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Friday, August 8, 2014

Last Day :)

      Today, all I did was fix more things in my paper and have it rechecked again.  These past 8 weeks have not been what I expected at all.  I didn't think it was going to be fun or that I was going to make new friends.  All I had in my mind of working here was doing a lot of work in the labs and writing a lot of lab reports.  I am happy that I had the chance to be a part of project SEED and to work with the Gawalt lab.  They were so nice and helpful and I'm glad that they were a part of my lab experience.  The project that I worked on this summer was a fun topic.   It required me to work with cobalt and octadecylphosphonic acid.  It might seem hard, but it was really easy.  Anyways, I had a lot of fun this summer and I hope to be back again next year.  I will definitely miss everyone that I met and will always remember this summer!

Final Day

I apologize I haven't blogged in a while. I've been extremely busy lately.
I've been working on my research paper over the course of the week and I'm finished now. It took a lot of hard work and thought put into it. On Tuesday, we went to Bayer and I had a lot of fun. I learned that they make car parts, plastics, etc. I found that to be interesting. I would love to visit there again to see more about how the machines work. We had to present our posters once again. I was a little nervous at first. A lot of people came up to talk to me, but I liked explaining my project to others.

   On Wednesday, we had an admissions meeting. I showed up a little late, but it was very beneficial. I really am thinking about going to college here at Duquesne. I am definitely going to apply.

    I've had an awesome summer. I never thought I would meet such wonderful people. I never thought I would learn so much in such a short amount of time. I will cherish all of the memories I have made here. I am really sad that this is the last day...no more waking up early! but I really will miss everyone so much. It won't be the same without everyone! This has been the best summer by far. I am so proud of myself for coming so far. Juggling this, Kennywood, living with my cousin, and other things, I am so glad I have been able to adjust to everything and deal with it all. It really was a stressful, busy summer, but I accomplished more than I could ever imagine and I couldn't be more proud of myself.

"I will not say I failed 1000 times, I will say that I discovered 1000 ways that can cause failure" -Thomas Edison

GOODBYE PROJECT SEED! IT HAS BEEN AN HONOR, I LOVE YOU ALL! :)

Thursday, August 7, 2014

8/7/14 Kelly Pesta

Well today was a pretty good day. I finally finished my poster and my paper. I went down to the print shop today and I'll be getting my poster tomorrow. I'm pretty excited to see the final results on a big poster instead of a little screen and because that means it's closer to San Fransisco. Tomorrow I plan on getting my paper signed by Dr. Wetzel so I'm completely finished. There's only one more day of SEED. I'll definitely miss everyone here and all the new friends I met. Hopefully we keep in touch and in the future we'll all meet again.
To end with a quote:
"Don't be sad because you're saying goodbye, you should be happy because you have memories with them that you'll cherish forever."
     -Unknown

August 7, Summary

     The error for my calculation for para-fluorobenzamidine was finally resolve by rerunning step 6.  Instead of getting Nan again, I actually got number for my results.  So I spent the rest of the day editing my poster, presentation, and research paper because I can now mention my final result for para-fluorobenzamidne in GSBP and can say it does support my hypothesis: Para-fluorobenzamidine binds better than benzamidine to the trypsin complex.

Wednesday, August 6, 2014

Summary August 6, 2014

I am so close to finishing my paper. I have like two things to change and then I can send it to Dr. Wheeler to be approved. 

Today we met with the office of admissions and financial aid. I think Amber and I were the only ones who asked the important questions considering we are seniors and already have a pretty good idea of what we want to do and where we want to go. Not all of my questions were answered due to the fact that I didn't ask them, so I have set up a meeting with Philip on Friday. He's going to answer the questions I have about applying to Duquesne, the major that I want to study, and possibly what I can do with a minor in music therapy. I also have a campus tour set up on Friday at 1! Phil went ahead and made the meeting for me since I had mentioned something about touring while we were in the meeting earlier. It was so nice of him. 

Until tomorrow, SEED!

8/6/14 Kelly Pesta

Today had to be the most frustrating day ever!! This morning we had an admissions meeting that went well. After that we went to lunch. I left lunch early because I had to get stuff done with my research. I went down to the SEM and took down the last two data tables and wrote some more stuff down that Leah had me do. I was running out of time when I was still writing stuff down so I had to work as fast as I could. When I finished I came back up to the lab to make extractions so we can put them into the LC/MS, but couldn't go in because the floor was waxed. I'm not quite sure what I'm going to do now. I guess I'm not going to be able to add anything else to my poster because what I was doing won't even be done.

8-6-14 Summary

        Today, all I basically did was get my paper back from my secondary mentor and change everything that I had to change.  There was way more things that I had to change than I thought I would.  After I changed everything, I then sent it to my mentor so she can sign it off. 

8/5/14-8/6/14 summary Cheyeanne Perez

           Yesterday I revised my paper again and I did it again and sent it back to my mentor for any other changes he thinks I should make. I am practically finished though.

August 6, Summary

      I edited my research paper after the admission meeting we had for the SEED students and then I sent it to my mentor.

I'm a little behind on blog summaries..

I haven't posted a blog summary in a while. The only things i've been working on since the last summary are my ACS poster and my paper. I am almost completely finished with the paper but my poster need a lot of work. It needs to be finished before noon tomorrow so I am most definitely going to be working on it tonight and tomorrow morning.

Tuesday, August 5, 2014

August 5, Summary

     Today we went to the Bayer Materials Science where we presented our poster just like the symposium.   I stood there for an hour explaining my project and I met some people that already knew teachers from my school which was neat.  I even met my college administrator from my high school.  I had a lot of fun and the tour was very informative.  After we got back I just edited my research paper.

8/4/14 and 8/5/14 Katie O'Kelley

Yestersday, I worked on my paper and got really frustrated with it. Today, we went to Bayer. I did really well. I got nervous again though. Not as nervous, but nervous all the same. I did good though... I assume. I talked to a lot more people than  at the symposium too so that was good. Not all the people asked about my poster. Some asked me how I liked SEED and working at Duquesne. I also got asked about my future plans such as colleges and majors and that scary stuff. Then when we gto back I worked on my paper and sent it to my mentor. This paper is really frustrating. I never had this kind of frustration before in science. Only those papers you have to write in English class that have to be creative or like poems give me this kind of frustrated feeling. So that's new. I just walked it off and ate a lot of M&M's and listened to music.

