Research – CA Work Experience Program

Day 8: Last Day!

Today was the last day of our work experience program and the first day we actually went to the office! Finding the building was a little bit tough but the experience was well worth-it. It was nice to meet Mr. Self in-person, and we even got to meet his dog (who is older than me)! I feel like the presentation itself went really well as we were able to tie everything back to our central claim and Mr. Self even said he could use some of our research in his future work. This was a great opportunity for me to experience what a job in “research” really involves, and I hope the skills I gained stay with me.

Day 8: The Finale

Today we presented our final presentation to Mr. Self, and it went really well. It felt really good and went way better than I thought it would (not that I had low expectations or anything). It was actually kind of casual, especially since sometimes he would pose a question and then we would have a small discussion before getting back to the presentation. This made the whole experience less nerve-wracking. I’m really proud of what my group and I accomplished these past 8 days, and the presentation to Mr. Self was proof of all our hard work. It’s kind of sad to think that this is the last day, but it really was a great experience and I had fun. Also, spending our last day together in person was a nice way to finish things.

Day 8 – Final Presentation!

Today we finished up our work experience by presenting our PowerPoint to Mr. Self at his office building. While heading up to the conference room, we ran into the other group working with Vector Textiles (we had to kick them out of the room). We even met Mr. Self’s dog (very cute and also very shy). The presentation went well, Mr. Self had a lot of interesting questions. He seemed to like the information though! If we had more than 8 days I feel like we definitely could’ve dug deeper and done more research on some of the questions he brought up. This work experience has been great, and I had a lot of fun researching the effects of permethrin in sub-Saharan Africa. I learned a lot of new and interesting things. I’m really grateful that I got to work with Mr. Self and his company Vector Textiles!

Day 7: Vector Textiles – Environmental Modeling

Today we met up in person to go over the presentation. Since the CMS conference room was full, we decided to meet up in the library. Doing a mock presentation was really helpful as we were able to clarify any miscommunications. Furthermore, we timed ourselves and made the whole presentation more concise. The day went pretty good and we’re definitely ready for our final presentation tomorrow!

Day 5 – Preparing the Powerpoint

Today started off with a quick meeting with Mr. Self where we discussed our plans for the next few days. Afterwards, my group members and I had a separate call where we outlined our idea for the power point. We sent our outline to Mr. Self and after he approved it, we began work on setting up the power point and inputting all of our research. We made plans to meet up in person so we could practice our presentation before we present on Thursday.

Day 5: Vector Textiles – Environmental Modeling

Today started off with another quick check-in with Mr. Self and then we got straight to work. We started on the Powerpoint which we will use to present our research next Thursday. While working on the presentation, I found something weird in our research: two of our sources had directly conflicting information! I had to look into both sources and also use additional information to figure out which was more accurate; fortunately, the effort was well worth it and I was able to figure out the issue (one of the sources cited evidence from a study that didn’t exist).

Day 4: Vector Textiles – Environmental Modeling

As it was our last day of research, I decided to complete any unfinished trains of thought and do make sure everything made sense. One fun story from today was that Kyler and I met up at CA to compare our research (as we were focusing on two different parts of the topic). It was nice to compare as we both had general knowledge about each other’s parts so we could ask educated questions but it was still great for focusing on which parts of the research would be important to include in a short presentation.

Day 4: Evidence for Untreated Nets for Malaria Control

As our research begins to wrap up, I focused today on untreated malaria nets and how effective they are compared to treated malaria nets. When I say treated and untreated, I mean whether or not the nets are treated with pesticides. Obviously, treated nets use pesticides while untreated nets do not. I found a lot of support for the use of untreated nets. Because malaria vectors are becoming increasingly more resistant to pesticides, pesticide treated nets are becoming less and less effective. In a study conducted in 48 villages in The Gambia, untreated nets prevented approximately 60% of malaria infections and 35% of clinical disease. In another study done in Papua New Guinea, untreated nets significantly reduced malaria vector survival and infection. In some trial sites, evidence suggested that high coverage with untreated nets delivered “significant gains ahead of the widespread use of [insecticide treated nets]”. After 4 long days of research, it’s finally time to start putting our presentation together!

Day 4 – LLUNs or LLINs? Moving Away From Chemically Treated Mosquito Nets

Today while doing more research about the use of mosquito nets in sub-Saharan Africa I stumbled upon the heated debate between using LLUNs or LLINs. LLUN stands for long-lasting untreated nets while LLIN stands for long-lasting insecticidal nets. The main difference between the two types of mosquito nets is that LLINs are treated with insecticides while LLUNs are insecticide free. Proponents of LLUNs argue that mosquitos are becoming resistant to the chemicals used to treat LLINs, so instead of waiting for science to innovate more insecticides we should be utilizing untreated nets that offer the same protection as LLINs. The article I read made a lot of great points about the importance of implementing LLUNs that paired great with my research about the dangers of permethrin since it is a chemical that is commonly used in insecticides and to treat mosquito nets. After today, our research has mostly been finalized so now all that’s left to do is to work on the presentation!

Day 3: Vector Textiles – Environmental Modeling

Today started out with a quick check-in with our mentor, Mr. Self. We readjusted our schedule based on the work we had already completed and planned logistics for the upcoming days. After the meeting, I continued diving into research about the direct and indirect effects of Permethrin on humans. One of the biggest difficulties that I came across was trying to find unbiased information as most websites were either pro-permethrin (if they were trying to sell a product using it) or anti-permethrin (just general anti-pesticide sentiments). It was fun to connect research about the environmental impacts to the human impacts as it gave me ideas for our eventual presentation. Overall, I’m excited to do more research on the topic and see if I can break through the wall of bias.