Tag: Day2

Day 2: Practice Makes Perfect

Today was filled with experimentation. The major challenge I tackled today was the addition of a zipper to my garment. In my ADV Art class, I was creating a top made of recycled plastic bags. This idea stemmed from the act of littering and how wasteful humans have become. To add a component of contrast, I wanted to add a zipper to my piece. I also aligned the zipper to an asymmetric direction to interrupt the flowing rhythm of the top. The reason this was a challenge was because the plastic is so delicate, so I had to hand sew the zipper. Not only was it challenging to implement a clean stitch, but it was also extremely time consuming. I am very close to finishing the zipper, so stay tuned for images of the finished garment!

Day 2- Post Holiday Weekend Palooza

My first day at the office was light but action packed. While there were not a ton of patients today, there were two emergency cases first thing this morning. After a long holiday weekend this is typical and not surprising.
First thing this morning a severely cracked tooth was treated. I learned the methodology for this procedure along with the necessary requirements to do the procedure in the first place. Since there was not much tooth left to work with, the root and small remainder of the tooth was removed. This tooth had previously had a root canal performed on it, so it was quite brittle and difficult to remove because it broke into several pieces and chipped as it was removed. Eventually the whole tooth was removed successfully. This was a fun challenge to start the week at the office!
The rest of the morning was routine cleanings and small fillings performed on teeth. However there was one case where a partial denture was adjusted. This was an interesting learning point for me as I learned about the difference in building both partials and full dentures with a computer and its differences with that process and that of the process of building 3D models and sending them off to a lab in order to make the dentures. I also learned about the attachment of partials in contrast with dentures, and how it is important for them to not irritate other already existing teeth.
My favorite part of today was watching the usage of a tool that I had never seen in my trips to the dentist. Dr. Sims has a probe with a tiny light and extremely clear camera attached to its end. This allowed Dr. Sims to probe around a specific tooth and capture clear images of the tooth from different angles, at a level so zoomed in that the human eye can better see cavities or even the slightest cracks. I was impressed by the quality of this camera and its quick usage that allowed Dr. Sims to identify the causes of mouth aches and pains that patients complained of.
Today was eye-opening for me into the world of dentistry, and I cannot wait to treat different cases and learn about different techniques and tools in the upcoming days!

The intraoral camera!

Day 2- Safety and Vacuuming

I spent my first day at the North Carolina Center for Applied Aquatic Ecology (NCCAAE) with Elle and Lisa. My safety training consisted of signing 3 forms and a tour around the facility: Elle pointed out every eye wash, shower, fire alarm, and exit in the building. NC State has a new policy about background checks, and the HR department is making everybody get one since I’m under 18. As a result, my next few days will be spent with Lisa (she’s new so she has an updated background check).

Lisa and I worked with recent storm water samples from the Neuse River and ran tests for total suspended solids. The tests consisted of pouring the water into a vacuum filter until at least 2.5 mg of solid was on the filter. The filters were then dried in an oven for an hour to remove the excess water. Lisa had me mass the samples and input the data into a spreadsheet.

The vacuum filtration process was quite tedious, each bottle was ~1 liter and she had about 9 bottles to go filter. Some of the samples took longer than others, and one of the samples had a few worms in the bottom. Though the worms were interesting, Lisa had to redo the filtration. While the filter was running, I asked her about her path into the profession/field. Basically she said that she hated science in high school (except for Environmental Science) and then ended up liking chemistry in college. Before working at NCCAAE she worked for several nonprofits and has found that she likes working in jobs with a hands on/direct impact on the environment.

IMAGE 1: Scale and Data sheet I filled out (scale worked to the 100,000th of a gram)

IMAGE 2: One of the vacuum filters after it was dried

(On an unrelated note, I found that Lisa and I are both picky about our pens, and we had a nice discussion about them after I complimented one of hers. She used a Uniball Laserjet .7 mm blue pen and it wrote quite nicely.)

