Day 8

SAS Day 8 – Last Day

Unfortunately, today was my last day at SAS. The day started at 10 o’clock meeting with Chris for a Demo of FM. FM is the financial management system that SAS uses to track everything, run trends, create budgets, and much more. It was really cool to see all of the features that FM offers. Another interesting thing about FM is the fact that SAS developers internally created FM. After learning about FM, we headed to meet with Imelda and Shiva to learn about general accounting. From there I met with Alex to talk about my whole experience in finance. Overall, I would say that this was a great opportunity for me to learn about something I potentially will study in college. After the wrap up with Alex, we headed to Building Q for a Pizza party with the rest of the CA students. At the party, we had a wrap-up and discussion about our experience. They then brought in a panel of young professionals to give us some advice and life tips for the future. Overall, this was an awesome experience and I can not thank SAS for the opportunity that they provided. Thanks, SAS!!

Today, we worked out of his house again. I continued analyzing the medical data across multiple platforms comparing different variables to determine any correlation. Today I researched a lot into what will change based on your age, sex, and genes. I used a lot of data to come up with my conclusion and I emailed that to him. We went and got sushi for lunch and I went back to work afterwards. I continued analyzing the data and put it into a multivariable equation software system which would give me an equation that would determine the correlation. Overall, I had a fun time during these two weeks and I can’t wait for more to come working with him in the summer.

Day 8 – Goodbye FHI (360) !! :(

Today was a bittersweet moment – our last day at FHI 360, which is incredibly sad, but also one of our last days of school, which is not as incredibly sad (ask Krishna, RJ, or Chiara – I need sleep). I’m writing this at 10:30 because our Work Experience has officially finished!

We spent the morning at the CTID Monthly Team Meeting with the ENTIRE department, (a couple there by phone) where Dr. Dorflinger gave a quick update, Kate Rademacher gave an announcement, and, finally, we gave the YTH project presentation. I’ve discussed it a little bit, but, again, we chose to utilize Instagram as a way to both educate the public through the posts, as well as hear comments and opinions through polls and live question and answer sessions. The first couple of slides discuss our marketing plan, in which we hypothetically pair up with Swell(TM) to gain traction and increase our follower count, as well as support developing countries who are struggling with water sanitation or water scarcity. The group loved it, and suggested we look into doing it as our Senior Capstone! I’m really excited to look into that!

All in all, an awesome experience! Not sure I would be able to count the number of times we commented about how lucky we were over these two weeks, but it probably wasn’t enough.

Day 8 – UNC-TV Conference

Today was my last day at UNC-TV. We started off the day in the late morning (which was awesome) around 11 o’clock. I spent the majority of the morning working on a short clip about an art gallery in Jacksonville, NC called heART gallery. It was a story of two young men who wanted to open a place where creativity and acceptance was the norm. They opened the gallery and it was a huge success, so UNC-TV wanted to do a story on them. To create my mini masterpiece, I was able to choose my own music and pick parts of interviews to add to the clip. I used Adobe Premier to put together my 30 second film. After finishing up in the editing suite, I walked across the building with Ms. Holt to a conference room to sit in on a meeting. In the room, we watched an unfinished documentary that was brought to UNC-TV in hopes of finishing it. The film was about Shaw University. And honestly, it was quite boring and far from being finished. But it was interesting to see a documentary in its adolescent stages. The meeting was to give feedback and discuss some aspects of the film that could be improved. It was helpful to sit in on a conference in the professional world and witness firsthand how things go. Overall, I had a great time with Ms. Holt and the entire UNC-TV staff that made me feel so welcome. I learned a lot too!

