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Tuesday, August 13, 2013

Blog Challenge #5 part 2

for the second part of the blog we had to interview someone, i interviewed Steve Wisneski an ungrad in my lab. 1.why did you chose Duquesne? one of four undergard schools, it was close to home. interested in prusing edication program and Duquesne provided both. 2. what is your research on? dimond like materials, interested in physical properties. (band gap, thermo properties, seconf hernionic gen.)physico chemical. 3.how long have you been at duquesne? starting 5th year, have been here for 4 fall and 4 spring, got batilers degree in chemistry. 4. what made you choose science? in high school it was the only class i looked forward to going to. faviorte was chemistry. 5. what was you faviorte thing you learned in your undergrad? most faviorte class was single crystalogrraine corse with Dr.Aitken in inorganic lab, opened up doors to solid state reachtions. helped understanding crystals more.

Blog Challenge #5 Part 2

For the second half of the challenge, we were instructed to interview a graduate student or professor using questions that we made up. I chose to interview Kim Rosmus, a graduate student in Dr. Aitken's lab.

So, why Duquesne?
·         I chose Duquesne because it has a small undergraduate department. I didn't want to go to a big school where there were 20+ students per research group and become overwhelmed. I also like how it is close to home and in the city setting.
Did you give any other schools any thought?
·         I toured the University of Pittsburgh. Each field of chemistry has their own floor and it didn't seem like they talked to each other. I also thought it was too large of a school, I wanted to go somewhere small. Also, the environment wasn’t friendly or creative.
How did you get interested in science?
·         In 4th grade, I got to dissect an own pellet and then reconstruct a mouse skeleton from it, and I thought that was really cool. I love science in general and how you can experiment with everything.
What are you researching?
·         I focus mainly on diamond like semiconductors. The main one is Co2ZnSiS4, started out as an intro in to the lab. The lab found out it that it was a polymorph and she is still researching it 5 years later.
·        Another big interest to her is rietveld refinement.
Do you enjoy your time here?

·         As much as it drives me nuts, I do. There’s always something to do, it’s never boring. I like that it’s not redundant.  

Friday, August 9, 2013

Blog Challenge #5-Part 2

Interview with Dr. Jeffrey D. Madura:

Q: How did you become interested in science?
A: My 5th grade science teacher gave me a soil testing kit, been interested ever since.

Q: How did you end up at Duquesne?
A: Serendipity, just by chance.

Q:Have you taught at any other universities?
A: Yes, University of South Alabama and the University of Texas.

Q:Did you do any research during high school?
A: No

Q:Why did you choose your profession?
A; Tired of washing glasses, had an interest in computers, they were just starting to come out at the time.

Blog Challenge #5


My experience at the symposium was not quit what I expected, in the morning we had to hang up our poster once we had done that we sat through the undergrads talks. I thought it was going to be dual and boring but it turned out to be pretty interesting many of the undergrads have interesting topics. I enjoyed the morning, after the presentations we had lunch. The lunch was outside and it was nice they has many options, they even gave us ice cream. After everyone had finished eating lunch the first half of the poster session began. My number was to which meant I was in the first half. The poster presentation did go as good as I hoped, I wish that I had more people that came up to my poster all in all I had around six or seven people come to me poster. The first was an African American lady; she seemed as if she was an undergrad herself. She asked me what my project was and I told her the characterization and synthesis of Cu- and Li- based quaternary sulfide semiconductors. She asked me how many years I’ve been at Duquesne and was amazed when I told her I’m only a junior in high school. She asked me what school I went to and was also surprised when I said Sto-Rox High School. After I explained my project she thanked me and went about her way. Then my Andrew came up and asked me to explain my poster even though he hear it twice before. The last person to come up was the dean; he asked me if I what my project was about and I explained my project. Then he also asked me if I was an undergrad and I told him not that I was a junior in high school, and that I’m a project first year project SEED student. He told me that I rally new what I was talking about and I thanked him. After it was time to switch the project SEED student took a picture and so did the Aitken lab, after I walked around and looked at some posters and took pictures. All in all it was a good experience and I can’t wait till next year!

Interview

For our 5th blog challenge we were asked to come up with 3 potential people that we would be interested in interviewing and come up with 5-10 questions that we would ask.
The three people I have chosen to  interview were Ben Cooley, Dr. Fochtman, and Dr. Ludvico.
I went ahead and interviewed Ben Cooley who is a 5th year forensic science and law student.
Below are the questions I asked Ben during the interview and the answers I got back:

1.Q- How did you end up here at Duquesne?
   A- Ben lived in Pittsburgh and heard about Duquesne's progam and decided that he didn't want to go
        far for college.

2.Q- What are you doing now?
   A- Ben has been working in a DNA lab analyzing enzymes in blood.

3.Q- What made you decide to study forensic science and law?
   A- Ben has liked Biology and Physics growing up.

