Author: lilyl626

Today was officially my last day at RTI. I continued with the e-cigarette research and more discussion about the mini-project about biosensors. Ginger also helped us reflect on what we were going to present on Friday about our time at RTI.

My time at RTI was unforgettable and irreplaceable. Being out in the workforce and experiencing first-hand what these researchers do daily changed my perspective on what I want my future career to look like. Even though this is quite a long ways out, before my internship I didn’t really appreciate the value of a Ph.D or an MD for example, but these degrees, specifically in the research field, greatly change one’s career trajectory. I learned that lab-work is of no interest to me, and that I am more interested in how scientific products are translated into the world and different markets. However, I also learned the process involved in getting to that level in ones career and the “lackey” work necessary to advance; because I was able to meet so many different people at RTI, I saw all types of people at different stages in their career. It was also amazing to meet people of interdisciplinary backgrounds, specifically with economics and engineering, for those are my two interests but before I was having trouble imagining what a career with both would look like. I saw how those two disciplines overlapped and intertwined, and how useful it is to have knowledge about both. The knowledge and experience I gained through this internship will definitely affect what college I choose, what major I choose, and what I choose to do after college.

The power was back on today!!! In the morning, I sat in on some meetings and helped Michelle unpack a new shipment of MicroPEMs. During lunch, I attended a “Lunch and Learn”, and I later found out the guy who gave the talk is my dad’s friend so that was interesting. Anyways, the talk was about how to be a better leader/manager of people, and mainly revolved around 3 “soft skills”: listen, ask, connect. He talked a lot about how these skills affect different parts of our brain, which I had never really thought/heard about when thinking about leadership. The audience was really involved, and I saw later in the day already these skills being applied.

In the afternoon, I watched Nalyn (research tech) seed lung cells and we looked at them under the microscope, which was really cool since the last time I used a microscope was to look at an onion layer in freshman biology class. My time was cut short, however, as I went to talk with Ginger, Kiera, and Madisen about our time at RTI and our mini-projects. It was a great way to reflect, and I realized how important my time at RTI was. Being in the real work-place and experiencing different careers is way different than reading about them on a website; this internship was truly eye-opening for what I am actually looking for in a career, and also eye-opening in the sense that everyone genuinely has an original path in how they got where they are today. Excited but also sad for tomorrow, as my time at RTI is coming to a close.

Today was a little more slow than my other days, but it was still fun nonetheless. I again got to observe the e-cigarette tester in action (even got to press the buttons myself!!!:) I had a really good chat with one of the lead scientists on the project, Dr. Cho, and she updated me on her other projects she works on. She also explained how her interdisciplinary research for her PhD helped her career and led to the diversity of projects she is able to work on at RTI (which is definitely relevant to my interests so super useful advice).

The day got a little wild after that. While touring one the analytical labs in another building, the power went out!!! It was actually tragic for a lot of the mass spectrometers that were running at the time and even more tragic for the people running the experiments. But it wasn’t just for that one building; almost all of the buildings across RTI’s campus had no power and only two were running on backup generators. EXCEPT for Building 11, the building I work in, so I did not have to suffer through the blackout.

My afternoon did not go according to plan. Originally, I was going to observe lung cells getting exposed to different types/concentrations of “vape juice”, but the necessary supplies did not come in time. So, we changed the plan so that I would go to a lab and look at lung cells that had been already exposed under a microscope and take pictures — but the power outage decided to kill that plan too. So I worked on checking more MicroPEMs and did some more research for my mini-project on biosensors. While it was not the most exciting day because of the various setbacks, I still learned a lot — including how extra creepy power outages are in labs. Looking forward to (hopefully) looking at the cells tomorrow and continuing the e-cigarette work!

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.

Today was a busy one. I started off the day by continuing the reset of the MicroPEMs that were to be sent out for more projects. This just consisted of measuring the voltage and currency of the devices and recording the numbers down in a spreadsheet. Then, I toured the chemistry labs and met a chemist who synthesizes molecules and compounds to make opioids, specifically opioids that prevent relapses for drug addicts. The equipment and machines in these labs were crazy! He walked me through his lab and described the whole process of how he synthesizes the molecules, and the coolest part to me was the giant magnet (it was probably 5 feet tall and 3 feet wide, I couldn’t take a picture as it could have damaged my phone) used to test the molecules he synthesizes. In that same building, there was a wall of information about the two scientists at RTI who discovered two treatments for chemotherapy (one of which is still at RTI doing research), and I got to see the National Historic Chemistry Landmark celebrating these scientists. Very inspiring people!

After lunch, I got back to work on resetting the MicroPEMs, except this time I was clearing data and measuring the air flow and calibrating the nephelometer and more. I already have gained a whole new perspective on research and the amount of work required to make these labs work; the maintenance people, the tech support, the mail and packaging workers, all play integral roles in the success of these labs. Every building and lab I have been to at RTI have all these people milling around, working constantly for the lab. I felt a real appreciation while working in the lab for the “village” that makes research work.

I then met with Dr. Jonathan Thornburg, who is an aerosol engineer currently working on e-cig projects. I got to ask him a lot of questions about his research and what led to his career/the path he took, which was super interesting and very informative for my own future. I returned back to resetting the MicroPEMs, and somehow it was already four and the day was over. Super stoked to be returning tomorrow! 

resetting the MicroPEMs in the lab

I am very excited to be working at RTI!