Symposium

The symposium was a great experience for me, even though only one person I didn't know asked me about my poster. I was very nervous and as the day went on it got worse. I got shaky and started stuttering. My family saw my poster first. They got me through all the stuttering and were pacent with me when I kept messing things up. Next my lab came down one by one. Sara was first, I'm glad. She just quizzed me like before my presentations and helped me remember everything I was too nervous to remember.Then Mr. Larry, to take pictures. Then Dr. Basu came and saw me. He said he was very impressed with everything I've done so far. He asked a few questions too. Then the rest of my lab came and wished me good luck. They were all really supportive and helpful and I'm thankful for that. Only one person I didn't know came and asked me questions and they weren't difficult at all. Overall I have to say that the symposium went well. :) 

8-5-14 Summary

        Today, we went on a field trip to Bayer.  I learned many things that I didn't know throughout the tour that we had.  I also had to present, which wasn't that bad since there wasn't as many peoples there as there was at the Symposium.  After coming back to Duquesne, I worked on my paper and finished. I sent it to my secondary mentor so she can change anything on it so it can be better. 

August 4, Summary

     I tidied up my presentation just in case anyone needed to see it so it would be up to date.

8/5/14 Kelly Pesta

Today was a fun day. We went on a field trip to the Bayer Corporation and was able to present our posters to them and also take a tour of Bayer and see what they do. When the poster sessions began I was nervous because I knew that there were some pretty important people there, but as the sessions went on I calmed down and I actually enjoyed it more then the symposium. I felt very relaxed and everyone was very friendly. I really enjoyed the tour not only seeing what Bayer does, but also understanding some of the things Bayer did because of my project. We also got some free things from Bayer which was pretty exciting. When we came back I worked on my paper/poster and continued getting data. Tomorrow I plan on getting the last of my data from the SEM, gathering all the stubs, extracting them in the extraction method that had the best percent recovery, then running the samples through the LC/MS by the afternoon, getting results, and finish up my poster/paper by Thursday morning to my poster is finished at the print shop by Friday.

8/4/14 Kelly Pesta

Yesterday was a busy and frustrating day for me. In the morning I went down to the SEM to look at my data from my samples that Leah ran over the weekend, but the program froze on me when I tried to look at my data so I had to wait for Leah to come at 1:30 to restart the program. After she restarted the program I was then able to take down the data from the 3 samples she ran for me (revolver 2, revolver 3, and automatic 1). I wasn't able to put on a new stub yesterday after I got all my data because I ran out of time, so Leah ran one for me last night and she is going to run my last one tonight. I'm going to get the last of my data from the SEM tomorrow morning and make my extractions to run on the LC/MS and then finish my paper and poster by Thursday.

8/4/14 summary Cheyeanne Perez

Yesterday I emailed my mentor about my paper, that was basically all I really focused on.

Monday, August 4, 2014

8-4-14 Summary

        Last week, I wasn't here because I was at band camp.  Today, I got more done than i thought i would.  I started my paper that is due on Friday. With working all day and taking breaks to walk around, I got done with 8 pages of my paper.  That's all I really did today but working on my paper gave me a headache. 

Symposium Experience - Stephen Lau

     I had a great time at the symposium.  It felt like a time where everyone go finally enjoy their day and be proud on what they did so far for their project and that is exactly how I felt that day.  After everything everybody did this whole summer,  we just went to each other's posters act ask questions about our project.  I went to all the other SEED students poster who were't in my shift and ask them a few things about their poster.  It was fun to see whether if they knew everything about their project because they would either knew what they were saying and blew my mind away, or they would stutter and think what they were doing.
     However when it was my shift to stand by my poster, didn't really get many people to come by and ask me questions about my poster.  They were mostly looking at the poster next to mine, the one with a picture of a pretty girl.  It was mostly about ways to decrease the size of pictures and different methods on how to achieve that goal.  How do I know all this you may ask?  Well I also ask the people around questions about what they have done and they also asked about my work as well.  Besides the two undergraduates students around my poster, only two other people came to my poster, Robert and Kelly's cousin, who was force to come (my mentor promised to bring someone and have them asked a lot of questions to see if I knew what I was doing).  I was nervous every time someone came by though, because I wan't sure if I could answer' everyone's questions.  Luckily, every person that came by to checked on my poster usually got confuse after I explained what I did for my project, but I did try my best in describing my work in simpler terms.
     Even though it was a great day for us to share our hard work with people, it was also saddening to know that it was the last day for the undergraduates.  I personally don't like saying goodbyes because you know that there's a slim chance in seeing them again.  I was going to miss everyone especially the undergraduates in my lab group.  I became good friends with everyone in the Madura Lab and didn't feel like an outsider to them at all.  They always helped me out in anyway I can even if it was simple problem like using an iMac. I know I can be annoying with all my silly and absurd questions, but they didn't hesitate one bit when I had any trouble.  Knowing that it would be my last time seeing them was difficult for me, but when I think about it, if I have never applied for Project SEED, then I would have never met any of these wonderful people and the same goes for everyone else I've met so far.  I had a great time and the symposium was like a farewell party with a celebration for our hard work.  It felt like a time where you could be ecstatic yet you would also feel some sort of emptiness because you know that everyone is was going leave after that day.  It's a shame but I guess all good things must come to an end.

all last week summary Cheyeanne Perez

   I didnt really blog at all last week because the whole time I was trying to write my research paper. Its finally done though!!!!!!!!!!!!! But my mentor has yet to email me back about any corrections but I plan on trying to have it finalized by Wednesday!

symposium

It was a great experience , and I had a lot of fun. I would love to do it again. I had about 10-12 at my poster and it had gotten easier to explain after the first 3 people.

Friday, August 1, 2014

August 1, Summary

     I finally finish my research paper!  It took me forever but know I don't have to worry about the weekends.  I still have to wait for my other calculations so I may have to update the paper if it finishes any time soon.
                                                                                                  -Good night everyone.

