Friday, the conclusion of Ramp Up Week, was an exciting day!
We got to meet a lot of the great people who make up the informatics department in the morning meeting. We also learned about the great work that they have done and are currently working on. After that, I had a meeting with the graduate student that I will be working with, Cassie K, and her mentor, Dr. Katie Siek. They gave me and my fellow REU program member/research partner a rundown of the project that we will be spending the next nine weeks working on. I am pretty sure I had googly eyes the whole time I was in the meeting because the project sounded remarkably interesting.
After our meeting, Bri and I visited Noodles & Company for lunch; it was my first time having Noodle & Company.
Upon our return from lunch, we worked on our elevator pitch. It was a challenge fitting our project’s three goals into 30 seconds along with an introduction of myself, but I made it work and I am pretty proud of it.
Later that afternoon we meet with more of the faculty in the informatics department at their weekly Tea and shared our elevator pitch! It was a fun and exciting experience. Speaking about the research that I will be working on over the next couple of weeks allowed me to claim some ownership over the project, and that felt great!

In addition to trying Noodles & Company for the first time, I went to a Drive-In movie theater, also a first time experience. On the way there, I saw a deer!

I would definitely give the last day of Ramp-Up Week a 10/10.

Thank you for following me every day through this week.
Stay posted for my weekly blog posts, during the remaining 9 weeks!

– Carla