STEP Reflection Undergraduate Research

  1. Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project. Write two or three sentences describing the main activities your STEP Signature Project entailed.

For my STEP Signature Project, I participated in the Knots and Graphs math research group, under the supervision of Professor Sergei Chmutov. The main components of the research were (1) individually reading math papers and exploring related concepts, (2) meeting with a small group of 3-4 peers to discuss our findings, and (3) presenting our findings to a larger group of 12-15 fellow undergraduate students.

  1. What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project? Write one or two paragraphs to describe the change or transformation that took place.

The most important thing that my project made me realize is that math is inherently a community activity. When starting the project, I though that the best way for me to do math was to sit alone in a room and read and doodle and ask myself questions and practice. However, by the end of this project, I realized that many more ideas and perspectives can be discovered when working with a group.

Another valuable lesson that I learned was the vast difference between reading a paper or textbook and actually absorbing the information to a level that permits discussion, presentation, and synthesis of new related information. It is one thing to be able to defend each step of a logical proof as valid, but quite another to be able to understand why the proof is laid out in the way that it is, and why the author may have thought to explore this. The responsibility of a presenter is to tell a meaningful story with their presentation, and this process of summarizing information and seeing high-level motivating structure can be invaluable in allowing existing proofs to inspire elements of new proofs.

  1. What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you? Write three or four paragraphs describing the key aspects of your experiences completing your STEP Signature Project that led to this change/transformation.

Before this project, most of my mathematical experience consisted of going to a lecture, followed by doing homework independently. There were occasions of my peers and I helping each other with homework, but my experience had predominantly been independent: almost all interactions were either giving hints on specific pre-defined homework problems, or surface-level musings about what could be explored.

This all changed this summer. During the project, I was forced to look not at specific problems with a clearly defined box of mathematical tools, but at a hard, general problems where it was unknown if a solution existed, let alone what it was. Having multiple people to provide a constant stream of new ideas made the brainstorming work much easier.

Teamwork also provided motivation and accountability to the work: I constantly wanted to come up with a cool new proof so that I could share with my teammates, and I didn’t want to let them down by not being prepared. I remember one Saturday in particular, my teammate John and I were sitting in an otherwise empty classroom in Smith Lab, and I had come up with a way to uniquely represent an immersed plane curve (the main focus of our studies), by a particular method of labeling faces and vertices, followed by listing the labels in a particular order. I wasn’t sure about the details of the proof, but I was confident in the result. I was explaining my reasoning to John, and we ended up listing out all of the cases we needed to check, and we arrived at that result. Following that though, John asked if labeling and listing the vertices was even necessary; could we use only the faces? We then checked the relevant cases and made some arguments about that, and arrived at a new, more elegant way of representing a plane curve by a simple list of numbers. Now, not only could we uniquely describe different curves, but we could also pinpoint exactly what the differences were between the curves in this representation. This was a result that neither of us could have come up with individually, but that required both of our inputs bouncing off one another.

Another valuable experience for me was preparing for presentations to the larger research group. I got into a good habit of annotating the papers that I read, asking questions, double-checking things for myself, and writing comments about the overall structure. One of the papers that I read, I was able to condense a densely and formally written 12-page math paper into an “executive summary” that fit on the front and back of one sheet of printer paper, which I was then able to expand into an hour-long presentation. Simply preparing to transfer the information to other people with this process of “summarize then re-expand” really made me understand the information for myself.

I also gained a good amount of experience giving math presentations. I gave at least three presentations to the smaller research group, along with one presentation to a bunch of mixed undergraduate and graduate students for the “What is..?” seminar. Professors in both contexts had good positive and constructive feedback that will make me a better technical presenter in the future, and which also greatly increased my confidence in my ability to stand in front of a group of people who may be smarter than me, and present to them something they might not have heard about before.

  1. Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life? Write one or two paragraphs discussing why this change or development matters and/or relates to your academic, personal, and/or professional goals and future plans.

