Today was my first day at RTI located in RTP working with Dr. Ginger Rothrock! Although the traffic was a little heavier than my usual commute to 1600 N Harrison avenue and I may or may not have gotten lost on the way, it was a great day! I started the day off by talking to Dr. Rothrock about what RTI does and more specifically the project she’s working on right- a HIV insert-able prevention device. It was really interesting to learn about how RTI works with to improve global health in a variety of ways in terms of applied science. After she explained RTI’s general mission and the specifics of the project, she gave me some information to read from preparation for tomorrow’s all day meeting. After reading we went to go get me a badge so i could get into the building. The we went to lunch at RTI’s new cafeteria, and talked more about the all day meeting on Wednesday- where a group of people from around the country will come together to discuss global health and its agenda. After lunch I got to go into the lab with Natalie and Alice, who are both working on the case. They showed and explained to me the device in which they are working to develop. Then they even let me try to make one of my own! But instead of the drug I used coffee creamer which is a similar consistency. Then they showed and explained to me the data so far and how they collected it-which was very cool. It was really interesting to see some of the concepts and methods I learned in chem being used. I can’t wait for the week to come!
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Day 1
Arriving at 9 A.M., Nathan and I were ready to work at Field2Base. The company is located in Morrisville in an office complex with a few other companies also leasing office space. We were introduced to Rachel, the individual who will be guiding us for the next two weeks at Field2Base. She showed us around the two offices (they have two separate offices in the same complex) and then gave us our schedules for the next two weeks. She created an hour-by-hour list of all the events we will be doing at Field2Base, many of which are learning about the company itself. After she went over the agenda with us, it was time for their Daily Stand-Up. The stand up occurs at 9:30 AM every day and during this time all the programming staff gathers and discuss what they achieved in the prior day and what they plan to achieve during the current day.
After this occurred, we were issued laptops to use for the next two weeks. While the computers were being worked on, Rachel gave us a presentation about the company and told us about her past while offering opinions on potential job paths. Afterwards, 3 employees plus Nathan and I all went out to eat at a Mediterranean restaurant located in Morrisville. We discussed some of the company’s goals while getting to know each other as we ate delicious food.
After we returned, our laptops were ready to use, and we installed some of the beta software that Field2Base offers to its’ clients. We practiced using the software and were helped out by some of the employees that were available to do so. We ended the day by meeting all of the employees at the company.
Day 3: Legal, Jonathan Segal
Today was spent in legal with one of their government relations lawyers. We spent the day looking at different contracts, which although opaque, was still very interesting. One of the parts of his job is examining the contracts they send to clients vs. the versions they send back signed to insure there are no discrepancies, a job which I was able to help out in (despite my 0 years of law school). I managed to uncover that SAS clients often use a different formatting method that led to certain words being pushed to different lines than the original copy. The lawyer assured me it wasn’t a massive conspiracy to cheat SAS out of hard earned cash, but I’m still suspicious. (I didn’t grab any pictures of the contracts for security reasons, but I’ve added a colorized re-creation for reference.)
The rest of the day was with a lawyer who does government lobbying for SAS which was very cool. He took me on my first real tour of the facility. My favorite place was the video creation facility where they create all of SAS’s internal videos. I took a picture of one of their custom studios. It was a very cool day.
Picture refrences:
http://malloryminute.com/paper-paper-everywhere/
Day 3 – Up Close and Personal
Today was definitely less hands-on than my last two days, as I did not work in the lab at all. Instead, I met with Dr. Depro, an environmental economist (also a senior economist at RTI) to discuss his job and career in economics. After trekking across the RTI campus (I don’t think it was actually that far it was just so hot), we arrived at the Economics building and took the elevator up tothe fourth floor, which had a great view of the RTI campus. Dr. Depro explained his career journey and his projects at RTI, which mainly focus on how environmental conditions affect the housing market and the specific groups of people affected by these changes. Dr. Depro was super nice and gave me extremely helpful advice that I will be sure to remember throughout college and my future career.
In the afternoon, I got to witness the SEM (Scanning Electron Microscope) in action with Kiera and Madisen. Two material scientists took us over to examine the samples of nanofibers they created. Because the samples were not metal, they were coated in gold to become electrically conductive (necessary for SEM to work since it uses electrons). The samples were then carefully placed in the SEM, and the researchers were able to scan through the images of the samples to find what they were looking for. Excited for tomorrow!
