Tag: DAY 1

Laber Labs: Day 1

Today Dr. Laber introduced us to the concepts of data science, and we sprung into our first project: making a quiz! You can play the quizzes we used as a reference for this project here.

The basic idea is to have the user choose which answer option (between a notable statistician and a random object) fits the question prompt. The main purpose of this quiz is not to judge users’ accuracy but rather to share facts about the subjects of the answer choices.

The statistician we chose is David Blackwell, who we researched facts about in our brainstorming. We also worked with designers who work at Laber Labs to create artwork for our quiz.

After having lunch, we worked on designing levels for Laber Lab’s upcoming video game Zombies on Treadmills, a process involving coming up with ideas for the shape of the map and where to place spawn points for zombies, houses, volcanoes, and treadmills.

Day 1

On day 1, I had a Teams meeting with Dr. Summerville to discuss the work I had done over the weekend. What I did was copy all the information, from the questions and answers, of four different donor forms for the WakeMed Mothers’ Milk Bank. We discussed the time it took and knew it was unreasonable to have a volunteer manually read the 2400 forms there are, so we tried to find a pdf to excel converter. All the free converters online made very hard to read sheets so we opted to find converters with a free trial or ones that may be more expensive.

When the mothers donate milk, all their milk is then mixed together and then sent to a lab. If the milk is tested positive for a specific bacteria, it is then disposed of. The goal is to extract data from these forms to then be able to use data analytics to help see what kinds of donors are more at risk of their milk containing a specific bacteria and then make the best possible mixture.

Department of Health and Human Services- Day 1

I sat in on a briefing about a recent outbreak of Monkeypox in the United States where novel human-to-human transmission of the virus is being observed. I also joined calls going over COVID-19 updates and policies. I met a few people who gave me some projects to work on as well as some helpful college advice! I talked with Dr. Moore, State Epidemiologist and Epidemiology Section Chief in North Carolina’s Department of Health and Human Services. I joined him on a call about COVID-19 animal transmission, which highlighted the shockingly high human-to-pet transmission rates as well as the effects of symptoms like loss of smell on narcotics and bomb detection dogs.

Day One – Cary Family Dental

Today I started shadowing Dr. Allan Acton and his team during their day at the office.

First, I was stationed with the lovely sanitation hygienist, where I learned about the procedures for hygiene trays, the meaning sanitization-wise for the color coding system, and the uses of the tools and machinery that are cleaned or used for cleaning.

Fun fact: the sterilizing agent, Cavicide, is so potent that it can’t be used without gloves because it can cause cancer over time!

top picture: sanitization machines and tray dismantling station

bottom picture: sterile trays labeled for each hygienist (over 45 made per day; one per patient)

Next, I followed Dr. Acton to some of his patients. While I (obviously) could not assist with the appointments, I was lucky enough to witness 3 incredible procedures: the insertion of a temporary tooth, the filling of an interproximal cavity (a cavity found between the teeth), and an emergency composite filling for a cracked tooth. (Due to HIPPA laws, I can’t take pictures of patients having their procedures.)

My favorite part was seeing the Itero machine, which is technology that was coined by Invisalign to help doctors scan full 3D models of the patients teeth through camera, which are then sent to the Invisalign company for dentures and retainers.

picture: Itero machine being used to scan a patient’s teeth 

Finally, I met with Dr. Acton privately where we looked over before and after photos of transformed smiles, where I learned about the different types of crown, veneers, the structure of a tooth, and how acidity affects overall oral health.

picture: before photo of decay/what I believe to be gingival hyperplasia (overgrowth of the gums) and after photo from treatment and veneers

I concluded my day by walking through the tornado warning and slipping in a nice, cold puddle in front of the practice’s door – can’t wait for tomorrow!

NC Museum of Art Day 1

Today was my first day at the NCMA. I met with Felicia Ingram in the morning and she gave me a tour of the East and West buildings at the museum. After introducing me to some of the departments she works with, we discussed our backgrounds and her work at the museum. Because Felicia focuses on accessibility and curation, I attended a couple meetings she had related to that. We met with one of the IT directors about an interactive display that visitors could interact with and its development. Felicia showed me the process of figuring out where to set up artwork and we went to check on some of the new exhibits that are being put up. Felicia’s work includes the accessibility of labels, space between displays, and the amount of artwork put up in a particular exhibit. While being introduced to the entire museum was definitely a lot for one day, I couldn’t be happier with my placement at the NCMA and I’m looking forward to the rest of my time working with Felicia and the other employees!

Weitblick Kindergarten Day 1

Today was my first day at the Kita Weitblick Kindergarten in Ettlingen, Germany! I arrived at 8:30 and met the kids I would be working with. After lunch, the kids were set down for nap time. I thought that sounded like a great idea jetlagged and tired as well, but instead I went upstairs to the older kids group. Here, more kids, more energy, and more chaos. I ended up spending time with a group of a few girls practicing speaking and selling each other Fisher Price ice cream. Perhaps the most memorable part of the day was when one girl charged me 20£ for a single cone, but said the extra is donated to Ukraine. A lot of the kids are aware of the crisis, or even came from Ukraine. Thus, they require more assimilation and speaking, precisely where I help out. Though exhausted from the day, I look forward to returning tomorrow and spending more time with them!

Day 1: Vector Textiles – Environmental Modeling

Today was our first day working with Mr. Self at Vector Textiles. Our goal throughout these two weeks is to research the environmental impacts of a certain chemical commonly found in mosquito nets: permethrin. As Vector Textiles’ mosquito net repels mosquitoes without the use of chemicals, it would prevent any adverse effects of permethrin on the ecosystem. It is our job, however, to find out more specific information about this chemical’s effects on Sub-Saharan Africa. We spent the day planning our schedule for the upcoming two weeks along with doing some initial research about the chemical. Overall, I am super excited to do more in-depth research about these environmental impacts!

Day 1: Civil Domestic Violence Court

Today I had the pleasure of meeting Judge Davidian at the Wake County Courthouse, and was lucky enough to watch live proceedings at the civil domestic violence court. The proceedings focused on domestic violence and because this was a civil court, restraining orders were issued in lieu of jail sentences (which would be in criminal court). It was a very interesting learning experience as I discovered that being a judge in civil cases meant that you have to be able to ask on-the-spot questions and synthesize the perspectives of both the plaintiff and the defendant to be successful. I was also able to learn more about Judge Davidian’s past career as a Judge Advocate in the United States Navy, which is something I would like to pursue as well! Overall, today was a great learning experience and I hope to learn much more about the intricacies of our judicial system in the coming days!

Meeting Dr. Aziz and Leah

This morning, Ethan and I met with Dr. Aziz and his graduate student Leah. Leah explained the research that she is working on. Basically, she’s trying to design a water filter that will use fungus to chemically convert harmful pollutants in water into something less harmful.

We then spent the remainder of the day playing around with NetLogo, which is the software that we’ll mainly be using to create simulations. We explored the Wolf-Sheep Predation model and the Enzyme Kinetics model and modified the parameters on the models to see how the changes would affect the results.

The Wolf-Sheep model showed how the populations of wolves, sheep, and grass changed based on various parameters, and the Enzyme Kinetics model showed how various parameters affected the concentrations of substrate, complex, and product.

Below is an image of the Enzyme Kinetics model.

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