Day 2- Wrangler, Instagram, and CMA Fest

Today was an eventful and surprising day at French West Vaughn. We spent the day with the publicity  and were working with one of the companies biggest clients; Wrangler Jeans. It was our job to scope out the publics general opinion of the brand. To start of we began researching the denim brand, starting with the founding all the way to the place where wrangler is today. We then learned all about the marketing goals for FWV today, find a way to make “cowboy” jeans accesible and desirable to people who don’t live in the wild wild west.

As Wrangler is one of the companies biggest clients it came as no surprise to us that it also had the biggest publicity team. Today we were part of this team. We were tasked with rounding up social media influencers who could potentially help the sale of these jeans. The influencers had to fit a very specific bill though, they needed to be from Austin Texas, needed to have an Instagram following above 5k, and they needed to LOVE Wrangler denim! When we first started it seemed very daunting, but as we continued to delve into the square-ish world of Instagram we found search buttons that helped make clear to us what exactly we needed to find. After we found this information we had to learn how to use a platform called Cision to find their emails and contact information.

The Second thing we had to do was find out about the coverage for CMA music fest, a HUGE music festival in Tennesee and a HUGE oppurtunity to sell Wrangler Jeans. We had to go online and look for websites about what to wear to the CMA music fest and copy down the links to those sites and find the authors and editors to whom  FWV could send product samples.

We then sat in on a meeting with one of the Wrangler execs and we learned about all the work that goes into planning a pop up shop and how to get celebrities to to perform at these types of events for free!

All in all it was another eventful and exciting day at FWV.

This was a picture we took at lunch today, we went to Raleigh Raw, a FWV favorite!

Day 2: In the Groove

I arrived promptly at 8am, to learn about the new plethora of patients we would be seeing today. Although there were a smaller amount of walk-in patients, there was a great amount of already scheduled appointments. Most of the morning appointments consisted of physicals, and most of them for toddlers. With younger children, Dr. Dupuy asks that the parents bring their child in more regularly to record their development. These physicals consist of checking the throat, eyes, nose, ears, hips, pulses, and private parts. Of course, the toddlers hated when the stethoscope was placed to their chest, an unfamiliar person and an unfamiliar instrument. However, with Dr. Dupuy’s incredible experience, he knew exactly how to handle these precautious babies. With one particular baby, he allow them to touch the instrument, play with it, and then touch it to himself. Then when Dr. Dupuy went to listen to the baby’s heartbeat, there was minimal squirming.

Most of his patients were within the 2-4 range today, but two patients were less than a week old. After being discharged from the hospital, Dr. Dupuy likes for mothers to bring their child in for a postnatal checkup. These babies were incredible fragile and were incredibly cautious to everything that Dr. Dupuy used; they cried a lot. What I thought was the most interesting was that there was a black, red bulb inside the babies belly button, the umbilical cord. Dr. Dupuy assured the parents that these umbilical cords would fall off within 10-15 days after the babies birth. Including this information, Dr. Dupuy was very thorough in describing everything about this babies journey and what the parents should be expecting. With a particular patient he offered detailed expectations of breastfeeding for the mother. He explained to her how it was normal for the baby to not latch on, have incredible energy, or feed very often in the first few days after birth. This is because the babies system is full of waste and excess liquid, also explaining why babies decrease in weight their first week after birth.

Before and after each patient, Morgan and Doctor Dupuy would look and fill out medical charts. Before the appointment, Doctor Dupuy would scan through past medical records and history of the patient, to familiarize himself. After each appointment, he would fill in the observations, symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment for each patient. A picture of the area in which these were completed, is picture below.

I had a great day today, and am continuing to learn more about this field and medicine in general

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Day 2: Elections and Cash Bail

 

Today involved a multitude of reading, walking/wading through the heat and humidity of downtown Raleigh, and meeting different members of the ACLU’s staff.

When I arrived at the site, I immediately headed to the Legislative Office Building. The usual parking lot was full, so I managed to find a spot about ten blocks away; let’s just say that I didn’t exactly look my best when I finally arrived inside the building. Nonetheless, I found Susanna, a member of the ACLUs staff team, and shadowed her as she scheduled meetings with legislators about a proposed election bill. The ACLU has two problems with this bill:

  • It promotes greater use of photo ID
  • It will provide a precedent for a highly possible future amendment that will enshrine the photo ID requirement in the North Carolina constitution.