My presentation skills and outlook on the community of mathematics will help me in my future career as a mathematician: the criteria for professors getting tenure is often composed of (1) research, (2) teaching, and (3) service, and all three of these were expanded for me this summer. I gained research skills by practicing extracting the essence of what a paper is trying to say, as well as by practicing research as a group. I gained teaching skills with my technical presentations, and the process for preparing for those will inform my process for preparing to teach classes as a TA this year. And an important aspect of service as a professor at a university is knowing the community around you, and I got good practice this summer learning about the mathematical community that surrounded me, and how I can interact with a mathematical community in general.

My actions this summer didn’t change my career plans much, but rather cemented them: I am more certain than ever that I want to study theoretical mathematics for the rest of my life, and the encouragement and positive experiences of this summer give me something to point to that makes me secure in that decision.

STEP Reflection

  1. This summer I had the opportunity to be involved in a program called I-Corps@Ohio which is a program that allows start-up companies to validate the market for their biotechnology. My role on the team as an Entrepreneurial Lead was to interview 100 potential customers which comprised of physicians, surgeons, medical oncologists, and researchers. The objective of these interviews was to develop an understanding of how our product would disrupt the current standards of care and to quantify the efficacy of our novel therapeutic treatment.

 

  1. Being involved in this program transformed my view of my own abilities and provided me with an opportunity to grow in my independence. Throughout the entire program I encountered many instances that challenged my confidence in myself and capabilities. However, these situations cultivated an environment that forced me to confront these doubts. This summer was also the first time I lived in an apartment where I had the responsibility to cook for myself, shop for groceries, and pay for living expenses. The combination of my involvements and living situation was a new experience that I had to adapt to. I believe that this summer provided me with an opportunity to grow in this way and ease my transition to junior year.

 

  1. This past summer was one of the most challenging periods of my life I have yet to experience. In addition to being involved in this program, I was conducting biomedical research here at Ohio State and volunteering at a free clinic. Every day I felt the ever-present pressure of succeeding in all of my commitments while maintaining my physical and mental health. I quickly began to believe I was feeling this pressure because I was inadequate to accomplish these tasks. Despite these thoughts of incompetency, I still had deep-rooted intrinsic motivation that pushed me forward. Therefore, for the entirety of the summer, I continued to grudge forward every day trying to just accomplish what was in front of me. Although I was able to see the steps I was taking forward in my program, I failed to understand how each step contributed to the end goal.

 

I continued to have this tunnel vision mindset for a majority of the program. It was not until after giving my final presentation to the instructors and the other cohorts that I realized that I was so occupied in my own doubt to recognize all that I was doing throughout the program. The team completed the program with a total of 97 interviews, 3 short of the goal. However, the instructors informed us that they did not quantify the team’s success by the number of interviews, but instead the information gained from them. The instructors not only congratulated me on the extensive knowledge obtained through the interviews, but acknowledge that I was one of the only undergraduates among graduate students to complete the program. They commemorated my curiosity and willingness to ask questions to prompt further discussion during the interviews.

 

Additionally, my Principle Investigator for the biomedical research I was involved in told me that himself and his supervisor were impressed by the amount of data I was able to collect throughout the summer. He stated that he recognized the hard work it took to produce consistent results from my experiments. He also informed me that the data I collected would be an integral part of his research paper and I would be a co-author for the publication. This came as a shock to me because I learned a majority of the protocols for the first time this summer which lead to several mistakes and failures. However, I began to realize that the mistakes I had made motivated me to improve my techniques to prevent them from happening again.

 

  1. After completing my STEP signature Project, I believe I have gained a new perspective of myself and what I can accomplish. While I would still to be cautious from overcommitting in the future, I will approach future opportunities with more confidence in my abilities. I believe this was imperative for me to learn now so that I can carry this mentality for my future endeavors. I aspire to attend medical school and eventually become a physician. However, the path to obtain this goal will be challenging and will test my ability to perform in high stress conditions. Though I would not equate my experience this summer to what I will face in the future, I believe it helped to catalyze the journey of building my confidence and self-independence

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Preferences in Debt Summer Experience

For my STEP project, I lived in Columbus and worked on my own individual research thesis. The thesis is trying to decipher the difference between individual’s preferences when they have a surplus of money versus when they are in debt. Over the summer, I created the concept, coded the experiment, applied for Institutional Review Board approval, and applied for additional funding to run the experiment. The ability to live in Columbus close to my advisor and the lab materials was vital to the continuation of my research.

