Z WEP Archives – Page 205 – CA Work Experience Program

Day 5

Today I was able to help one of the engineers by calibrating some equipment they needed to use to design a product. This work ended up being conducted very similarly to how we do labs in the physics class I took this year and in previous years’ science classes. I had to identify independent and dependent variables and needed to have a control case. I collected data points and compared their relationship, like when we would graph data to create equations in physics. I liked being to be able apply concepts that I had learned in class to a real work environment while also learning new things, like the product that would result from this work and the instruments that I used to collect data. This event also emphasized once again the importance in engineering of gathering information before the actual creating and designing of a project, because knowing as much as you can beforehand makes later work so much smoother.

Day 5

Today was a really cool day at FHI 360. We were very fortunate to listen in to a meeting with Nimmi Ramanujam, a professor of Biomedical Engineering at Duke. She presented her extraordinarily work on making a colposcope smaller and more affordable. Prof. Ramanujam and her team a Duke created, what they call, a POCkeT colposcope. Their device is very small and extremely less expensive than a normal colposcope, so it can be more accessible to those around the world. I was very amazed by their innovative approach and look forward to seeing the future of the POCkeT colposcope.

Another exciting (and a bit scary) part of the day was presenting our ideas to the FHI360 staff on a video they can use for promotion. Our concept was doing white board drawing but incorporating real life objects. The meeting went well, and I am excited to move forward with the project!

Day 5

I briskly walked to the largest conference room in the building to prepare for our first meeting of the day, a meeting I had been looking forward to upon arrival at FHI 360: a meeting with Dr. Nimmi Ramanujam, a professor at Duke University who co-developed a POCkeT colposcope. Luckily, one of our mentors gave us a brief lesson prior to this lecture, so we were able to better understand the implications of the new technology.

We started off by learning how cervical cancer has increased significantly in low resource settings, despite the opposite trend taking place in other countries around the world. This is partly due to the difficulty presented by continual referrals/visits to secondary and tertiary medical facilities; in other words, the accessibility. To combat this problem, Dr. Ramanujam and her team worked to find a way to combine all of these “steps” – Screening (VIA/HPV), Diagnosis (Colposcopy – Cryo/LEEP), Treatment(Cancer Treatment) – into one visit, yielding her invention.

The POCKeT or Point of Care Tampon Colposcope is a diagnostic device that is close up to the cervix, contrary to the current colposcopes which are designed to look from the outside. They went through many types, from the Gen 3 which required an external power unit, to a Gen 4 which was ultra portable and had a reflector cone, the Alpha that was characterized by a slim design and on board controls (and collaborated with international companies) to finally the Beta, that can be plugged into a USB port on a smartphone, computer, and more. It does not have to use a speculum, in fact, her team has worked to developed a curved inserter that has been proven to cause significantly less pain than the widely-used speculums. The pocket colposcope has a light and camera button, with a “switch” that slides back and forth to alter the magnification of the picture. It was incredible learning about this newly developed technology, and the scientific aspect, but also the potential consequences that arise with commercialization. I never realized the complexity of such an idea, and how by solely wanting to make a difference/impact on the world, you have to take into account a myriad of other things. This presentation went well over the designated hour, but it was well worth it. It was incredibly interesting, and I would love to take part in something as amazing as her work.

Following this meeting, we enjoyed a short lunch break, again consisting of a homemade peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Later in the day we presented our CTI video pitch to Dr. Dorflinger, among other members of the team.

Mini-Med School

My very first day at Dr. McElveen’s office was a very busy day. About 42 patients were seen in the span of about 6 or 7 hours, and thus I was thrown directly into the mix. With the help of Dr. McElveen’s Nurse, Margaret, and nurse practitioner, Christy, I became very familiar with the ins and outs of their office very quickly. The most surprising part of my day was hearing that I would end up presenting all of the patients to Dr. McElveen before going into the room (like what is done during a residency in medical school). At first, I was very nervous. I didn’t know anything about the ear except for the fact that it was connected to the brain in a way that the two communicate together and allow you to hear. I thought, “How in the world am I supposed to present any of this to him when I have no idea what any of it is or means??”. Christy helped and prepped me the first time on what he expects to hear, and showed me how to read the chart to know what it was saying. She warned me that he would probably continue to ask me questions until I couldn’t answer them anymore, a technique referred to as “pimping” in medical school. As I finished a couple of them, I got quite comfortable doing it and could know where to look for certain things in the chart and understand what they mean. I even filled out part of a patients chart myself at the end of the day. All in all, although I was quite nervous, briefing turned into quite an exciting activity for me, and I can’t wait to join Dr. McElveen in the OR tomorrow.

Shoot, this day was awesome!