8/1/14 Kelly Pesta

This morning was slow. I didn't do much because I didn't have my flash drive since we had to use it to save my data from the SEM last night. After lunch Leah came in and she showed me how to look at my data so I can do it on my own. I wrote down all the data from my results. After that she showed me how to restart the computers after the samples are finished running. Then I ran my next stub on the SEM. Leah is going to run 2 more this weekend. So Monday I will copy the data from the stubs and load the next one on. Hopefully we'll be done running my samples Wednesday, extract, put them through the LC/MS, and get results. I'll add the results Wednesday night- Thursday morning, have my mentor revise it within those days and have my poster finished by Thursday so I'm ready for San Fran.

July 31, Summary

     I worked on a lot for my research paper.  I only got my introduction and background down, but together they take about  six pages.  Still got the rest to finish. Hope it's still not too late to finish by the end of this week.

Thursday, July 31, 2014

7/31/14 Kelly Pesta

Today was another slow day. This morning I cleaned the GC vials from my extractions and cleaned the contained we put the GSR samples from last night in so there was no GSR transferred from the outside of the container to anything else we touch. After that  I worked on my paper and poster the rest of the morning and continued working on it after lunch. When Leah came in at about 4:00 we got my first sample (revolver 1) and took it down to the SEM to start scanning it over night so I can look at the results tomorrow. Leah should be in tomorrow afternoon so I'll be able to start to look at the results. We're going to run another sample tomorrow night and Leah is going to run a couple more of my samples over the weekend so I can at least start adding some of the results to my paper and poster so I'm finished by Thursday. Monday I have to run my samples on the SEM on my own because Leah won't be in. But hopefully by Wednesday we'll have all my samples ran through the SEM and we can extract them Wednesday and put them in the LC/MS and get results Thursday morning and add the last minute results to both my poster and paper so my poster will be finished by Friday. I'm running out of time so I'm hoping our plans work out. Wish me luck.

July 30, Summary

    I worked mostly on my research paper and almost got my introduction done.  I have a lot to add on, and yet I have very little time.  However I was able to run my step 5 files for para-fluorobenzamidine with gsbp so now I just to work on my paper in the meantime and hope that they are done before the paper is due.

7.79-31.14

I worked on my research paper .

7/30/14 Kelly Pesta

Yesterday morning went slow. I continued working on my paper. In the afternoon I worked on my poster. When Leah came in Dr.Wetzel took us to the shooting range to take samples off of their hands after they shot the guns. After that we came back to duquesne and Leah showed me how to use the SEM again. Today I am going to clean the vials I used from the extractions and start running my samples on the SEM.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

URP Symposium Experience-Cheyeanne Perez

              The symposium was a wonderful experience.i loved it. It was a wonderful experience to be able to answer all of the questions other had on my project, and I knew exactly what the answers were. I had a lot of people walk up to me and seam interested in my project. At first i was really nervous but then I got over it when I saw other people who were nervous too. The speakers were wonderful, they really knew what to say when they were talking about their projects. I understood most of what they were saying even though some of it I was completely lost. My mom and brother came up and saw me present at first but then they left, but they thought it was really cool how I have been learning new things and spending my summer at a real college. Over all i think the symposium was a wonderful thing that I am so happy to have been a part of, I learned things, I met people, and I learned to be more confident in my work because I am the expert about what I have done.

Summary July 30th, 2014

Today I finished up what i needed to before my meeting with Dr. Wheeler. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. He gave me a list of things to change and add and a way to create more space by two categories.
I also am planning activities for our trip to San Francisco! I found an open-top bus tour for only $45. It shows us everything, from downtown, the golden gate bridge, the "Painted Ladies", everything. I'm so excited.
So, I'm going to make the changes to my poster and start my paper!
Until tomorrow, SEED!

Summary July 29th, 2014

Yesterday I couldn't do very much. I spent the morning putting my data in graphs and finding room for all of it on my ACS poster. I ran out of room though, so when I meet with Dr. Wheeler today, I hope he tells me that I can take some background information off of it. It is comprised of, give or take, 75% background information, and 15% data. I did research on the Arrhenius equation during the afternoon, something I should have done a long time ago, but neglected to because I didn't think I needed to know it. I was wrong. Today I'm going to hopefully start my paper and have my poster finished by this afternoon.

July 29, Summary

     I finally finish my blog challenge which took a while, but now I can work on my research paper.  Unfortunately, I have fix some things on my beamer again after I presented it to my mentor for my meeting.  After the meeting I found out that my results for benzamidine in PBC were finish but it turns out that something went wrong (surprise, I think not).  It turns out that the step 5 files ran but then it stopped halfway, so I had to rerun them.  That's basically all I did that  day but I still got a lot to do.

Tuesday, July 29, 2014

7/29/14 summary Cheyeanne Perez

Today I added more to my paper. It was a little more difficult today figuring out how to connect everything into paragraphs. Other than that I didn't really do anything.

7/29/14 Kelly Pesta

Today was another boring day. I worked on my paper for a little bit, and that was about it. We sat and talked the rest of the day and made plans to hang out with each other before and after SEED. I should hopefully be getting samples tomorrow so I can get results by the end of this week so I can write my research paper and finish my poster before ACS.

7/29 BLOG

Today I worked on my outline for my research paper.
I work tonight so I have a long day ahead of me still. I drove to work today all by myself!

2014 URP SYMPOSIUM EXPERIENCE!


 URP SYMPOSIUM 2014

           Friday I attended my first symposium. It was an experience that will last a lifetime! When I got here, I finished assembling my paper because we ran out of tape and I didn't want to use glue. (Yeah, I know I'm crazy). Anyway, when I went to go register, my name tag was there but I didn't have a number nor was I in the abstract book. I felt very disappointed because I wanted everyone to read my abstract and I felt like I was not included. I know I take things very personal. Mistakes happen all of the time, so I just happened to be the person that was forgotten and that's okay. Anyway, I went to the end and put my poster up. I ended up using 60 something tacks just to put it up so nothing would fall apart..it looked really nice and neat.
I wore heels...bad idea!! My feet were so red and swollen by the end of the day, it was terrible.
I felt confident yet nervous at the same time and that probably makes no sense, but it does to me. When it came my turn to stand at my poster, I waited to see if anyone would come by. I had about three people come up and talk to me. Almost all three of them asked the same question that I didn't know the answer to, so I just played it off and tried to give my best explanation. My cousin and my sister came to see me and also eat lunch with me. After all, I felt very proud of what I had accomplished. I'm very satisfied with all of my work over the summer, It paid off. I have learned so much in 8 weeks or less.I am so excited I got the opportunity to meet so many people and present my research. I came in like a seed being planted, now that seed has sprouted and beyond grown! 