The words “Photo ID” have a positive connotation. Most everyone has a photo ID. It’s common sense, right? Well, unfortunately, minorities and those with an incredibly low socioeconomic status (often minorities) do not own a photo ID. This amendment and bill discreetly disenfranchise marginalized groups of people through vague and obtuse language.

After learning about the nuances of this proposed legislation, Susanna and I separated. She had to see her daughter Lily’s (!!) dance recital, and I headed to lunch. I grabbed a smoothie at Raleigh Raw (overpriced hippie food, but I like to identify as a wannabe-hipster) and drove to the ACLU’s office. There, Sarah assigned me some reading about the next item on the ACLU’s agenda–cash bail reform. To say I was educated would be an understatement. My eyes were pried open with pliers in the most metaphorical way possible.

To put it simply, in my opinion, the for-profit bail system is disgusting. I’ll dive into the details. For-profit bail contributes to what liberals call “mass incarceration” and what conservatives call “over-criminalization.” Basically, it puts way too many people in jail and prison. Cash bail is the system in which a person convicted of a crime has two options: to pay bail or to be jailed. To be or not to be. The idea of bail is to ensure that individuals show up for their court hearings, but a simple text message system has been proven more effective.

Unfortunately, the bail system in place effectively criminalizes those who cannot pay (often blacks and other minorities). They are forced to live in jail–and after two days in jail, one is at risk of losing his/her car, job, child custody, and home. And 70% of those in jail–the definition of jail excluding long-term sentences and prison facilities–have NOT been convicted of a crime. That’s 450,000 people. As a result, many innocent individuals are forced to plead guilty as an alternative to being locked up for an indefinite amount of time. It’s common for those proven innocent to pay bail or bonds in installments for YEARS after their court hearings and have major debt as a result.

Additionally, bond agents use their positions of power to exploit the most vulnerable. Currently, 80 licensed bond agents in North Carolina have been convicted of using their positions to commit crimes–including but not limited to sexual assault and coercion, violence and drug trafficking.

I’m not sure exactly how to transition from a subject as weighty as cash bail, but I’ll try. After I finished my readings, Sarah gave me a tour of the office. I met so many amazing lawyers, communications managers, and interns. It was awe-inspiring to be around such an accomplished population density.

Sarah also updated me on the ACLU’s new campaign strategy to counter the for-profit bail industry. Ambitious, yes. Doable, also yes.

Prisons are economically inefficient and inequitable. The economic side drives fiscal conservatives to invest in reform, and “equity” pretty much drives anything liberal. Not to stereotype.

To summarize, today was incredibly powerful. Definitely a wonderful second adventure.

Excelling at Kellogg

Today marks the end of the closing process of Kellogg. While a relief to Kellogg’s numerous administrative/financial employees, it also marks the beginning of fiscal projections! Additionally, I met a man with an Industrial Systems and Engineering Ph.D. and 20 years in the IT department who solidified my career choice.
After submitting the remaining JEs to Deepak (the Kellogg correspondent for the Cary Plant) and ensuring they were all correctly winshuttled, Rick (the plant controller) and I reviewed the current margins of favorability in the budget. From these projections, Rick and I discussed the changes needed for the 5+7 forecast we were about to begin; what happens if we changed the production standard numbers? What happens if we allot more money for plant expenses? How will depreciability affect next month’s budget allotment? Etc. This project will take until Friday to complete, as it’s diverse and multi-faceted, and will require further discussion among other team leaders.
The 2 o’clock meeting (reviewing safety procedures for various product lines and the listing of productivity/energy efficiency/etc.) allowed me to explore the factory further. Although I covered most of the ground yesterday, today allowed me to see the peanut butter fillings tanks, the Austin sandwich cracker product lines/storage areas, and I learned the top-secret recipe for a white cheddar cheez
it (yum!).
The 3 o’clock meeting introduced me to other factory controllers and allowed me to understand the insights of Kellogg’s top management and plans.
Noland, the man with the IE background, happily adopted me for thirty minutes, explaining the intricacies of his job (and his soon-to-be-delivered solutions). It confirmed my suspicion that IE is “paid problem solving for adults,” and his background jazzed me for my (hopefully) future career!
— Peyton

