any research about e-cigs and their actual health effects, since many people just accept that they are “ok” solely based off the idea that they are a healthier alternative to cigarettes. I also loved the aesthetic of the equipment because it clearly reflected the engineering design of the machine and the complexity of the thinking involved for this machine to work.