Blog Challenge #3



Cheyenne Simmons

    Cheyenne Simmons, a 17 year old student from Sto-Rox High School now attends at a special program here at Duquesne University known as Project SEED, where highs school students have the opportunity to work with real scientists, whether in the lab or focusing more in computational studies.  For Cheyenne she does a little bit of both because her project is about making semiconductors out of earth abundant materials.  If the compound she uses is capable of being a semiconductor, then making nano particles out of those compounds would be her next step.  To sum it up her project is the synthesis characterization of nano-crystalline diamond-like semiconductors. 
     
     The main objective for Cheyenne is to form films out of the successful makings of the nano-crystalline structures so that they can be used in solar panels.  The lack of resources for energy has become a big problem and now Cheyenne is in charge of determining the best way to supply ourselves with a surplus of energy by doing her best at making nano-particles out of earth's vast amount minerals.  However making nano-crystalline structures isn't easy.  These minerals must posses certain qualities or characteristics, and that is why she uses Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to decide whether the mineral has the require traits to to qualify as a semiconductor.  The next step is elemental analysis, where she uses energy dispersion spectroscopy (EDS) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) to identify the compound's structure and properties.  So far Cheyenne has received some results for her compounds, but there are a few more things she still has to do like using the UV-Vis-Mr spectroscopy to view at the band gaps.  There is no end when it comes to science

Roberts July 28th Summary

It was a very quick and easy day for me and everyone else for that matter. I found that we have to now right a paper. I'm actually really good at writing so this will be a breeze for me. In a way I'm kind of sad that there's not that many days left. Although, I'm going to make these last two weeks or, however many days are left the best days me and everyone else.   

Monday, July 28, 2014

July 28, Summary

   All I did was just worked on my blog challenge from last week and now it is almost finish.  Hopefully, I will able to finish by tomorrow, but it did take a while since I barely started it.  I also took a look at the method/tutorial that I have to work.  I'm basically going to try to combine my tutorial and research paper into one thing to save time because time is always of the essence.

2014 URP Symposium Experience- Kelly Pesta

Friday was the symposium, the second symposium I attended. It was a lot different the second time then it was the first time. In the morning I got there at 7:30 to finish up last minute things my mentor wanted me to fix, I printed my slides and title, and then I glued them onto the construction paper. When I finished that it was already 9:00 and the talks started at 10:00. So I had an hour to put up my slides. I found my board and successfully hung up my slides. Unfortunately my title was extremely long so I had to tape it to the wall, but in the end it all worked out. I ended up going to the speakers in the building next to ours a little late so I had to sit far away from the other SEED students, but at the break I switched my seat so we were all together. But I really enjoyed the speakers this year. Some of them I knew what they were talking about and their projects were really interesting. After that we all met up with our families and ate lunch. When we were finished we took some pictures together. Then it was time for the poster session to begin. I ended up getting the second hour so while I waited, half of the first hour I spent with my family and the second half I spent looking at the other SEED students projects. Then it was time for my shift. Dr. Wheeler was my first visitor. He asked me what my project was and asked a few questions. My next visitors were my family members and the other SEED students. And then it was over. I didn't get as many people as last year to looked at my poster, but I still had a good time. I enjoyed looking at all the other SEED students and seeing how well we all fit in with the undergraduate students. If it wasn't for our power point slides on construction paper to make us stand out a little we could go for college students. Like I said in my last blog, time flies. One second we all were strangers to one another and now we've all become such great friends. I sure hope we all stay in touch once SEED ends, even though I don't want it to end. It feels like it was just yesterday when we all met and now we're on our last 2 weeks of SEED.  Like I've said before, I'm going to make these last to weeks the best.
To end with another quote:
"Yesterday is gone. Tomorrow has not yet come. We have only today. Let us begin."
     -Mother Teresa

7/28/14 Kelly Pesta

Today was an extremely boring day. I didn't have much to do since the symposium is over so I started to write my research paper. This week I will be continuing my research so I have a better poster for the ACS meeting in San Francisco. So not only do I have to write the research paper but I also have to make a poster and continue adding to both of them as I continue my research. I sure hope I have enough time.

Roberts Symposium experience

So on Friday 25th I attended my first symposium, and I honestly must say that it was very awesome. I love seeing the other seed students and the undergrad's projects. I was a little nervous at first when  people first started coming up to my poster, but  I must say I have seen a great improvement in my self and others with their presentation skills. One thing that I really did enjoy were the speakers. They all were very interesting. All in all it was a great experience, and I hope to attend more in the future.      

7/28 BLOG

Today I started the outline for my research paper. Other than that, today felt slow and tiring. I had a great weekend though because I got my license! I had a great time at the symposium on Friday...I will write more about that on Friday!

Summary July 28th, 2014

I was so busy today.
I spent nearly all day acquiring correct data and putting it into graphs. I'm going to put everything on my ACS poster tomorrow because I have a meeting with Dr. Wheeler to discuss the poster and what I'm presenting on Wednesday. Technically, I finished my project today. I'm not going to be calculating the activation energy.
Until tomorrow, SEED.

7/28/14 summary Cheyeanne Perez

          Today I started to wrirte my paper. It was actually easier than I thought. Other than that I didnt do anything.

