Blog Challenge #3- Melissa Fowkes

For this blog challenge, we were told to take pictures of the other SEED student in action in their labs and then interview one other student about their project.

Katie is separating her ligand using a separation funnel.

Rob is labeling his samples.

Steven is checking step 5 of his process. 

Cheyeanne is examining recombinant DNA that is being iced.

Amber is washing out the mortar and pestle with aqua regina solution.

Shakasia is examining her oxidized fuel using the ROTOVAP

Jisca is measuring out NaOH using a beaker. 

The SEED student I chose to interview is Shakasia Pierce. Shakasia is a 17 year old soon-to-be senior at West Mifflin Area High School. At school, she loves math and considers herself to be a math geek. Shakasia doesn't only focus on academics, though. Volleyball is a passion of hers, and she is currently the captain of her volleyball team. SEED isn't a program that she had heard of before or even want to apply to at first. One of her teachers pushed her to apply because she thought Shakasia would fit in here. College applications were also taken into consideration when she applied; she thought it would look good on them.
This summer at Duquesne University, Shakasia is studying diesel fuel and how it oxidizes. This project is significant because updated engine systems can't handle diesel fuel. The fuel causes problems in the engine when it reaches a certain temperature and was giving off admissions that are harmful to the environment. She is developing a new method that would lessen the amount of fuel oxidation. By using the SMORS methodology she is examining how much the fuel has oxidized and using dodecane to lessen the fuel oxidation.

Summary July 17th, 2014

I presented my PowerPoint to the group today and it went a lot smoother than the first time. The only thing I need to work on is the Einstein Equation slide, which I don't really know much about yet, but I'll have it before next Friday.

After the theory group meeting, I met with Luther to talk about my results. It turns out I DID ALL OF THE 12 CALCULATIONS WRONG and now I have to do them all again.Well, I did them right, but I didn't rename the MSD file as an output for every restart, so it rewrote after ever termination. They take at least an hour to complete, so I'm going to run them at home tonight and tomorrow so that I can potentially get data by tomorrow afternoon. 

BLOG CHALLENGE #3

           For the second part of the Challenge, I interviewed Jisca. She answered all the questions I asked to the best of her ability and she is perfect :)
           Jisca’s project SEED title is called “Stability of Self-Assembled Monolayers of Organic Acid on Cobalt”.  She basically deposits acid on metal to see if monolayers form.  If the monolayers do form, she rinses and sonicates the metal to see if the monolayers are stable.  If the peaks are in the correct places, it means the monolayers are stable.  Jisca is using cobalt as her metal and octadecylphosphonic acid (ODPA) as her acid deposition.  She also uses Tetrahydrofuran (THF), Hydrochloric acid (HCL), and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) as the rinse and sonication.  Her results show that the time for the ODPA deposition that makes monolayers is 1 hour.  Now, Jisca is starting to use nickel as well for her metal, and just repeats her procedures with it.  

7/17/14 Summary Cheyeanne Perez

              This morning I read a couple papers on how to check if my mutations were added correctly. I still don't fully understand it but I planned on asking a lot of questions tomorrow. After I read we had a SEED meeting and we all helped each other fix the mistakes and learn to how to explain things better. Then we went to lunch and ate like normally. Then when we got back I really didn't do much, I talked to my lab group and they said time wise it would be better if I continue on Monday. So tomorrow I have to have my mentor tell me the next steps in the lab, and have him go over my power point with me so we can fix any mistakes there are.

7/17/14 Kelly Pesta

I didn't do much today, yet again. In the morning I worked on my blog challenge since there were people from the forensic workshop in my lab again this morning. After that we went to our SEED group meeting which lasted about an hour. When we came back from lunch I sat in my lab for a little because there were a lot of people in the computer lab and I didn't want to interrupt them. When they left I went to the computer lab and continued working on my blog challenge. I got the names posted on the blog, that's all I have to do is put the pictures and type the interview and I'll be finished  with it. Tomorrow I am running my samples, FINALLY.

7/17 Amber Latona BLOG

I got much accomplished today. When I came in, I took my samples out of the furnace and they were BLUE! I got positive results! After I took them out, I had to regrind and repress all of them which took quite some time! You need to have patience for this experiment, or else it will not get finished. Although it took a while to regrind and repress, I finished and put the samples back into the furnace to heat again for 12 hours, but this time at 1300 degrees Celsius. Then they will cool for another 12 hours. Tomorrow when I am able to take my samples out, I am going to repress and regrind them one final time and then place them back into the furnace for final results.

7/17/14 Katie O'Kelley

This morning I reviewed my presentation incase I had to present again at our SEED meeting, but I didnt... I go tomorrow, I guess. After the meeting we ate lunch. For the rest of the day I worked on improving and adding to my symposium slides because all the science I need to do involves filtering or vacuuming and the vacuum line/needle is broken. So until that gets fixed its mostly just me and the presentations since I have read everything and more about my project. tomorrow I plan on observing/helping Sara with one of her reactions so I can be in the lab. I have also been working on the blog challenge. I have gotten many compliments on the aesthetic appeals and I hope to win. I put a lot of effort into this one. I get really competitive, but I'm in this one to win XD. I also got to take a break and go see Dr. Wetzel's German Shepherd puppy. It was the cutest thing ever and I cannot believe puppies can be that adorable. It was SOOOOOOO CUTE!! The puppy was rolling around in the grass and stopped right at my knees(I was kneeling on the grass) and just layed there and let me her. She had the biggest ears and they flopped around when she would chew on the water bottle like a chew toy :D It was the cutest. Well, that was my day.