Two of the most impactful experiences that I received from completing my STEP project were learning how to code and realizing that I could teach myself parts of the research process that are not taught in class.  I came into the summer not having any idea on how to code in any languages, and my experiment needed to be coded in Matlab. I had never been taught Matlab in any of my class as an Economics major, so I was on my own. STEP allowed me to focus on learning how to create my experiment by giving me the available time to sit down and thoroughly learn. If I had to have paid my own expenses, I would’ve needed an additional source of income in the form of a side job. This would have taken all of my time away from learning. I was able to focus on my experiment fully, and definitely got a lot more finished than I would have without this experience.

Secondly, I learned the research process. This process is different for everyone, but never explained thoroughly in class. Being able to spend a whole summer figuring out how to research like a professional was incredibly valuable in my pursuits for life. I want to continue on to graduate school to receive a PhD in economics, which is primarily research-based. I also want to be a research professor as a job in the future in Behavioral Economics. Having learned how to research before graduate school will give me an additional advantage once I go to graduate school. Learning this process also allowed me to gain confidence in myself as I continue in my career. Before this summer, I was incredibly unconfident in my skills as a researcher. I thought that because I was 19 years old and an undergraduate that I couldn’t do research. This summer showed me that I am fully capable of doing my own research. It gave me confidence. I am now willing to discuss my current research, as well as further ideas I have with faculty and professors who are much more experienced than I. Before this summer I would never have felt comfortable doing that. This summer gave me confidence in myself and my future career choices.

The most memorable and impactful experience that led to these changes above was working in an additional lab outside of my own research and being able to use the information learned to apply it to my own research. I worked with another undergraduate student that was much more knowledgeable than I was coming into this summer. He was able to answer questions, show me different ways to code, and discuss how to speak about my research in a professional way. He showed me that I could be a great researcher as an undergraduate student. The lab work we were assigned was in close relation to the work I was doing on my own, so it transferred well and he was a great point person for me to have this summer.

Additionally, a big experience that added to my lessons learned is my meetings with my research advisor. He was an instrumental part of my research experience, and will continue to offer me advice and suggestions as the year goes on. He allowed me to think openly without criticism in an environment that was completely conducive to research. His office was covered in chalk boards and white boards, in which we would brainstorm freely. He also always had an additional article and reading for me to learn and grow from. STEP gave me the ability to learn from him all summer, which contributed to my confidence as a researcher.

Lastly, I got to experience working and conducting experiments in the Experimental Economics Lab at Ohio State over the summer. Being able to run mock experiments made me much more confident in my actual experiment, as well as helped me learn what code worked properly and what code did not. During this summer, on three occasions, I got to go into the computer lab here on campus and practice running experiments as if they were my own. This is a very early time for a researcher to be running experiments, so for me to be able to have this on my resume now is wonderful for the future. It has slowed me to grasp to nuances of working with a large set of computers that run the same code and fix issues that may arise with both participants and the hardware. Running experiments in a non-crucial setting has given me the confidence to run my actual experiment this upcoming fall.

My future goals are directly related to my work over this summer. I hope to graduate this year and move on to a PhD program in Behavioral Economics. My work this summer was a behavioral economics experiment. Most graduate students are just learning how to think of thesis topics, conduct research, and get findings. By the time I leave Ohio State I will have done all of these steps, making me quite a bit ahead in graduate school. Thinking farther ahead, I would like to be a research professor. This summer has given me insights on how to work with undergraduate students. This is something that I feel like a lot of professors are not great at, so getting to experience how my professor interacts with me is definitely helpful for my future job. It has also showed me what my day-to-day life when I am an adult will be. I will virtually be doing what I was doing this summer but on a larger scale. The STEP experiment that I did this summer allowed me a glance into what the rest of my life holds. The interactions and connections I have made will continue with me through graduate school and my career guiding me to be the best researcher and professor in which I am capable.

STEP Reflection

1. This summer I spent time in Tedeschi Lab working as an undergraduate research assistant. My responsibilities included splitting cells, imaging slides, and quantifying data.