2014 URP Symposium Experience- Melissa

Hi guys!
Friday was the Undergraduate Research Program's symposium. It was a chance for undergraduate students (and SEED students, too!) to display what they have accomplished during the duration of their respective programs. The morning began with a breakfast and the keynote which was given by Dr. Yoosuf Picard from Carnegie Mellon University. He talked about lasers and using them to make micro and nanoscale tools. After that was the plenary session where specific undergraduates who were chosen before hand to give their talks were able to. After these presentations was the picnic lunch. This gave me time to be with my family and calm myself down before my half of the two-hour presentation window was to begin. This summer's symposium went a lot smoother than last year and my poster had a lot more traffic than last year as well. Even the keynote speaker came to my poster, and he told me that I did a great job despite only being in high school.
There wasn't anything I didn't enjoy about friday, but a man came up to my poster and asked me if I knew what D0 stood for in the Arrhenius equation. I did, but due to nerves, I was unable to properly relay to him what it is the equation does and what the prefactor (or D0) means. This lead him to give me a 10 minute lecture on an equation that I had already known about, but I appreciated it nonetheless.
Dr. Wheeler came to my poster, too. He congratulated me for what I had accomplished and told me we weren't finished yet. There is much more still needed to be done before I depart for San Francisco and the ACS fall meeting. He also told me that if I ever needed a recommendation letter, he would be more than happy to write me a very strong recommendation. Upon hearing this, I teared up. The visiting Duquesne Alumnus didn't lie, networking is very important.
Everyone did a wonderful job on Friday, and I'm very upset that this was my last symposium at Duquesne. Unfortunately my SEED experience is almost over, and I cherish everything I've been taught and everyone I've met along the way. I wish I had more time here.

Thursday, July 24, 2014

7/24/14 Kelly Pesta

I know I have said this in my past blogs but today has definitely been the busiest/craziest day ever! I was stressing about getting the poster done and not having enough time to finish it until I talked to one of the other 2nd year SEED students and she said that she's not going to have enough time to finish the poster so she's just doing the slides. That lifted a lot of weight off my shoulders, but it also added some because since I was spending all my time on the poster I wasn't keeping my slides up to date. So I was going crazy adding things and emailing/texting Leah to see what I could add or should take out before our meeting that was at 10. But since everyone had to finish their presentations I rescheduled the meeting for after lunch from 12-2 so we had some time to work on them. After lunch we presented. I have to say that my presentation wasn't very good because I wasn't 100% confident in what I was presenting. So after that I met up with Leah and she helped me out with things that I didn't know so I know what to say if someone has a question. I still have to print out my slides and glue them onto the construction paper but I'm getting to Duquesne super early so I can finish that and get it hung up before the speakers. I'm pretty excited for tomorrow so my family can see my presentation and what I've been working on and also so I can see the other SEED students projects complete. I can't believe that the symposium is already tomorrow. Time flies. I'll definitely miss the SEED students once it's over, we've all got so close. I'm going to make these last two weeks together with the SEED students the best two weeks of SEED.


To end with a quote:
"The most beautiful moments always seemed to accelerate and slip beyond one's grasp just when you want to hold onto them for as long as possible."
     - E.A. Bucchianeri



July 24, Summary

    This morning I printed out my poster even though I couldn't get any grant numbers since no one was here.  Unfortunately it turns out that my other results were finish so I had to cancel the printing to edit my poster and put in my results.  However, it turns out that an error occur when it was running the files.  When my table filled with results came up, a column showed with a nan (not a number).  We don't really know what caused this problem but we're trying to figure it out as fast as we can.  In the meant time I had to go back to Fisher Hall to ask them to print my poster again since I didn't have much time left. After that I just read some more articles about PMC (potential mean force) and reaction coordinates since that is what I am using for my project.  And even if we do found out how to solve the error and somehow get my results tomorrow, I could always just tape my results onto my poster.

7-24-14 Summary

        Today was a lot of running around.  In the morning, I had a group meeting from 8:00 to 10:00.  I had to present and I didn't do as well as I thought I would.  But after lunch, I present in front of the other SEED students and I did better.  I also ran my cobalt and nickel coupons through the IR.  After that, I rinsed the cobalt coupons in NaOH and sonicated the nickel coupons in THF.  I also added some changes to my power point for the symposium. With that, I printed the papers and taped them to the construction papers.  Now, I have to wait for tomorrow to see how well I do at the symposium. 

7/24 BLOG

Today I finished my power point and presented. I feel much more confident than I did before.
I revised and edited some minor changes on my power point, but other than that, I am ready to go for tomorrow! :)))

7/24/14 summary Cheyeanne Perez

Today I worked on my poster and printed it out. As well as I cut it and glued it. Kinda as busy day, not bad though!

7/23 BLOG

Yesterday I finished my XRPD.
Chas and I worked on my power point some more.
Yesterday I also put my last few samples into the furnace one last time.

July 23, Summary

     I basically got everything done today for Friday.  I immediately started going over my poster and finally got it done.  Unfortunately I didn't have time to see if I have any grant numbers to put down for my acknowledgement  and  I had to print it out since it would take a day before it was done. However, I did have time to read more about my project by looking at a  previous article I have seen.  I learned more about ∆ G orientation and how it requires 6 points from the protein, 3 from the ligand and 3 from the actual protein.  The points are cannot be chosen randomly, they have to be in specific location.  Different points will get you different values but they will always sum up to the same number.  I will look more into depth about the results I've receive and hope that my other results will finish soon.

By the way this blog is for yesterday.

Summary July 24th, 2014

Yesterday I worked on my ACS poster all day. I got it down to the point where I only need to add data and draw conclusions, get it approved by Dr. Wheeler, and it can be printed. We don't plan to get in printed until it is absolutely needed to be because I haven't even began to touch on any of my specific aims let alone get adequate data. That's the problem with doing something no one else has.. it takes time to set the calculations up and right when you think everything worked, you discover that it hasn't. That is what happened in our case.
Today I plan on getting my symposium posted approved, printed, and on construction paper for the symposium tomorrow.