 

Day 2- Contraceptive Commotion

Today, three of our four meetings consisted of members from the Contraceptive Technology Innovation Department- meaning we learned about devices, hormones, and bodily functions we never knew existed. In order to fully appreciate the work of this group, we needed to learn the basics of all forms of contraception on the market and of their purposes, pros, and cons. With Ms. Sergison, we discussed female and male anatomy and contraception basics, with Dr. Dorflinger we learned about more details and differences in contraception, and finally with Dr. Callahan reviewed her latest project- a dissolving contraceptive micro-needle patch. Partnering with Georgia Tech, she and other colleagues are collaborating on this project to make a new and improved form of non-intrusive contraception using progestin, estrogen, and micro-needles. With these elements, this contraceptive is painless, fast, discreet, and disposable. Once placed on the patient’s skin, the small needles are inserted and are released painlessly into the patient’s blood stream delivering the hormones. Next, the patient can remove the patch and dispose of its remains. While also discussing her research in other countries for this project, she also introduced us to another of NHI’s projects- a biodegradable contraceptive implant. With this implant, the hormones could be released through a patient’s arm over the course of a few years and then would dissolve, requiring no treatment after insertion. These medical advances are fascinating! However, the highlight of my day was watching the baseball game from the cafeteria balcony.

A shelf with many forms of contraception within the office.

The baseball game today!

Day 2- French West Vaughn

Today at French West Vaughn we worked along side the creative team of the company. This part of the company works to find social media influencers and other media outlets that can aid their clients. For example, Wrangler is one of their big clients that has been with French West Vaughn for 21 years. Wrangler is a  western style clothing company. They sell hats, belts, shirts, pants, and many other things. Today we focused on the CMA (country music awards) festival. The CMA festival is a great platform for Wrangler to advertise their brand and find people to promote their product. This is where we came in. We helped look for Instagram and YouTube influencers who could possibly partner with the company to help promote the Wrangler brand. We also helped look for media outlets that talked about what to wear to the CMA awards and then later we found both good and bad reviews about Wrangler. French West Vaughn wants to find people to promote wrangler, use various media outlets that mentioned CMA  and  make adjustments to how they promote their brand based on the various reviews. It was really great to see how this part of the company functions. It was quite a learning experience.

Day 2

For my second day at Plexus, I began the morning with the industrial design group. We discussed how the group designs for the user not just based upon the customer’s needs. The industrial design group begins by defining the user and target audience of the product by creating a persona. A Persona is a document that defines the or many users that might be involved in a product from delivery to end of life. Chad described the most important aspect of industrial design is understanding the user. Therefore, the industrial design team finds users and spends time with the users and designs in multiple stages in the design process to understand their needs. Once the user is understood, a journey map is outlined for the current method of a process or task. Made up of multiple steps detailing the process, the benefits, and the drawbacks of the current method a journey helps to understand the improvements that could be made the product. Additionally, a journey map can be made for the future, what you intend on creating. I also spent some time with Jim and Cara who are Quality Engineers who elaborated on how to further requirements and ensure a products compliance and safety. Quality Engineers are involved throughout the whole process and are involved in narrowing down the idea. Quality Engineers begin by asking “What are your Intendids?”. An Intendids means who, what, where, when, why of your product. For my project in which I am creating a plant watering system, my intendids are a person who is busy either traveling or a working professional between the age of 20-45 who has a plant located in doors at a temperature between 65-75 degrees that needs little to moderate watering located in the United States. Additionally, the Quality Engineers reinforced the importance of SMART requirements, specific, measurable, testable, and repeatable. Additionally, Quality Engineers make sure that products are compliant to both laws and standards in all countries that the product will be sold into. They are in charge of documenting risk, mitigations, and testing. An important aspect of their job is verification in which both mitigations and requirements are tested to ensure that the goals and safety of the product. I forgot to post the environment, requirements, and validation statements from yesterday. I have added my work from today to that document, so you can see my progress towards a plant watering system. Look forward to another great day!

My phone cut out so picture coming soon!

Wateringsystemdicumentation-uhjowp

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