Today was a bit of a light day in that Shane and I both had no job lined up but rather had a day solely to prep for the upcoming internships. We woke up after a couple extra hours of sleep, and decided to meet at Starbucks so that we could talk about the upcoming days and plan accordingly to be best prepared for what is to come. First off we checked out the Unreal Engine which is Epic Games’ personal game design software. Shane had it downloaded on his computer so we decided to mess around on it and tried to create one a driving game, and two a birds eye view shooter. Both of the games were very rough, but they gave us a bit of an intro to how the software worked that we will most likely be working with in the upcoming days. After that we checked out Epic Games newest game Paragon, and looked into how it was made and what made it different from other MOBA’s (Massive Online Battle Arenas). The game is still in beta stages but through playing it neither of us found any glitches at all, which was very reassuring. The rest of the day was spent at home placing previously made games on a flash drive to take into mighty rabbit studios on Friday, as well as checking out Lucid VR’s website to get a grasp on their start up company in which we will be visiting on Thursday. All in all the day was pretty relaxed, but I am super excited for tomorrow at Epic Games, and I am as ready as I will ever be.
Category: Z WEP Archives
Day 1
When I first arrived at Forthright Engineering, I was shown around their workplace and saw that their workshop was actually quite similar to the area of the maker space we have for the robotics team and I learned that, like the robotics team, computer-aided design was an important part of their design process. After I was introduced to the engineers at the firm, they showed me some of the projects that they were working on, including the one that I would be helping with. While I’m not allowed to go into greater detail about the specifics of each of the projects themselves, the range of fields these engineering tasks came from was really fascinating. My task is to research a certain technology that they may need to use, which means finding studies on its efficacy and reviewing relevant patents. Lastly, I was able to sit in a meeting about a project proposal, where they discussed the plans, like costs and timelines, of a new project.
Day 1 – Human Resources
For my first day shadowing/working at SAS I was placed in the Human Resources department. For the majority of the day I shadowed and helped a Talent Equisition team. The first hour I got a really neat overview of what Human Resources as a department has to offer. Kayla, the manger of the small Talent Equisition team, sat down and explained to me the details of HR Business Partners, Training and Development, Composition and Benefits, and Talent Equisition. Afterwards, Kayla dropped me off to my main host of the day (and organizer of the Cary Academy-SAS Work Expierence Program): Bethany. She took me on a short campus tour and explained the main things she does for the company and what a typical day looks like for her. Throughout the day I sat in on meetings that varied from organizing an intern orientation day to closing the reassessment of colleges that SAS recruits at. It was really interesting to see how SAS recruits its interns and how they asses their first time full-time employees. Finally, Taylor T and I got to help out and pack candy filled goody bags for the new interns!
Day 1: Well… I survived.
Kindergartener: “Do you have a daughter?”
Me: “No, I don’t.”
K: “Well, you look like you do.”
M: “Why do you think that?”
K: “‘Cause you’re OLD!”
Day 1: done. I survived! Woo hoo! As I am working with small children, particularly kindergarteners, I plan on beginning each post from here on out with my favorite quote of the day because kids say the funniest things.
Due to testing for the older grades, I’ll be spending the entirety of this week in Mrs. Cohen’s kindergarten class. If anyone needs any indication of how my day went, well, let’s just say that it’s going to be an early night for me. Don’t get me wrong, I adore small children, especially when they’re potty trained and know how to spell their own name. However, even as an ESL tutor and a camp counselor, I don’t know if anything could’ve quite prepared me for the chaos that is twenty-eight children aged five- or six-years-old at the end of May. People who think teachers are paid enough have never stepped foot in a kindergarten classroom with less than two weeks left of the school year and discovered things to be serene. At one point in the day, I looked up at the clock and realized, with utter horror, that it was only 1:00.
Now, it might sound like today was dreadful, but it wasn’t. I had loads of fun with all of the kids, even the ones I initially struggled with. Sure, there were some tantrums, some troublemakers, and some who just flat out ignored every authoritative figure, but with every conniption, there is something pleasant. There’s the pride in working one-on-one with a student and watching them get through a particularly tough word in a book or when helping them through a math assignment. There’s the joy in seeing them dance around to Uptown Funk during a break. There’s the elation in all of them wanting to sit next to you during lunch. There’s the feeling of warmth as all the kids cheer when you tell them you’ll be back the next day.
Yeah, kindergarteners can suck the energy out of you, but seeing the smiles on their faces is completely and utterly worth it. I’m proud and excited to be spending these next two weeks with the kids I met today, and I simply cannot wait to see what tomorrow will bring.