Wednesday, July 23, 2014

7/23/14 Kelly Pesta

Today was the busiest day ever. This morning our SEED meeting was canceled so we can work on our presentations since the symposium is tomorrow. So I worked on my poster and then walked down to Fisher with Rob to get his construction paper. After that I went to lunch with my mentor and my secondary mentors to the cheesecake factory. After that I worked on my poster for a little bit until Leah came. When she got there my mentor Dr. Wetzel talked to me about what I will be doing in the last few weeks of SEED and what I should be adding to my poster. After that Leah and I went to the Triple Quad. and she showed me how to look at my samples and showed me how to find the peak height. She had me make a chart of each extraction, each of the 7 standards (except MC), and the peak height. That took a long time to write all that down. When I finished we went to the computer lab and went over what I should change and add to my poster. She had me add a few more things to my notes and add more to the chart. When we finished that it was already 6:00 and time for me to go. So we quickly went over what I have to do tomorrow. Hopefully I can finish my poster in time to get it printed so I have something to present at the symposium Friday. Time is running out.

7/23/14 Katie O'Kelley

Today I worked on my poster all morning had my mentors look at it and 'ok' it. I made the changes that they wanted and went to lunch. after lunch I helped move stuff from the cabinet to the new cabinets and organize the stuff. Then I finished up my poster for the most part and helped with the inventory CAS #'s. Then I lost the document trying to email it back to Sara... so that whole hour+ was a waste. That sucks.

7-23-14 Summary

        Today, my mentor wasn't here so I could talk to her about the changes that I had to make to my  power point.  So, I sent the power point with all of the changes in it to my secondary.  She changed a couple of things, including the background color of my power point.  I couldn't just leave it white, so I just changed the design into something simple.  I also made my title on Microsoft office publisher today.  I sent it to my secondary and I didn't have to change anything about it. 

      In the morning, I did another 1 hour deposition of ODPA on 3 cobalt coupons.  In the afternoon, I ran the nickel coupons through the IR.  By the looks of the peaks, I don't think that the monolayers will be stable.  I think that my power point for my poster is ready, and all I have to do is send the it to my mentor again but with all the changes that I made on it throughout the day. 

7/23/14 summary Cheyeanne Perez

         Today I read more papers about mutations. Then after lunch we had a group meeting were I tried to help Liz from my lab figure out how to work the weird projector, and we figured it out. Then she presented and did very well. Afterwards I talked to my mentor about how to improve my power point and we made adjustments to it. That was basically all I did.

Summary July 22nd, 2014

These summaries are honestly the last thing on my mind at the end of the day.

On Tuesday I met with Travis to discuss my poster for the ACS meeting. It has to be printed, so I needed to know what to include on it. Dr. Wheeler took our lab and Dr. Burba out for lunch at the Cafe Fifth. It was nice, I'm going to miss everyone at the end of the program. After we came back, I spent the remainder of the afternoon designing my poster and finishing some things up on my panel poster. I have to add conclusions and more references and I'll be ready to present.

Roberts 3rd Blog Challege








 
 
Along with taking pictures with the other SEED students I got to interview the person that I'm most close to in the program, so keep reading for Kelly's Bio.
 
 
Kelly's Biography
 
         Kelly is 17 and she's going to be a senior at Boardman High School in Ohio. In her free time Kelly likes to play the guitar and draw. She has been playing guitar sense she was 4, but actually started taking lessons 10 years later. Kelly says she want to attend Duquesne or Carlow university once she graduates high school. Her majors of interest are Biology and Forensics, she hopes to be a Medical Examiner.
          While interviewing Kelly she told me a little about her project. Her project is very interesting the title is identification of organic gun she residue, or GSR for short on scanning electron microscope (SEM). In this project Kelly is testing to see if the standers of   GSR are present after extracted and ran through LC/MS
          Kelly is a awesome person I really enjoyed spending my time talking to her. She might seems shy ,but once you start talking to her you will see that she is really an  open book. Some things that  neither I nor others really know about Kelly by just looking at her is, she wants to marry a guy of German descent . Not sure why but that's what Kelly has in mind. She is also very diverse in music she says "music is a big part of my life".
          Like every other interview that I have done I like to ask a completely unrelated question . Kelly's question was: What does she think the fox says? her response was "Me-ow ( like a cat)". Again, I'm  not sure if that's how the song goes but I will say that Kelly has given me the most logical answer so far.     
 

Robert's July 22nd summary

The 22nd was a great day for me. I got the chance to revise my power point once again, after presenting it to the other SEED students. I got a lot of feed back hopefully, all of my spelling errors are gone and If I can just stop all of my "umms" then I should be good. A little later in the day me and my mentor got to put our samples into the MS. I am very excited mostly because I'm getting closer to getting my results, that I have been waiting to patiently for. As soon as I get finish with my samples all I got  to do is put the results into my power point and on the poster and I'm finished. It's all so exciting, and ill be sure to keep you all posted on my progress! 

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

July 22, Summary

     I quickly had to add some finish touches to my presentation when I came in today because I had a meeting at 9:00 with my lab group and I had to present my project to them again.  I don't think that I got better at presenting my project probably because I get nervous since they're all older and know what they're doing.  After the meeting I fixed up my beamer and my poster after having my mentor going overing it.  I got a lot done for my poster in just two days and now I'm almost ready to print it out or at least I should by tomorrow at the latest.

7/22/14 Katie O'Kelley

This morning I filtered my synthesis reactions from yesterday and also filtered my mono oxo species reaction from last week that has been in the hood to evaporated out the solvent, or reduce the volume for filtration. I put all 4 filters into the desiccator to dry. THey will be weighed tomorrow. After that I ran IR of the first complex I made yesterday. Then went to lunch. after lunch was the seed meeting then we all went to Fisher Hall to get our paper for our posters. Then I continued and finished my day working on my poster, with a small break for cake. I love cake days :D

7/22/14 Kelly Pesta

Today was kind of busy. This morning I didn't have much to do until Mr. Larry told me I should make an actual poster instead of slides. I've been working on that all day deciding on what type of background I should use. I'm going to look over my results tomorrow with Leah and add them to my poster and hopefully be done before the symposium Friday. I'm really pressing time so I'm hoping I finish everything by Friday.

7-22-14 Summary

        Today was a lot of running around.  In the morning, I put the nickel coupons that didn't work in my container full of used coupons.  I then did another 1 hour deposition on 3 nickel coupons.  After lunch, we got our construction papers for the symposium.  I didn't get the color that I wanted because there wasn't enough, but I'm okay with the color that I got.  I also changed everything that my secondary told me to do on my power point.  I then sent it to my mentor to check.  She had me change a lot of things.  After all of that, I resent my mentor the power point with all of the changes that I made.  Now, I have to wait until she tells that everything on it is okay.  I also have to present tomorrow, but I think it will go pretty fast due to going over my power point so many times.  