Day 8 – Analytics

We spent our final day at Tergus Pharma learning from a member of the data analysis team named Praneetha. She helped us understand some more details of the operations of HPLC, discussing different types of mobile phases, two examples of stationary phases used in the columns, and functions such as the maximum pressure limit that protect the machine from possible issues with blockages. She emphasized the importance of system suitability: checking the accuracy, precision, and tailing factor of the graphs, among other guidelines, in order to ensure that the experiment can be performed successfully and repeated reliably. She also pointed out that every step and mistake made when writing in her project notebook had to be carefully documented and explained with footnotes. Then, she showed us how to prepare a standard using a placebo gel. While waiting to use a balance, we saw another scientist calibrate it by massing known weights and comparing them with a range of accepted values that fell within 1% of the actual weight. Once Praneetha had massed out the sample of placebo gel, she diluted it and used a vortex machine and sonicator to homogenize the mixture.

After lunch, Praneetha showed us some examples of HPLC graphs, which are used to check the amount of active ingredient present in a drug. As the day came to an end, she and Ravi also answered a few more questions for us. They explained that gas chromatography differs from the liquid chromatography that we have been seeing for the past few days in that the sample volatilizes while passing through coils to allow for more surface area and time. They also discussed different types of HPLC columns and the methods used to test drugs for stability over time. Finally, we said goodbye to Duffy and had a chance to meet the CEO of Tergus, Dr. Nalamothu, who had been away at a conference all week. The work I saw over the past few days definitely exposed me to different aspects of pharmaceuticals and the drug development process that I had not known about beforehand, and I’m glad to have had this valuable experience.

Day 8 – Final Review

On our last day Tommy and I arrived at 10:30 and had a meeting with Kristi. We went over all the things we had done for the past week including, our meetings with Ed, Sarah, Kandyce, and Dona, our revamping of their Instagram and Twitter, our visits to the model homes, our articles on the model homes we visited, and our calendar. Kristi was very impressed by the work we had completed and appreciated our time and effort that we put into the work and we thanked for the wonderful opportunity that she had given us. Kristi then gave us a review on how her team runs and examples of situations their might of been. Tommy and I are very grateful for this experience and thankful for Kristi taking us in as interns and showing us, very in depth, of how the real estate business works.

Day 8 – Great Experiences and Sad Goodbyes

Even though it was the last day of my WEP, I still learned so much. Dr. Bermek and I had our usual morning meeting to discuss our plans for the day. We briefly talked about our gel from yesterday that unfortunately didn’t work, but that was what we were expecting. We decided to run an EtBr experiment that had been successful again because we wanted a better direct comparison. The samples we compared last time on the EM and on a gel were from different experiments, so this time, we prepared a larger amount of each sample so we could split them in half. We planned to analyze half the sample in the EM and half the sample on an Agarose gel to get the most accurate results. I was familiar with this experiment, and we already knew it worked, so it seemed to run very smoothly. I was also nice to have 7 days of experience under my belt. While Dr. Bermek was getting other things started, she had me add all the necessary ingredients to microfuge tubes. I added 50uL of Tris, 10uL of BSA, 25uL of NaCl, and varying amounts of water to each sample.

During the middle of the day, I presented what I had learned over my past two weeks the UNC Lineberger Cancer Center to four other people in the lab. It was a nice end to my wonderful two-week experience. I was happy to get feedback from Dr. Berkmek’s other collaborators.

After my presentation, there were still 30 minutes left before the end of the day. Dr. Bermek is a very hard worker, and she likes to take advantage of every minute she has, so we got right back to work. I started getting the grids ready so they could be drop spreaded and put into the EM. Once I was finished with that, I prepared my last Agarose gel with success! And just like that my work experience was over. It finished on a high note with a good presentation and a successful gel. I cannot even explain how much I learned by immersing myself in a lab setting. Although the experience was a little daunting at first, I am really glad I got this unique opportunity. I would like to thank Dr. Bermek for her continued patience as I was learning and making mistakes. Her warm personality is really what made this experience so enjoyable. I’m really thankful for all the lessons I got to learn, and I’m ready for summer!

The facinating -80 degree freezer

The EtBr samples I prepared

Our calculations and plans

The grids I prepared for the EM

Day 8

What a last day! I had a great time working with Dr. Huff during the past few weeks, and it has been an excellent experience.