Today we began our week at Mighty Rabbit Studios. We got to see some confidential stuff today, so that was really cool, but unfortunately, I can’t really talk too much about it. But I’ll give you as much as I can. We were shadowing a programmer working on this new game called ███████ for a company called ████████. The thing about working on a team of programmers for a big game is that they go through at least a thousand revisions of the code each day. A 10 gigabyte game requires a lot of code and so the code is constantly being added to and edited by the team of programmers. Unfortunately for Kurt, the person we were shadowing, something went wrong and they didn’t catch it immediately (because it takes 30 minutes to compile the code and export it to the platform to test it), so he has to go through 1000 different versions of the code to see where the mistake was made. Fortunately, this time spent troubleshooting can be shortened by doing a binary search of the versions. Choose the version in the middle of the first and last one and if it works, the problem must’ve occurred after it, and so you don’t have to check all versions before it. If it doesn’t work, then all versions after that one won’t work either, so they don’t have to be checked because they’re not the root of the problem. While we were waiting for the versions to upload so he can test them, he helped us improve our games and gave us an inside look at the programming and design that goes into making one of their most popular games Breach and Clear. Another highlight of my day was going to Freddy’s with the team, as you can see below. Today was awesome, and I can’t wait for tomorrow. You can download the game that I worked on today here: https://www.mediafire.com/?io5cdguuhrfgfya

Work Experience Day 5

Monday, June 5th

Today I spent my time with the Information Technology department at SAS. Besides having to walk across the SAS campus in the pouring rain, it was a great experience. Programming and computer intelligence is definitely not my expertise, but I managed to learn a lot from this one day. Because SAS is a technology driven company, the IT department is huge (630 people). One of my favorite parts of the day was when I was given a tour of their data centers. There were huge machines that were storing information for hundreds of different consumers of SAS software. I found it interesting that SAS has multiple back up plans in case one machine stops working by having multiple backup generators. SAS also always has an IT employee on call in case something threatens the safety of their or their consumer’s information. I was also able to see where they conserve and transform their energy which has the voltage to provide power for all of those generators and machines and the SAS campus itself. This data center I was not able to take pictures of just in case someone used the information to hack the center. The intensive wiring setup of the multiple machines that transported the electricity was fascinating. It was really interesting to see the range of the roles in the IT department and how necessary their role is in a corporate company.

Day 5

Today was my fifth day at SAS as a part of the Cary Academy Work Experience Program and I divided my day into two: the morning with Internal Communications and the afternoon with External Communications. The morning was fun because I got to sit in on a team meetings and actually experience what their job is, rather than just hear about it. Basically, I learnt that internal communications consisted of running the SAS intranet and keeping “SAS up to date with SAS,” via blogposts, articles, and videos. External Communications, on the other hand, dealt with PR and community forums. At lunch I made the switch over to building C from building Q, which turned out rather badly. I hadn’t checked the weather forecast today and I donned my suede shoes – a grand mistake, since at 12:50 the heavens opened. I found myself trapped in my car in the building C parking lot, with the rain not easing up in time for my 1:00 meeting with a member of the External Communications team. Thus, I was forced to make a mad dash for building C. Indeed, it was as if I swam to the building as I entered the hefty doors soaked to the bone. However, me being the opportunistic, business savvy boy that I am, I chose to take the opportunity to display my dedication and commitment to my temporary work. After having air dried off some hours later, I joined in on a meeting with the team responsible for the SAS community forums and I was actually able to help them come up with a name for their new “badge” (a reward for a member’s active presence on the site). All in all, it was a very intriguing and eventful day, despite the obnoxious weather!

Day 5

Today I joined a new architecture firm located in downtown Raleigh: LS3P. I walked into the building, went up to the 17th floor and found myself in a large firm filled with more than 9 people (Linton Architects). I was a little nervous to be surrounded by 40 architects, one being my dad’s friend, and shadow them during the week. The full day consisted of me talking a tour of the floor and having one on one meetings with a few employees. I enjoyed meeting the different architects and learning about what each of them do/the current projects they are working on, however, I think the thing I enjoyed the most today was getting a sneak peak of the new design of SEA. I was able to watch a digital tour of the soon-to-be building and my mouth was open the whole time, it was so cool and so beautiful. It’s sad to hear that they will be finished with the new SEA when I leave for college.

Day 5

Today, I went to the marketing division at SAS. In the morning, we listened in and participated in some calls. One of them was with a man who lived in London and who had his bachelor party over this past weekend. He told us how the stabbing in London occurred right down the street from where he was partying. We listened as he described how a car ran over people in the street and then a man started running around stabbing people. He told us how he and his friends ran out into the street to yell at people to run away. After he told us that story, he gave us some advice going into the future: be ruthless, but polite always. In the afternoon, I got to go to Dr. Goodnight’s and the executives floor to see some of the rocks from Dr. Goodnight’s rock collection. I had seen the other rocks around SAS, but I thought that the main collection was in the lobby; however, I discovered today that the main collection was on Dr. Goodnight’s floor.

Day 5 – The Dreaded Moment

Today I saw what made being a veterinarian the hardest: having to put a dog down. The moment I walked into the hospital today, there was a Great Dane lying on the counter and he looked pretty sick. There was a couple of vet techs crowded around him and one doctor who was giving him a check-up. The Great Dane had muscle atrophy, an old prostate, a bloated (maybe turned in) stomach, and was 12 years old (way past the age that Great Danes usually live). He looked extremely tired and it just seemed like he couldn’t live his life out happily even after surgery. The owners knew that the right thing to do was to put the dog down so they didn’t even discuss surgery. They immediately skipped to euthanasia. It was really sad to have to see a dog in that state and that’s when I realized that it’s more important to put an animal out of its misery rather than try to make them live a little bit more with their pain. It was sad, but it was the right thing to do and the Great Dane lived a really long life.

Along with this, we were also able to watch an FHO surgery of an 11 month old Maltese. The picture above shows some of the things people have to wear when entering and watching a surgery.