7/22 BLOG

Today I took out samples from the furnace and put my last three in.
I ran the XRPD once again.
I also did SEM/EDS on my completed samples.
Chas and I worked on my power point some. We looked at the SEM, EDS, and XRPD results.

7/22/14 Summary Cheyeanne Perez

             Today was a long day, in the morning I read a couple more papers about mutations while i waited for people from my lab to come in. They didn't come in till after we went to lunch which was a problem because i needed to be in the lab early to start my experiments, because of how long they  take and because it all needed to be done in the same day. so after lunch I basically adjusted my power point and fixed more things. I also added the grants and acknowledgements that Mr. Larry gave us to put in our power points.

7.21-22.14

I've done more SMORS and worked on my power point.

Blog Challenge #3 - Jisca

         For this blog challenge, I had to take pictures of all the other SEED student doing something in their lab.  After that, I had to interview one other SEED student and write down what their project is about and what they have done so far. 










The SEED student that i interviewed was Katie O'Kelly. The title of Katie’s project is Synthesis and characterization of Dithione Ligands for Metal Chelation. What she must do is a two step process which involves taking an amine to make dione. The dione is then sulfurized to produce dithione ligand. That ligand is key in synthesizing the metal complexes. The metal complex Katie is currently in the process of making is Bis(1,2 –dicarbomethoxy-1,2-ethylene dithiolate) oxo molybdate(IV). This is a multi-step process that starts with making an oxomolybdenum species. This complex has Dithiolene ligands coordinated to molybdenum, a second-row transition metal. That is the metal that Katie’s research will be focusing on. Her project in simple terms would be to make dithiolene and dithione ligands and make complexes with them that contain a metal center, in her case that metal is molybdenum.



July 21, Summary

     I know that this blog is pretty late but I had a lot to do yesterday.  I have to print out my poster by Wednesday and that only gives me 3 day left well actually 2 now.  Fortunately  I got a lot done for my poster since I was able to stay till 11:30.  I even I got one of my results done.  I added the data I gather from the binding free energy table for benzamidine in GSBP (generalized solvent boundary potential).  Now my poster is almost complete, it just need a few minor changes and I'll be set.  Before I left I also spent a little time on my presentation since I had a meeting tomorrow/today for my lab group.

Title for the symposium

1. Open Microsoft Publisher.
2. Under Publisher change the orientation (under the page design tab) to landscape.
3. Under the same tab, change the size.
     1. Click on size.
     2. Go to the far bottom and click "create new page size..."
     3. A new window will pop up, change the width to 48" and the height to 8.5".
4. The picture should now be long.
5. Insert a text box and type in your information from your Power point title slide.
     It should look like this:
                                                        Title of project (90 pt. font)
                    Your name, the name of your mentors, and secondary mentors (75 pt. font)
 Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry Duquesne University, Pittsburgh, PA 15282 (70 pt. font) 
* Adjust the sizes so it looks good and its centered. You don't want it to take up the whole slide you need room for the logo *
6. You can change the font to whatever you want, or so it matches your slide fonts, it's up to you.
7. Go under insert, borders and accents, and scroll all the way down. Under emphasis and choose the border stripes. You can change the color of the border (under page design and choose you're color scheme or create your own to match the rest of your slides). Adjust the border so it fits the title inside of the blue borders.
8. Copy and paste the Duquesne logo and place them on your title the same way I have mine below.

* If you need help find me and I'll help you *
** Check with your mentor to see if they have a certain preference for your title slide **


This is what mine looks like:



Copy and paste (you might have to crop out the extra white around the logo after you paste so they're the same size):



Robert's July 21nd summary

Unlike, every other day this day was different. I began my day off with going to the meeting to see the other seed students project. I was very glad I finally got to see Melissa and Amber's project. They both did extremely well. After Lunch I spent the rest of my time hanging out with Kelly while doing my work that my mentor left me. We also talked about how I'm really excited for Friday, but  my only worry is the poster part of it. Hopefully every thing will work out. Ill just be taking it one day at a time. 

7/21/14 Summary Cheyeanne Perez

          Yesterday I didn't do much. In the morning we had a SEED meeting and some people presented their power points, and everyone did really well! After the meeting we went to lunch, which was really good, I love Chinese food! But after lunch I didn't do anything productive, because I had to wait till today to start my tests because of the time it takes.

Summary July 21st, 2014

I was pretty busy all day yesterday.
I put all of my data that I've gathered so far into graphs and Travis reviewed it and decided that my MD simulations haven't reached equilibrium yet, and there is major energy fluctuations, so he's going to be tweaking our input files to see what helps. He and Dr. Burba, Luther's professor from Oklahoma, think that our box has to bigger than what it was initially, so hopefully I can get these calculations running before Thursday, pull the data Friday morning, and put it on my powerpoint before the symposium.
Since he is finally home from New York, my physics lessons are going to continue tomorrow after Dr. Wheeler takes our lab out for lunch.
Until tomorrow, SEED!

Monday, July 21, 2014

7-21-14 Summary

        Today, we had a SEED meeting.  I didn't present because I didn't really change anything from my power point.  A few other people went and they did good.  After the meeting, we went out to a Chinese food place to eat.  When I got back, I had a lot of time to do what I had to accomplish for the day.  I ran my 3 cobalt pieces through the IR and my also my 3 nickel pieces.  I wrote down the frequencies in my notebook for future reference.  With that, I used origins 8 on the computer to make my spectra of the second and third 1 hour deposition on cobalt.  I didn't have time to do the spectra on the nickel, plus the monolayers were not stable after sonication.
When is the blog challenge #3 due? Anyone? Do we have a day picked..?