Day 1: Introduced to the Lab
Getting to the “CARL” building where my supervising post-doc works was a pain this morning. I had actually come to the Duke Medical Campus in Downtown Durham earlier in the year, so I was acquainted with the tortuous paths, high-rising brick buildings, and construction sites. Needless to say, I still got lost. Knowing that I’d get lost, I came to the lab one hour early, wandered around for thirty minutes, and (surprisingly) ran into my supervisor, Dr. Masoudi. Promptly, he directed to me to the lab’s manager with whom I signed some confidentiality paperwork. The lab is tucked at the top level of the building, where a plethora of groups are working on biochem projects. My specific lab, the Lefkowitz lab, deals with G-Protein Coupled Receptors that act as intercellular communication devices in eukaryotes (animal cells). These critical receptors come in thousands of different forms but they all work by wrapping around the cell membrane seven times. A “binding site” occupies the end of the receptor outside of the cell while a G-protein – a protein composed of three primary parts that can be ejected to communicate intracellular messages – is connected to the receptor on the inside of the cell. Whenever a unique body binds to the receptor outside of the cell, a “conformational” change occurs where the positioning of the macromolecule slightly alters and releases the G-protein. This complex process is the same process that cells undergo for nearly 40% of our prescribed medicine. The G-protein coupled receptor plays a colossal role in human health, and I can’t wait to get started in the lab!
Today’s labwork began with the expression of beta-2 adrenergic receptors in insect cells. The cells were placed in a solution that expedites receptor formation. The flasks holding these cells were put in a massive centrifuge – a device that spins vessels at high speeds to separate insoluble particles. We poured out the solution, extracted the cells while stabilizing their pH with a buffer solution, and labelled each of our solution-filled flasks. Dr. Masoudi emphasized that everything in the lab must be labeled. We used a smaller centrifuge (going at 4000 rpm!) to separate the insect cells from the buffer solution. Using ethanol and dry ice (the lab ran out of liquid nitrogen), we flash-froze our vessels and later placed our rack of flasks in a massive freezer. The cells in these flasks will eventually be used when the receptors are needed for X-ray crystallography. After our lunch break, Dr. Masoudi and I went over to a lab-wide meeting where different project leaders explicate the results from the past week. Besides X-ray crystallography, other researchers only a couple doors down use cryogenic electron microscopy to better understand the structures of these receptors.
Everyone in the lab is incredibly kind. One researcher called “Bullet” gave up his set of pipets so I could use them later on in the internship. Dr. Masoudi works with another researcher, Li Yin, who was kind enough to give up her work bench and desk so I could use it for labwork. Overall, the lab’s atmosphere is positive, but what I found to be most surprising is that this space is highly diverse; a large majority of the researchers here are first-generation immigrants. Dr. Masoudi just so happens to be a first-generation Iranian immigrant like my mom! It’s been such a phenomenal experience so far, and I’m so grateful for the opportunity to witness some crucial work in the field of biochemistry. Can’t wait for tomorrow!
Day 1-SAS
Going to SAS today was actually very intriguing. I was just with Thuc and our rep. the entire day, and the topic of discussion was web development. First, we were introduced to the SAS website and all of the things it could do such as sell to clients, teach about the company as a whole, and show ways that SAS helps the community. Then, we were introduced to, and stayed with for the rest of the day, Christiania who was on the web editing team. She edited what was on the website and communicated with many other countries with how to fix problems/ make edits. After explaining how the website works, (which was much more complex that previously thought), Thuc and I actually got to preform tasks that Christiania had to do, and we edited the website by ourselves! It was a very interesting day, and I can’t wait for tomorrow with the Sales and pre-sales day.
Day 1
My first day at RTI was great. As soon as I got there, we toured a multitude of labs. These labs had extremely complex equipment for testing various things – such as the vapor from e-cigarettes, the power of LED lights, and even the quality of military suits in protecting soldiers from chemicals. The labs were very impressive. Then, I met with a scientist from the energy efficiency department and he gave me a tour of his lab, in which he is to turn biomass, such as feed-stock, into refined oil and other fuels. He even told me that he once turned chicken droppings into crude oil (kind of gross but really cool)! Michelle McCombs, who I am shadowing throughout my internship, also showed me how she downloads data from the MicroPEM, which is her main research project. The MicroPEM is a device that individuals wear to collect real-time data on the particulate matter they are exposed to/inhaling. She received 3 MicroPEMs back from Dartmouth College (many MicroPEMs are sent out on loan to colleges and universities for research, as well as to many third-world countries), and after she collected all the data we switched out the filters in the devices, cleaned them, and sent them back to Dartmouth. After lunch, I met with a chemical engineer who works on the efficiency of air filters in commercial settings and households, and it was really interesting to see SEM images (scanning electron microscopy) of these filters and the fine differences between dirt and human skin and what not. Then, I collected voltage and current data on MicroPEMs that were in the process of being shipped out. I already have learned so much from my first day and I am super excited for tomorrow!