2. This project has impacted my life. I learned that what I assumed about working in a lab would be like is not what it was actually like. It is a job that requires extreme passion for the topic you are researching, which I personally did not experience. I also learned that I am the type of person that needs constant interaction with people, and my lab is very small and so I did not experience that.

3.Many events, interactions, and relationships influenced this transformation I experienced. future. At the beginning of the summer I worked with an exchange student from England who was working full time in the lab. Speaking with him about the differences and similarities in the scientific, medical, and education systems between the U.S. and England gave me great insight on how to approach situations with people that may not come from the same culture as I do.

For example, the graduate student that worked in my lab was working there for a few years before she attends medical school. Attending medical school or PA school is what I am leaning towards right now, so it was extremely helpful to be able to talk to her about her experience with working in a wet lab and how she believes it will help her when providing clinical care to patients in the future.

The relationship I formed with my PI definitely had the greatest impact on my time in the lab. He is very informative and wants me to be able to make the most of my experience with the time I had. He always asked what type of work I wanted to partake in, if I would be comfortable with it, and to feel free to ask any questions if I had them. Overall, the people I worked with made my experience the best it could be.

 

4. The growth I saw was dramatic. This experience made me realize that even though I do not think I want to pursue graduate school in order to work in a wet lab, I established a great appreciation for the work that goes into scientific and medical research. It also helped me grow my academic skills my PI went in depth with explaining neuroanatomy to me, which will help me greatly in my anatomy class.

STEP Summer Research Reflection

Osteoengineering Team

STEP Summer Research Reflection

 

The main activities of my STEP signature project included creating a lab protocol for the chemical etching procedure and running a series of cytotoxicity tests on the NiTi fixation devices that will be later used for the animal model. Nickel Titanium templates were frequently shipped to us from the Toledo lab so that we could perform these procedures. Prior to running the cytotoxicity tests, cleaning, sterilization, and chemical etching of the Nitinol templates all had to take place. In order to make this process more streamlined, my partner and I created a lab protocol for the chemical etching process that was approved by our principal investigator.

 

Throughout the summer, my view of myself seriously changed because I quickly adapted to a new work environment that was very different from anything I have ever done. I was working in a team that was actually working towards very applicable and attainable goals that could significantly and positively impact the world of science. Before the summer started, I was skeptical of how involved I would be as one of the new undergraduate researchers. I quickly realized that my work was going to be very significant because of how it was connected to lab’s overall goal. Never having worked in a lab before, I was very pleased with how I adapted to this work environment and how I tackled that challenges that came with it. I now feel more confident going forward about branching out and facing new challenges in my undergraduate career. Also, I am excited to return to the lab next summer with all of this experience under my belt.

 

One interaction that was very important for me to understand how much of an impact I could make in this new position was through the weekly meetings that were held by my principal investigator, Dr. David Dean. These were so important to me because all undergraduate researchers and project leaders attended. Seeing the presentations and accomplishments of other undergraduate researchers during this weekly meeting was one thing that really inspired me and motivated me to dive right into my summer project. With these meetings taking place every Monday morning, I was able to talk to everyone I needed to talk with to establish a clear schedule for the week ahead. This was very important for me to grow as an undergraduate researcher and as a person because attending meetings, reporting to superiors, and working as a team is not common in the classroom.

 

Another component of this undergraduate research experience that helped me grow as a researcher and person was working with my project leader. This was extremely important because of the immense amount of knowledge she had about everything going on in the lab. Learning all of the lab techniques, understanding the protocols, and running a mock of your project are all very overwhelming at first, but will eventually become second nature. With the principal investigator being extremely busy and never in the actual lab, my project leader was the most convenient resource.

 

Lastly, actually getting hands on experience with the NiTi templates was the most transformative part of this summer research position because I actually was able to go through the protocols, obtain results, and analyze them for a proper presentation to the lab. This series of events was by far the most transformative because this cannot be taught in a textbook. This hands- on experience was the best way for me to adapt to the lab. By keeping a detailed log of different protocols and lab techniques in my lab notebook, I will always be able to look back on my work this summer if I need to replicate any procedures.

