Week One: The Start to Something New

Good morning everyone!

In this beautiful week in Arizona, I broke free from my piles of books and started a new adventure at Arizona State University.

For those who still don't quite understand what exactly I'm researching, these posts over the next few weeks will hopefully clarify what I'm researching, where I am, and why I'm researching it. So let's get started with what I did this week.

After another 45 minute drive to ASU, I wondered why I picked civil engineering. To be completely honest, before I started this project in August, I had NO IDEA how relevant engineering was to our community. I was bound to the stereotypical image of engineers as the computer savvy person you call when your laptop crashes. Boy, was I wrong.

My on-site mentor, Akshay, began explaining what civil engineers do and their impact on our daily lives. Akshay Gundla is a graduate student at ASU researching the modeling of asphalt concrete before it is used to make the road we all travel on.

Here's a picture of the lab I'm working in:

In the first day, I learned what aggregates are used to make a sturdy road. Before, I thought the road was just rocks "glued" to together by concrete. I was essentially right, but I learned that it's lot more than just mixing some rocks. 

Because of the diverse weather situations, each state (or even each county) has different types of roads. Therefore, civil engineers must create different samples of asphalt concrete with varying amounts of saturates, aromatics, resins, and asphaltenes to compliment the conditions so the road stays steady without becoming brittle. A sample containing many solid aggregates looks similar to this:

Then, researchers have to test the sample in a Pressure Aging Vessel (PAV), which creates the hostile environment asphalt would endure in the span of three to seven years. Basically, it tests the durability of the sample.

Pressure Aging Vessel

(It kind of looks like what my mother uses to make South Indian food)

So this week, I learned how to create the sample of asphalt concrete and how to age the sample. After testing the validity of the sample, we then create new samples that will be used for MALDI! But let's save some of the fun for next week!

Anyway, some may ask, "Seerat, if you're only working three hours a day, what are you doing the rest of the time?" Well, I have finally started to do the one and only thing BASIS did not teach me: cooking. This week, I made oatmeal pancakes (which were ok, I don't recommend, just stick to chocolate chip pancakes), veggie and barbecue pizza (which were great, definitely recommend), and caramelized apple muffins (eh). 

So, this week I got a lot accomplished in the lab... and in life. Keep reading to see what I find out about MALDI (and life). 

Seerat Jajj