4.Q- After you're done with the 5 year program what do you plan on doing?
   A- Ben's answer was "I don't know."

5.Q- Is grad  school worth it (staying the 5th year)?
   A- The forensic science and law program is a 5 year program, but Ben said yes, it's a good working
         experience.


6.Q- When you started college did you know that you wanted to go to grad school?
   A- Again the program Ben is in is a 5 year program, but Ben wants to eventually get a PhD.

All in all, I enjoyed interviewing Ben because he is a forensic science and law student, which is what I plan on eventually doing and it also gave me someone else's opinion on the program other than my co-mentor Leah, who is also in the program starting her 4th year.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Blog Challenge #5

Part 1
This year was Duquesne University's 16th annual Undergraduate Research Program symposium. The program lasts for 10 weeks and gives the students essential research experience for a possible future career. At the end of the 10 weeks all of the students come together to present their research in poster format at the symposium. This was my second year that I presented my research here at Duquesne. I couldn't even begin to explain how nervous I was last year about having to talk to people about what I did for those 10 weeks. Although, it really wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. Then again, not many people came up to my poster last year. I think only my family and a few fellow SEED students came to view my poster. Though, I am not sure why considering they probably heard enough of my project from our group meetings! This year I was expecting the same thing to happen and only talk to a few friends and family members. However, many people came up to my poster and started asking questions about my project. There were even people standing at my poster before I got there! It actually surprised me to know that people were that interested in my project. I figured that mainly teachers would be interested in my work rather than students from Duquesne and Pitt. They all had great questions and it was an awesome feeling knowing that I had all of the answers to them. When I told a few people I was still in high school they were completely shocked. They thought it was so cool that I was able to be working at Duquesne over the summer. I also feel that this was a good practice for when I go to Indianapolis for the ACS meeting this year! For me the symposium went extremely well! My father and brother(a new grad student here at Duquesne) came to the lunch and then afterwards came to my poster so I could show them all of the work I had done over the summer. Sadly my mom wasn't able to make it but she heard all about it when we got home. I can't tell you how much I will miss working here during the summer. It was such an amazing experience and I feel like  have learned so much over the past two summers. If I ever get another opportunity like this I am definitely taking it!

Part 2
Possible candidates to be interviewed:
1. Joseph Janicki
2. Dr. Wheeler
3. Jackie

Possible interview questions:
1. What was your initial interest in science?
2. When you started college did you know that grad school was in your future?
3. Why did you choose to come to Duquesne University for grad school?
4. How are you enjoying your grad school experience thus far?
5. What are your future career goals?


Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Blog Challenge #5


 Part 1
On Friday July, 26 Duquesne held its 16th annual Undergraduate Research Symposium. This is a day were all undergraduates and Project SEED students get a chance to present their work that they did over the summer to friends, family, and students. The day started off with a continental breakfast, which was really nice. Then everyone moved to the auditorium for the welcome and keynote address, which was given by Dr. Karl Johnson. He talked about using Carbon Nano- tubes as a filter to clean arsenic filled water in third world countries. Next, some of the undergraduates gave 15 minute presentations about their projects. One of the presenters was my co- mentor Andrew Adams and his presentation was great. To hear him talk about everything that we did over the course of this year and last year was amazing to me. Another presenter was Kelly’s mentor . I thought she did a fantastic job. The last presenter talked about pain receptors in the brain, which was very interesting. Then there was a picnic lunch, which was very nice. I did not have to present the first hour, so I got to walk around and look at other undergraduates’ projects, but that time was shortly lived. The only people that talked to me about my project were my sisters, Andrew, Dr. Partha Basu, and James Claybourne. I mainly talked to James because he used to work in the same lab as me, so he had many questions to ask about the project so far. I also talked to him about his senior thesis because he is going to be running the same experiments that we ran. All in all I thought the symposium was great, especially compared to the one last year. I just wish I had the chance to talk to more people about my project.

Questions
  1. Did you participate in any internships in high school?
  2. What made you choose your career?
  3. What made you choose Duquesne over any other college
  4. What made you interested in science?
  5. Was there ever a time when you thought about changing your career?
  6. How is college?

Monday, August 5, 2013

Blog Challenge #5

I apologize for how late this posting is, but the goals for this post are to describe our experience at the URP Symposium and then think of 5-10 questions to ask a grad student of our choice.

