Hey readers!
Wow, it's been way too long... more than a month! Since I last posted, so many things have changed (good and bad) -- my literature review has been finished, I submitted some college applications, the weather is nice now, and Donald Trump was elected president. Other things haven't -- the Cardinals suck, the mini-dab is still fashionable, and Ashwath's memes are dank as ever.
Before I get into the meat of my post, I'm super excited to announce that at the 2016 American Physical Society Fall Meeting at New Mexico State University, I presented the research we've done so far on HemaDrop™ and got an award for best undergraduate presentation. Here's the link to a video of my presentation! The reason I'm talking about this experience on my blog -- apart from trying to maximize the views on that video -- is that I think that AP Research, Mrs. Haag and Dr. Herbots's help, the comments from you guys, and my literature review allowed me to understand and articulate information about my project in a way I never could before. So, thanks for that!
Now, I'm going to talk about how far I've come, where I'm at, and what I have to do. First off, I think I've come a long way from the beginning of the year. Even though it may seem like I had an idea and project from the get-go, I have grown to embrace what I originally feared -- the actual mechanisms of creating a hyper-hydrophilic film. Before, the complexities of surface-energy coatings and substrate smoothness made me a nervous, but since that was where my research gap is, now I am all about those 2 topics. Additionally, I learned much more about the implications of my research and the importance of microliter blood analysis. Although I knew vaguely about anemia, I never understood the nuances of hospital-acquired anemia that I found through the conversation between sources like Thakkar et al, van der Bom et al, and Salisbury et al. Moreover, explaining my project to Mrs. Haag and writing it all out helped me think about HemaDrop in a completely different way, with greater connections between disparate parts like blood properties, hyper-hydrophilic films, and blood testing.
Right now, I've finished my literature review and started embarking on figuring out my methods. My job for the next trimester is to figure out how I want to answer my question and conduct my experiments. Although I know my methods will be quantitative, there are some qualitative aspects for describing samples, which I definitely want to have as part of my results. Additionally, I need to see how studies in the past have conducted testing with many different types of samples and analysis methods efficiently (trying all combinations in the best way to maximize information). Finally, I need to examine different analysis techniques (e.g., atomic force microscopy, three-liquid contact angle analysis, terahertz spectroscopy, RBS, and PIXE) and justify which ones are best to use for the data I want to collect.
Here's to more fun times in AP Research!
Cheers,
YP
(494)
Wow, it's been way too long... more than a month! Since I last posted, so many things have changed (good and bad) -- my literature review has been finished, I submitted some college applications, the weather is nice now, and Donald Trump was elected president. Other things haven't -- the Cardinals suck, the mini-dab is still fashionable, and Ashwath's memes are dank as ever.
Before I get into the meat of my post, I'm super excited to announce that at the 2016 American Physical Society Fall Meeting at New Mexico State University, I presented the research we've done so far on HemaDrop™ and got an award for best undergraduate presentation. Here's the link to a video of my presentation! The reason I'm talking about this experience on my blog -- apart from trying to maximize the views on that video -- is that I think that AP Research, Mrs. Haag and Dr. Herbots's help, the comments from you guys, and my literature review allowed me to understand and articulate information about my project in a way I never could before. So, thanks for that!
 |
| That's me getting the certificate and cash from Dr. Zaniewski! |
Right now, I've finished my literature review and started embarking on figuring out my methods. My job for the next trimester is to figure out how I want to answer my question and conduct my experiments. Although I know my methods will be quantitative, there are some qualitative aspects for describing samples, which I definitely want to have as part of my results. Additionally, I need to see how studies in the past have conducted testing with many different types of samples and analysis methods efficiently (trying all combinations in the best way to maximize information). Finally, I need to examine different analysis techniques (e.g., atomic force microscopy, three-liquid contact angle analysis, terahertz spectroscopy, RBS, and PIXE) and justify which ones are best to use for the data I want to collect.
Here's to more fun times in AP Research!
Cheers,
YP
(494)
Hey Yash!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations! Remember us little people when you become famous... :)
Anyways, I'm glad that you were able to refine and solidify your topic through the lit review. I can't wait to read your paper, I think it's going to be really interesting.
In terms of your methods, do you know what those qualitative aspects you talked about will be? I'm sure you do, but the vague wording threw me off a little. Also, I think that you should definitely focus on comparing the potential methods in your methods project, if that's possible. That'll help you organize your thoughts and figure out your next moves. Over all, great job!!
First, I love you and I'm so proud of you and in the future when you're big and famous I can say that I was the first one to like that video on Youtube.
ReplyDeleteIt seems like you have a pretty clear idea of what you intend on doing to get your data, but you're just ironing out the methods now by figuring out which test to use based on which is more efficient. It's also good that you're finding studies that are doing the same sort of testing as you are (ish?) that play around with the different types of analysis so that definitely makes it a little easier for you in terms of finding the right one or finding the right combination. As far as the actual data goes, I'm going echo Kimy in asking what qualitative aspects of your data you're going to talk about since most of your data is going to be concerning efficacy, which is a relatively quantitative concept. Again, great job in NM and I'm really excited to read about your methods and watch your presentation at the end of the year!
(189)
Yash! I'm so proud of you! Congratulations. I'm also really glad to hear that our conversations have been helpful to you. It's also been really rewarding for me to learn about your project and help you with it.
ReplyDelete