 

This transformational experience of getting so involved in a very advanced lab at Ohio State will be so significant in my future because I really want to continue research with stem cells throughout and after my undergraduate career. I was very fortunate to land this summer research position because it is related to an area that I am so interested in. While my goal is to go to medical school, I would like to stay involved in research in the future if possible.

STEP Signature Project

For my STEP signature project, I performed research in Terahertz Time-Domain Spectroscopy with Dr. Rolando Valdes Aguilar of the Center for Emergent Materials within the Physics department. My project within the team was to study the molecular vibrations of TOPAS cyclic olefin copolymer via Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, in order to attempt to correlate phonon shifts with the thermal dependence of the refractive index.

A few months of physics research is rarely yields groundbreaking results, especially in an experimental field such as condensed matter; this made itself very apparent throughout the course of this summer. What I expected to be a quick project without the constraint of classes and homework turned into a grueling summer of troubleshooting and problem-solving. I expected much more physics from research in experimental physics; what I experienced was much less data-taking/analysis, and much more of asking myself why the spectrometer wasn’t working that day, and when it was, why it wasn’t outputting data that seemed logical. What I expected to be a project that I could complete in a few weeks turned into a summer long struggle that still remains unresolved. What I did learn is that despite the research consisting more of problem-solving than physics, I really enjoyed the process.

Consequently, over the course of the summer I made another realization: after a summer working in research, I can’t see myself working doing anything else. My project yielded very little concrete results over the time frame; it may have yielded more time pouring over programs and literature than results, and more time in an office than the lab, but I still walked away with the feeling that I belonged. Each time I had the opportunity to share my project with another member of the department, or hear about another student’s project, I was reminded exactly how much I enjoyed my place within the research group.

Over the course of the summer, I also realized how much I enjoyed the environment of the physics department. At first the summer seemed somewhat daunting; at first I was the only undergraduate in my research group. The group was shortly expanded with the addition of an REU student, but aside from him my social interactions consisted primarily of day-to-day work with the graduate students on the research team. This turned out to be remarkably beneficial; rather than defaulting to my friends, I was forced to network within the department, and made some really wonderful connections as a result.

Additionally, interacting daily with graduate students made me much more confident in my abilities to contribute to a very competitive field. I have always wanted to advance to a graduate program after graduation, but acceptance rates are very low for a field with very high interest. Handling my own project that will (ideally) eventually lead to a paper made me feel much more comfortable in my abilities to handle the type of work that comes along with graduate school, and much more confident in my standing when applying.

Aside from the social interactions, specific problems I was able to identify within my data over the course of my project led to me having much more confidence in my capability to work on the types of projects I’ll see more of moving forward. For example, looking at the spectrum of my sample and noticing a phonon appearing at low temperature outside of the standard C-H stretching band caused me to suspect a purging failure that I later directly observed and was able to address without wasting more time taking measurements that would be compromised. Becoming more fluent with the types of problems and data sets that I’ll need to understand in my field has been a major transformation as a result of this project.

Moving forward, working this summer in research has helped me know for certain that this is what I want to pursue as my career. Through STEP I have cultivated my interests, and realized that I really enjoy the idea of working with condensed matter moving forward, and understanding this will help immensely as the search for graduate programs begins soon. Aside from my personal development, working this summer on this project has gotten me to a great start on a project that will, as previously mentioned, ideally give me the opportunity to author a paper. Being published will be a huge step for me professionally, especially doing so as an undergrad. Overall, STEP has proven to have been a remarkable opportunity for my personal and professional development.

STEP Project Reflection

For my STEP Signature Project, I stayed in Columbus this summer doing research in Dr. Paul Martin’s laboratory in the Abigail Wexner Research Institure at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. This laboratory studies neuromuscular disease, and focuses mostly on Muscular Dystrophy. This summer, I helped with multiple of the lab’s Muscular Dystrophy projects. While my tasks changed from one day to the next, most of what I did was collecting data with various laboratory techniques such as DNA extraction, qPCR, various types of staining… I also then put together this data for analysis and presentation.