The Undergraduate Research Program Symposium started out with a continental breakfast (which looked good, but I was too nervous to eat anything), then moved on to the welcome and keynote address given by Dr. Karl Johnson, Ph.D. He gave a talk about Carbon Nano-tubes and how he wants to use them to purify water in different countries whose ground water is contaminated with arsenic. Some undergraduate students then gave twelve minute talks about their projects and then we went outside for a picnic lunch.
I can sum up my experience at the poster presentation portion in one word: disappointing. A maximum of five people came to my poster, not including the other SEED students who showed up to ask me pointless questions just to make it seem like my project was interesting enough to bother looking at. I think part of the problem was that I was on the right side of the board, hidden from the general population walking past the posters.
The whole experience wasn't bad though, a man from the Mylan School of Pharmacy here at Duquesne University asked me if I would be interested in working in their building after I am finished with college. He said that their department is always looking for engineers and then gave me his card. I was a little bit shocked at my first ever career offer.
Every person that asked me what I was majoring in in college was very surprised when I informed them that I am, in fact, a high school student who hasn't even entered her junior year yet. It was a really good feeling knowing that I am on the same level of research as Sophomores and Juniors in college.
I wish I would have had the opportunity to present to more people, but there's always next year. I know what to expect now and I intend on improving my presenting technique for the symposium next year. This sounds like I didn't have fun at all, but I did! The whole experience was great and I learned a lot about other people's projects, thank you for letting me have the chance to show what I've accomplished over these 8 short weeks here at Duquesne University.

Three potential people that I could possibly interview are:

  1. Sarah
  2. Jackie
  3. Kim 
Possible questions that I could ask:

  1. So, why Duquesne?
  2. Did you give any other schools any thought?
  3. How did you get interested in science?
  4. What are you researching?
  5. Do you enjoy your time here?

Blog Challenge #5

Part 1:

Two Fridays ago was the undergraduate research symposium I had a good time during the symposium and got to see many different research. We first heard talks from multiple people from Duquesne and places like the University of Pittsburgh. There was also a keynote speaker from the university of Pittsburgh and he talked about water declination. I thought he research was very interesting; he like me also used computer simulations to do his research so I thought it was a nice consequence that we both used computers for our simulations. Once we heard about some of the student’s research we ate lunch then got the chance to explore and look at different people's poster and ask questions about their work. There were two hour-long sessions of poster presentations. The even numbers went from 2-3 and the odd numbers went 3-4. My poster was an odd so I went the second hour, which wasn’t as busy and crowded as the first hour.  I personally only got to talk to two people about my project but i had good conversations with those two people. I wouldn't of minded talking to more people about my research but I was fine with two.  I also went to about 10 different posters myself and talked to people about their research. My mom also came to the symposium so I was having her meet some of the people I worked with over the summer and the people I’ve been around since I was here. I showed her most the SEED students’ projects and let her get to know more about the program. Overall I had a great time at the research symposium and i had a ton of fun.
Part 2:
3 people to interview...
 Dr. Madura
 Dr. Wheeler
 Dr. Evansack 

How did you get to where you are today?
What type of schooling did you go through?
How many years did school take you?
Have you taught at any other universities?
Did you do any research in high school or college?

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Blog Challenge 5

Part 1:
On July 26th at Duquesne University, Duquesne  held their 16th annual URP (Undergraduate Research Program) Symposium for undergraduate students who have been doing research during the summer.  Gratefully the Project SEED students were involved in this wonderful experience to put their own poster or power point slides, among the many other undergraduate students, on a board for other students, friends, and family to see what amazing work they have completed during the summer.
The students who were involved in the Symposium were to attend presentations that were given by undergraduate students to hear about what they have done during their summer research. In my words I enjoyed hearing the students talk and hearing about their project and comparing it to what I have been working on. I also enjoyed it because without the experience I have had as a high school student having the opportunity to spend my summer at Duquesne, I partially understood what the students were saying and what they were doing, with the help of my project, and compared it to the other high school students who have not had the opportunity to spend their summer doing research who would probably have no idea what they were talking about.
Once the presentations were over the students could spend time with their supportive family during a lunch that was prepared.  The poster sessions were followed after lunch, where half of the students involved went first and the other half went second, depending on the number of their poster. The student then stood by their poster while others came by to appreciate the outstanding work the student had done and answer any questions the visitor might have.
My experience of the Symposium was great. I had a wonderful time and enjoyed every minute of it and with my family coming in from Ohio just to see the work I have done made my day even better. I enjoyed being able to answer the questions people asked about my project and being able to inform them on the research that I have done and the dedication I have to my project.  Working so hard on perfecting my project and my slides paid off and I believe I did a great job. I also had the opportunity to walk around and see the other students poster and see what project they have been working on.  I also got to see some of my fellow Project SEED members posters and slides on their project that they have been working on.

Part 2:
Three potential people that I would be interested in interviewing are:
     1. Ben Cooley (5th year forensic and law student)
     2. Dr. Ludvico
     3. Dr. Fochtman
Questions that I will be asking during my interview are:
     1. How did you end up here at Duquesne?
     2. What are you doing now?
     3. What made you decide to do what you're doing now?
     4. After you're done with the 5 year program, what do you plan on doing?
     5. Is grad school worth it (staying for a 5th year)?