This was a wind-down week for Rob and I. Mostly, I worked on the deliverables that I had neglected earlier this summer. Outside of the project, I coordinated with several Hendrix students about starting a Computer Science club this next year.
What I wish I knew coming into the ProHealth REU experience:
- Don’t stress about not knowing what is going on.
- This is a learning experience and no one expects you to have a have graduate-level knowledge of your project coming in.
- How to divide and conquer.
- Don’t try to do everything yourself.
- Bring shoes you can walk in.
- IU is a big campus. It is nearly a mile trek to work from the Willkie apartments.
- Talk to suitemates early on about cleanliness expectations.
- Everyone has different living condition preferences; it is best to be upfront about these.
- Treat yourself.
- We all get $1,000 for 10 weeks of food. Try expensive cheese you wouldn’t normally buy.
Advice for incoming ProHealth REU students:
- If you have a project you really want to be on, let it be known.
- Blog about it and talk about it; these things make a difference
- Cherish the bonding activities.
- The people you live and work with this summer will become great friends.
- Don’t eat out for every meal.
- Your money will go much further if you make a weekly run to Kroger’s. It’s healthier to eat in as well.
- Download Pocket Points (if that’s still around next summers)
- You get free stuff and coupons just for keeping your phone locked during work. (This is not a paid promotion)
- Explore Bloomington and beyond.
- The town is quirky and wonderful. There is something to do nearly every weekend.
Goals:
- Finish up the paper, poster, and video.
- Work on a plan to start a Computer Science Club at Hendrix.
- My time at the ProHealth REU has made me want to start an organization at Hendrix that promotes community for CS students and performs outreach in the greater community. Working with some interested students, I created a document outlining some ideas for meetings, projects, outreach, and organizational structure. It’s all very exciting.
Weekend
This was the big ProHealth REU outing weekend. On Saturday, we traveled up to Cincinnati for a day. We weren’t really told what we would be doing, but we are researchers so we figured out that we would visit a museum and King’s Island amusement park.
The museum we visited was the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center. It was very well put together. I especially liked Mandela: The Journey to Ubuntu, which was a temporary exhibit. It is going to come to the Clinton Center soon; I would encourage any of my Arkansas friends reading this to visit it. Our time at the museum seemed to pass very quickly; I wish I could have spent longer there.
After that, we went to King’s Island. I hadn’t been to an amusement park in a long time, so this was a bit overwhelming. We went on some of the biggest roller coasters in the park. Towards the end, we favored more laid-back “rides” (picture picture). I had fun, but I would have rather spent at least part of that 6 hours just touring Cincinnati.
Disaiah, Thomas, and I visited the Unitarian Universalist Church (picture). I really liked all of the reading and music selections. The speaker was the director of the Shalom Center in Bloomington. He spoke about the week he spent on the streets of LA’s Tenderloin District. The whole service was very moving.
Monday
In the morning, mostly worked on the paper to get it ready for the last peer review. Mostly, I expanded the Findings section. I also tried to find more related work, but everything I found fit in better with the Background section than the Related Work section.
In the afternoon, I asked Fish (one of my Hendrix CS friends) about her opinion on starting a CS club at Hendrix. She was very into the idea, so we both started contacting other CS students we knew. When I sent Eric the idea, he was very interested; he and Ryan Rose had been wanting to start a CS club for the past few years. He threw me some advise and ideas, which I really appreciated. In the evening, I created a rough outline of ideas for the club. This included goals, organizational structure, potential advisors, outreach oppurtunites, meeting/workshop topics, and Odyssey projects. I also asked Dr. Siek to meet with me over lunch Tuesday about the best way to go about starting a CS organization at Hendrix.
Tuesday
Over coffee, I worked more on the poster design. It’s difficult to make a poster that is both visually appealing and informative. Also, making everything centered in PowerPoint is more difficult than it looks. I had to re-remake the diagram for the interesection network appearing on the poster because it wasn’t readable from a distance and didn’t incorporate the color scheme I was going for. I’m much happier with it now.
The lunch meeting with Dr. Siek was very productive. She put a lot of good resources on my radar. Her advice on the service aspect of the club was especilially helpful. Particullary, the importance of documenting outreach hadn’t fully occured to me previously. Being able to say “___ amount of members created a professional website” or “____ elementry students took part in an Hour of Code” is important for getting funding and publicity.
A lot of the afternoon was spent trying to get in contact with Dr. Natarajan and Nandini. Dr. Natarajan answered my questions via email and said that he could read the paper and look at the poster on Thursday. Since Nandini didn’t have internet to Skype yet, Rob and I called her. My hearing isn’t the best, so phone communication is difficult for me. However, we still got some good advise for revising the paper. In the future, we will probably just text or email.
Rob filled out the Review Response Table, which can be viewed here. I looked at what he had done of the video so far and gave him some suggestions; it’s coming along.
Wednesday
In the morning, I realized that the poster I had been making wan’t on the correct slide size. It took me a while to readjust everything.
On the paper, I expanded the introduction. It still is not very good. I also iterated on the abstract again. At this point, writing anything takes a while because it’s mostly fine-tuning.
Our Wedensday Workshop today focused on reseraching remotely. I would love to continue to research this year at Hendrix. Dr. Siek also showed us how to find who has NSF funding online. This would make it easier to find someone I want to reserach with next summer, outside of normal REU programs.
I’m pretty grateful that my project wrapped up before this week. It has saved me from the stress other groups are experiencing right now. This afternoon, some of us took turns in the lightbox for relaxation (picture).
In the evening, I designed some business cards for myself. However, I didn’t order them because they were kind of expensive. For the poster presentation next Friday, I will probably just print some business cards on cardstock. The won’t be high quality, but they will work.
The end of the night was spent watching Persuasion at the IU Theatre. They did an excellent job.
Thursday
Dr. Natarajan and Nandini looked at my poster today. For the most part, they liked it. I made the few changes they requested and the “final” poster can be viewed here.
As for the paper, Dr. Natrajan said that the paper looked good at a higher level and that he would help get it ready for the August 1st submission deadline.
Mina, Meagan, and I watched Shakespear’s Love’s Labors Lost at the IU theatre. The actors were the same as in Persuasion. Again, the production was phenomenal; they made the words of the Bard very accessible for a 21st century audience.
Friday
This was the first Friday in a while without a birthday, but it still felt like a party. We had our last ProHealth meeting to talk about how we were wrapping up our research. Just a few hours later, we had our last ProHealth Tea.
The tea was a discussion about how this program has influenced what we plan to do with our future. Personally, I am very thankful to have participated in the program so early in my college career. The tea was made better with Ciabhan’s dad’s macarons. They have spoiled me from all other forms of this dessert. After the tea, we took a trek down to the gates for a large group photo. I’m really sad that I will be leaving all of these great people in just one week’s time.
Unknown Animal of the Week: Honduran White Bat
These creatures make a tent for themselves using a large leaf. The light filtering through the leaf gives thier white fur a green hue and hides them from predators.
