Week Ten: THE END

Hello reader!

So we are finally in the last week of our senior research project. I can't believe the end is visible and as of today, the internship was over. This week, I've been continuing my online research for integration of MALDI with neuroscience and working on the presentation.

Anyway, if you have the time, come watch all of our presentations on May 7th!! Here's a not-really-polished preview of my presentation!

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/10TQRQPzJL_OLvWW0OjKs4HDMhpHi2Le7Ajoh5QVqETE/edit#slide=id.p

I have a much more polished version in powerpoint BUT Blogger will not let me attach it so, come watch the much better presentation (with animations!!). 

Signing off (FOREVER),

Seerat Jajj

Week Nine: A Biomedical Approach

Hello everyone!!

So this week, I caught a cold (somehow, in this heat??) so I spent most of this week sitting in bed and reading scientific journals and sneezing. It's a good thing I got to do this though because it is really important to do a literature review and I'm also getting back on track with my initial SRP proposal. Along with my research on MALDI in civil engineering, I wanted focus more on current research in the biomedical field, since that's what I want to do in the future.

Out of all the papers I read, I found one particular study very interesting that I had not explored yet. MALDI protein profiling has been successfully applied in the identification of organisms, primarily micro-organisms. The study describes a different sample preparation that I did before; they used broth media growth followed by a protein extraction method before analysis. In this case, MALDI was used to differentiate enteropathogenic (which means it is produced in the intestinal tract) and non-enteropathogenic strains of bacteria.

These tests show RNA knockdown experiments in order to confirm the peptides responsible. These analyses would be extremely beneficial to patients who are suffering from sepsis, a common life-threatening complication due to infection (in order words, blood infection).

Anyway, since I've been under the weather, it was a perfect time to finish painting the set for the living room.. But it's turning out kind of demonic and it's not one of those paintings that scream, "HELLO COME INTO MY LIVING ROOM." You know?

Hah well, thats it for this week.

Seerat Jajj

Week Eight

Hi there!

I’m writing this blog post in the car on the way to San Diego! I’m visiting UC San Diego and I’m so excited! Narrowing my college choices is going to be so hard; I wish I could go to all of them. So, this week was in between very stressful and relaxing. 

This week was the Arizona Science and Engineering Fair and I haven’t participated in a science fair since fourth grade. Let me just tell you, so many things have changed in eight years. These students have become so competitive (EVEN THE ELEMENTARY KIDS) and they are doing these really amazing projects across Arizona. When I was in elementary school, my idea of science project was gluing some scrubs to my rollerblades and cleaning the floor in a fun way (this experiment failed by the way). Yeah, this is what kids are doing now:

But anyway, my poster was on the evaluation of bio-binder as a partial replacement of asphalt binder, which took so long to make. My mentor and I had a few disagreements on what should be on the poster, but it took two days until it was finalized… It was only finalized because it was the last day and there were typos. YAY FOR PROCRASTINATION! But here’s what my poster looked like:

The overall experience was unlike any I’ve had before. But good thing Kathleen and George were there to guide me! So basically how AzSEF works is that judges who have already read your poster will come back and ask you questions about your project to evaluate your overall understanding of the subject. I think I did fine for my first time, seeing that I didn’t really prepare a speech and that I made all my judges laugh.. ;) But I had lots of fun meeting new people and that’s more important than winning in the long run. 

So now that the science fair is over, I can switch my focus back to MALDI!

So long!

Seerat Jajj

P.S. Sorry this post is so late. There was no WiFi at LAX or on the airplane or at the hotel (well there was WiFi but I am not paying $20 for one hour). But then I thought I could write it on my phone, BUT NO I forgot my phone in Phoenix. So I am posting it the second I got home.

Week Seven: AzSEF Preparation

Hey everyone!

The madness of college decisions is finally over! But now the madness of choosing a college has overlapped with the final weeks of research at ASU. When will it end?? But I digress...

Last week, I included some of the advantages to using bio-binder. However, I failed to mention some of the disadvantages to replacing asphalt with bioasphalt. One of the disadvantages is that high oxygen and water content makes bio-oil inferior to petroleum-based fuels. Another disadvantage can be derived from the production aspect. Phase-separation and polymerization and corrosiveness make long-term storage difficult. Although there are some very beneficial short-term benefits, researchers do know for certain if there are any detrimental side effects that could harm the environment. There is also a possibility that even though bio-binder is an immediate resource, it could take a long for it to be prepared at a mass-production scale.

So this week, as a part of the SCENE program, all the students must give presentations in front of their fellow classmates, on-site mentors, and other ASU professors. Now, I really don't like the idea of pubic speaking, especially in front of people who know the topic you're discussing better than you.  From the many presentations I gave at BASIS, I thought I had enough experience to give a solid presentations; but again, I was wrong. I'm so glad I had this experience because it really prepared me for how I should give presentations in college. Professor Nathan Newman, the director of the SCENE program, gave a talk on who to give a university-level presentations and gave tips on making the presentation. Some of the tips I really appreciated were to always include less than 20 words on one slide and have less than 10 slides. Throughout high school, I was so used to piling my entire essay into basically one slide so it was much appreciated that I could directly get a professor's opinion.

So once it was time to give my presentation, I became more worried about which pointer had the laser than the actual presentation (because I knew the content like the back of my hand). But then when I actually gave my presentation, I was so nervous that I accidentally skipped over some things and made some people confused. So, yes, good times & I love public speaking.

Anyway, the data is as follows:

We will draw conclusions and discuss the results next week.

Today, I also had the pleasure of hanging some of my artwork at ASU Kerr Cultural Center, where we usually have the Yule Ball dance.

But that's all I got for this week!

Seerat Jajj