Day 1: Intro to Integrated Laboratory Solutions
My first week of the WEP will be spent at Integrated Lab Solutions, a laboratory that specializes in drug toxicology. Today, I sat in on their weekly lab meeting, got a tour of the office and facilities and an introduction to some of the things that they do for their clients. Their clients consist of different medical clinics in North Carolina, Georgia, and many other locations. The first half of the day I shadowed the Chief Science Officer and observed him review all of the collected data so that any false positives/negatives could be filtered out before sending back to their clients. In this process, I learned all about the method that they use to detect all of the different drugs (liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry) and how the data is read to ensure accurate results. The different components of the urine sample are separated when they pass through silica particles coated in hydrophobic oils. Retention time and ion size of the drug are then used by the software to confirm the identity of the detected drug after it had passes through the different chambers of the machine. After all of the data has been collected, it is reviewed by a human to ensure accuracy. If there is doubt in the results, the concentration metabolite of the drug (metabolized counterpart) is referred to in order to either confirm or deny the presence of the drug. If the data is inconclusive or inconsistent, then a second test will be run.
The second half of my day I watched some of the lab personnel prepare cuvettes and sample trays to be tested later. The sample trays were loaded with different calibrating solutions, quality control solutions, a control solution, and then the samples to be tested. An internal standard was added to each cuvette of urine sample to make the data readings by the machine more accurate. They were then incubated, and spun in the centrifuge to finalize the preparation. 
Day 1 – Shadowing Grant Shenk (Portfolio Dept.)
Today I got to shadow Grant Shenk at Lenovo. The day started off with a tour of the building, and I got to see the 3rd and 4th floors of Building 1, as well as a full tour of the Customer Centre, where all the publicly released products offered by Lenovo are showcased and available for use. I was able to try out a very high end custom desktop PC, with a curved 120 degree display, and play a match of Rocket League. I also had a one-on-one meeting with Grant, where I learned about the life of a product and how it travels from proof of concept all the way down the chain to EOL and EOS (ends of life and service, respectively). I was also able to check out how some of the different workspaces are set up, and offer feedback as to how to better encourage interdepartmental interaction through workspace design. I was also able to meet two great employees named Bridgett and Jarrett (sp?, apologies to him, never was able to see the correct spelling of his name), the latter of whom was very involved in music production, which has ties to my intended college minor of vocal performance, and we all had a great lunchtime conversation at Randy’s Pizza about the evolution of technology and how it has changed over the last two decades, including Y2K, specifically. I had an amazing first day and I look forward to what these next two weeks have to offer, including Friday, when I am able to shadow Bridgett for the day!
Day 1 – Some First Impressions
My first day at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences started dramatically; as I was attempting to park in downtown Raleigh, a schoolbus ran into a police car, causing a large backup down the street. When I finally got parked, I ventured inside for my first full day of work in the Visual Investigations iLab of the Museum of Natural Sciences. Upon arriving at the lab – an impressive, glass-walled technological repository – I met with Mr. Poteate, my supervisor for the Work Experience Program. He put me to work immediately, giving me a checklist that I had to complete with different questions about different parts of the museum. I completed the 1-hour assignment with enthusiasm; as far as I’m concerned, running around a science museum and looking at the exhibits will never be work. When I got back, I completed some forms and learned my way around the equipment and various stations within the lab, experiencing it in a similar manner to those who it’s intended for. All this work pushed into lunch, so after my lunch break, I returned, and begun to work on my own project. In the lab, one of the centerpieces is the presence of a number of different robots, 3D printed knick-knacks, and other interesting technology-based attractions. As an intern, I would be involved in the maintenance of the existing products and responsible for the creation of new ones. Taking this task to heart, I began brushing off the dirt of my skills for Arduino programming, initially given to me by the Art and Design class, that would be the centerpiece of all the projects. By the end of the day, I had effectively re-learned all I knew about Arduino, and, in doing so, had created both the hardware and software for a morse code decoding machine (photos attached). This took me most of the day, and the final minutes were spent testing my creation, and reveling in the pride of a job well done. I had a great first day at the Museum of Natural Sciences, and I can’t wait to come back!