Tag: DAY 1

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!

Day 1- Teamworks Dog Training

My work experience is off to an absolutely amazing start. Today, Aesha and I got to shadow some dog trainers at Teamworks Dog Training and Board, and we both learned so much. We got to sit in on training sessions with dogs, in which they specialize in positive reinforcement and clicker training. Aesha and I even got to practice working with several dogs, big and small, learning to only reward when they follow direct commands, and to turn our backs to them when they become overexcited or jump on you. We worked with therapy dogs who were already skillful and learning more advanced maneuvers and with dogs who were still working on the basics. We also spent time just playing with dogs and giving them attention, as Teamworks boards many dogs and has to constantly rotate play time. It was an amazing first day and I can’t wait to learn and see more.

 

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Day 1 at Osceola Studios

Today I walked into a studio full of people. There was a very good young rap group called Simplicity who had just finished recording their newest album. Their music sounded positive and jovial. It was very unique. Me. Hodgin was editing certain parts of several songs, and everyone was joking around with him. It was very cool to watch an actual song be made and feel what the atmosphere is like.

First Day at General Assembly

Getting to the Legislative Office in Downtown Raleigh was a hassle. I was held up in the Human Recourse office because I technically wasn’t supposed to work there without the proper orientation. After 20 minutes of waiting I was sent to find Rep. Fisher’s office. Navigating the maze like building I finally found the office. A somewhat small two roomed office. I got there and was introduced to Emily who is an actual intern working in the office. After waiting for a bit I met Ms. Garrison the Legislative Assistant, and then Rep. Fisher. After a bit I was ushered to the House floor for a session. I was recognized as a page and had to stand up in front of everyone, which was quite unnerving. It was a quick session lasting only 15 minutes. I was introduced to a hand full of other Representatives. Next was the democratic caucus meeting. The usual caucus meeting room was being used to hold protestor “Forward Together” about Medicaid expansion. The caucus lasted a long time and was interesting to see the behind the scenes of the policy making cycle. The next thing was another session meeting at 3 to debate bills.

DAY 1: Bring Your Daughter to Work Day!

There was an issue at Dr. Sheikh’s lab that prevented me from going in today, so I spent the day with my dad, Dr. Neeraj Sachdeva, who is a gastroenterologist with Wake Endoscopy Center in Raleigh. Together, we reviewed a few recent studies and cases he had been involved with, including a case report of a woman who presented with what looked like a heart attack, but turned out to be hiatal hernia, along with a study regarding the detection rate of potentially pre-cancerous polyps (called adenomas) based on different conditions possessed by patients.

Through our discussion of the case, which combined work from both the cardiology and gastroenterology realms of medicine, I learned about EKGs and how to read them and what kinds of conditions could be indicated by different patterns of the waves. I also learned about a rare condition called an aortic dissection and even rarer one called a hiatal hernia and how to recognize both on CT scan images. While the case in question ended well with no particularly extreme measures taken to ensure the health of the woman, I learned how it is still important that my dad and his fellow physicians publish this information to other doctors, so that if another patient presents with similar symptoms in another part of the world, the possibility of hiatal hernia should not be immediately ruled out simply because of its rarity.

We also touched on a recent study conducted retrospectively based on data collected from the different colonoscopies done by doctors at the practice. The study addressed correlations between comorbid conditions such as obesity, diabetes and hypertension in relation to the discovery of pre-cancerous growths during colonoscopies. The study found that hypertension or high blood pressure didn’t play that much of a role, diabetes played close to a significant role and obesity played a very critical role in adenoma detection. Since we had a copy of the original raw data, I learned how to make conclusions based off of simply numbers and apply that to find implications for patients everywhere.

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