7/21/14 Katie O'Kelley

This morning I missed the SEED meeting because I was doing calculations and learning procedures for the reaction I did after lunch. Lunch was good. After getting lost on the way back from the Chinese food place I did a reaction with molybdic acid, mnt, and other stuffs that I cannot name because my notebook is in the lab right now and I'm too lazy to go get it... but trust me, I did a lot of science. I did a small scale reaction to see if I could do it because it was difficult for Sara to do the first couple of times but I did good my first try. So Dr. Basu insisted I do the full scale reaction described in the procedure of the book I was following. My full scale reaction worked well too. I have to calculate both reaction yields tomorrow when I come in. This is going to look great on my poster :D extream smiley face for other news that I am not putting on the blog but is SEED related. Until tomorrow :P byeeeeeeee.

7/21 BLOG

Today I took my samples out of the furnace and put the other five samples in.
SEED students went out to eat today for Chinese food and it was fun.
After lunch, Chas and I went to use the XRPD machine, but someone else was using it, so we tried to do UV/Vis/NIR and the hard drive was all messed up. So now we have to wait to do that part. We prepared our SEM stubs so we will do that tomorrow. We also prepared the XRPD samples and finally got a chance to put them into the machine last minute. So, we will take a look at that tomorrow.

7/21/14 Kelly Pesta

Today I didn't do much again. This morning we had our SEED meeting from 10-11. Not many of us presented today, but who did present did good. After that we all went out to lunch which was very fun. After we got back I didn't have anything to do, Leah ran most of my samples on Sunday so Wednesday I'll look at our results and put them on my power point so I can finally have something on my power point for my presentation.

7/18/14

    Today was eventful . I did extractions on diesel fuel that had dodecane in it and surprisingly the numbers were a lot smaller than those of distressed fuel. Also he we had a speaker today that was an engineer and he was really funny . He made his talk interesting so that you actually pay attention. 

7/18 Blog

On Friday, there was a guest speaker. He was interesting because he seemed to have plenty of interests and knowledge in his field.
I also took my samples out and regrinded and repressed 5 of them. I still have to do the rest of them today because I ran out of time on Friday. This is an important week for me. I have plenty of work to do and I hope to get it all finished so that I am confident for the symposium!!

Friday, July 18, 2014

July 18, Summary

      Today I started to work on my poster for my presentation and let me just say that I need a lot to work on.  Making a poster on LaTeX is a lot more complicated than powerpoint because I'm not as experience with it so I don't really know all the necessary commands to make the poster let alone decorating it.  So I spent most of my time looking at other templates, figuring out the error, etc.  I got the basics down and have a general idea on how I'm going to outline it.  I just hope that I have enough time to finish this poster by Wednesday because that's the latest before I can get it printed on a poster board.

7-18-14 Summary

        I wasn't here yesterday so I had to do what I was supposed to do today.  In the morning, I went over my power point with the other SEED student.  They said that I did a good job and I'm getting better at talking louder.  After that meeting, I worked on my blog challenge.  I got done with the pictures and captions but I still didn't finish with the interview.  There was also a speaker today that we went to.  After we came back from that, I had plenty to do.  First, I ran my cobalt and nickel coupons through the IR.  It took some time because the scans are a little over 4 minutes long and I had 6 of the coupons to scan.  I then sonicated the cobalt coupons in hydrochloric acid and the nickel coupons in tetrahydrofuran.  Also, I ran more coupons through the IR.  This time is was 50% ODPA with 50% ODCA on Ti and 50% ODPA with 50% ODCA on TiALV.  I ran all six of the coupons and put them back in the oven.

Robert's July 18th summary

Sadly today I didn't get to spend much time with my mentor, he had a doctors appointment. Fortunately, he left me work to do. It was mostly the same work as yesterday, where I have to find the N-terminal loss, C-terminal loss, and H2O loss in the spectra. I also had to draw the structure of the peptide, which is one of my favorite things to do by the way. After lunch today we all when to see this guest speaker. He was a great guy, who gave me a little insight on the college life and what to expect. I am really glad I got to go! I have not yet begun my blog challenge, but keep an eye out for it because it is coming soon. Don't forget to read Kelly's blog challenge though mostly because it has to do with me. Hope everyone has a nice weekend and cant wait to see you all again on Monday =D.

7/18/14 Katie O'Kelley

This morning I came in really early. I worked on my poster for the symposium almost all day. I cannot find a way to organize my information into 16 slides. i have like 14, which is not enough. I have enough data and information but i want it to look nice and organized. Uhh... Anyway after that, I presented at our SEED only meeting. Then worked on my poster until lunch. Afterward was the speaker, I had no interest in his talk. I was bored. By the time I got back to my lab everyone was busy with experiments so I continued organizing my poster. I'm so paranoid that its going to look bad or not have enough details. I hope I fix it by next week. My group meeting is at 4 but I talked to Dr. Basu after I share my experiments and conclusions for the week I can leave early. He agreed to this because our meetings are scheduled until 6 and I have to take the bus home. 

7/18/14 Kelly Pesta

Today was another day of nothing. This morning we had our SEED meeting again. All the presentations were great and are improving. After that I went to the computer lab and I waited until it was time fore lunch. After lunch we went to a seminar speaker that lasted about an hour. After that I was planning on Leah being here so we can finally run my samples and add the results to my power point so I can practice my presentation at our meeting on Monday, but no one in my lab showed up and the lab was closed so I didn't even have the opportunity to go into my lab today. I'm not sure when I'm going to be able to run my samples, but I sure hope I'll have enough time to run them, get results, and add them on my power point with time to present at least one time before the symposium, but I don't know. Hopefully I have time to finish everything.

Summary July 18th, 2014

Today was wasted.

Luther told me yesterday to rerun all of my calculations because I didn't rename my output files in the script. I was almost done with that today when he told me to delete all of my data because he had developed an all encompassing script so that I didn't have to run 12 calculations. The script is temperature annealing my system. This means that it is heating up the box, decreasing the pressure, increasing the pressure, lowering the temperature again, and then decreasing the pressure to its initial pressure. From this calculation, I will get the density, MSDs, and total energy of the IL.

I'm running a calculation right now as a test run and I'm going to check it later tonight to see if it is finished.

See you Monday, SEED.

ALSO: My blog challenge will be done on Monday. Shakasia was busy this afternoon, so I didn't get the chance to interview her.