Today consisted of three surgeries, two of which I had never seen before. The first surgery was a ACL reconstruction. During the procedure, Dr. Huff took a graph from the patella tendon and inserted the graph to where the ACL should be anatomically. I enjoyed watching this procedure because it tied all aspects of the two weeks together as knee scoping and joint repair were both used during this operation. At the beginning of the operation, a graph was cut from the patella tendon. The reason for using the patella tendon is because it was the closest compromise to the ACL when compared to a hamstring graph. The graph was then trimmed to fit inside of a certain diameter hole. Before putting the graph into the knee, Dr. Huff used a drill to create two holes, one in the femur and one in the tibia. The reason for using holes to secure the graph was because there would be more surface area resulting in a stronger and more successful recovery. After the holes were created, the graph was inserted and the knee was then scoped to make sure everything looked okay.

The second surgery was a carpal tunnel release which consisted of Dr. Huff using tools to cut a nerve within the palm of the hand. By doing so, he would take away the numb sensation associated with carpal tunnel syndrome.

My final surgery was similar to the carpal tunnel release as it was short, but it was something that I had never seen before. It was a operation that fixed a “trigger thumb”. This occurs when the sheath of the tendon becomes stiff which then reduces dexterity. Dr. Huff relieved the patient of the symptoms by cutting part of the flexor tendon sheath. This then allowed for the tendon to slide smoothly instead of having resistance from the sheath. With time, the sheath will heal and will then be the right size for optimal tendon movement.

After eating lunch with Dr. Huff, we concluded the day by seeing patients. Today, there was a very wide variety of patients that we visited. Every patient had a different background and story which is what made each visit unique and interesting.

I would like to thank Dr. Huff and his partners again for having me these past two weeks. I had a fantastic time!

Day 8- The Finale

I opened the day with a trip to C Building, which houses the executive offices, sales division, and the bets dinning SAS has to offer. I was introduced to my host, Patty Hager, who works in Pre-Sales. Ms. Hager is in charge of Mid-Market account management with the team, where they provide a lot of support and give the background knowledge to the Sales team so they are better able to sell SAS products. She included me on a phone meeting she had with Rachael Johnson, a member of her team travelling back from training in Toronto. They also discussed the various accounts they had and those they are trying to attract, all of which are confidential.

After, sat down and looked at the resumes of two people applying to be a solution architect. A solutions architect’s job is to basically sit down with clients and figure out problems, having the technical expertise to do so. The two people that applied were both former employees at SAS, so we needed to ascertain if they have a solid standing among with the company. We interviewed one of the applicants, inquiring both about their resume and how they would fit into the new position. I sadly had to leave early to meet up with the rest of the CA contingent, but my time at Pre-Sales was great while it lasted.

Matthew Cinoman needed picking up from H Building, but that only took 5 mins and we were back off to Q. The rest of the team was already there, where we had pizza and talked with Kayla about our time here. We filled out a brief survey, and answered some questions she had for us personally. A Young Professionals Panel then visited us, where they told us their stories, favorite things about SAS, and gave us advice going forward. We had the chance to ask them some questions as well. Ms Follet even stopped by to check on us. We then said our goodbyes, and all went our separate ways. All in all, it was fun.

~YPA Meeting

Day 8

For the last day of the WEP I went to a different location to complete work. Another interest of mine is game design, however, I wasn’t able to do a full work experience on this topic. Though today I was able to glimpse into the world of game design at a VR company called Lucid Dream. For the first half of the day we were introduced to all of the team members of the company and got to see how the different aspects of game design (Coding, art, music, etc.) connect with each other.

After lunch we were able to test a virtual reality game that was created to promote a company. The game was in in final stages, and the goal of playing it over and over was essentially trying to break it to see what bugs existed. By doing this, the creators are able to see what they have to fix for the game to be more successful.