While I expected to learn a lot with this project, the scope of what I actually learned exceeded my expectations. As expected, I trained in multiple laboratory techniques that were new to me, such as PCR. As the summer progressed, it was very exciting to see my improvement in these techniques and to feel more and more confident in my abilities in the lab. I also learned a lot beyond just techniques. This was my first time working full time, and it was very interesting to experience the typical day to day life of a full-time worker. Working every day with my Principal Investigator and my colleagues in the lab made me better at working in a team. Additionally, as the least experienced person in the lab, I learned to ask for help often, and to pay close attention to the advice and experiences of others so that I could grow. I had previously thought of research as a mostly individual line of work, and the amount of teamwork involved really surprised me.

More generally, this project was a chance for me to learn more about research as a field and whether I am interested in pursuing research in the future. I loved my time in the lab this summer and learned a strong appreciation for research. It was very exciting to experience what it is like to be independent in the lab and to complete a project from beginning to end. I found research to be exciting, intellectually stimulating and, though sometime frustrating, ultimately quite rewarding.

In terms of decisions for my future, I was lucky to be able to discuss options with my Principal Investigator as well as other people in my lab, such as the MD/PhD student that works there. These conversations were very helpful, and while I am still not one hundred percent sure of whether I want to pursue research in the future, I now have more information about different options and which might be right for me. If I had not experienced this job first-hand, I would not have felt sure making a final decision, but now I think that with further reflection I can decide on a career path that I feel confident about.

Therefore, some of the moments this summer that helped me learn the most were simple conversations with other people in the lab. I actually had thought the MD/PhD student there, Davin, was only a PhD student for a really long time, but once I had time to talk to him more and learn more about him I found he had a very unique perspective and a lot to say about the program. Another very significant person during my project was the Lab Manager, Debbie. Having worked in the lab for a really long time, she was the person I depended on the most and she was an excellent teacher, always sharing her own stories of mistakes and troubleshooting, which helped me through my own moments of frustration. Her tips and explanations definitely made me more aware of what makes a good leader and teacher and will help me if I have that role in the future. Finally, being in the lab full time allowed me to meet with my Principal Investigator often. It was fascinating to get his perspective on the lab’s projects and to gain a better understanding of what the lab will be doing in the future. His wider perspective and ambition were very inspiring.

Additionally, being at an institution like Nationwide Children’s for the summer came with a lot of amazing opportunities. At the Research Institute, I was able to attend a variety of talks from visiting scientists as well as researchers from the Institute. Additionally, I was able to attend hospital-wide talks from physicians and I was able to shadow a physician in a neuromuscular clinic. From the talks I attended I learned about a variety of areas of research and medicine, and was again able to reflect on my future career path. Shadowing a physician who worked with patients with muscular dystrophy and other diseases I was working with and learning about was incredibly eye-opening. I was aware of the importance of research before, but seeing patients that were directly affected by what was happening in labs like those at the Institute made me value research even more.

Overall, this was an amazing summer and I am very grateful for the opportunities I had. Working in this lab full time gave me important insight into what a career in research looks like. Whether I ultimately decide to go the MD or MD/PhD route, I will use what I learned this summer to make that decision. Even if I ultimately decide not to pursue research, I have decided to attempt to write a thesis and graduate with a Research Distinction, for which I will use the skills and passion that I developed this summer. Finally, the insights I gained into other topics, like how to work with a team, how to troubleshoot when things go wrong, and the workings and importance of research, are things that I will apply in whatever career I end up.

 

STEP Reflection

This summer, I have worked on an Undergraduate research in mathematics at The Ohio State University. I worked with a group of students on the topic of Immersed Plane Curves, while also learning additional information about Knots and Graphs from other groups. As part of my research, I attended “What is…? Seminars” to broaden my knowledge of mathematics.

Being part of such project provided a lot of opportunities for personal growth. To start out, it was my first time living by myself without any meal plans provided. I had to ensure I managed my time properly to be able to perform everyday household activities myself. I was responsible for keeping the place I stayed in clean, preparing meals that were healthy, doing laundry, etc. While some of these things I was familiar with from living in dorms, others were a new experience for me. One of the challenges I faced was learning how confront my roommate about keeping the house out of order. It can be difficult to be honest in such way with someone you do not know, but it was necessary in order to keep nice living conditions. I think this forced me to step out of my comfort zone and allowed me to grow as a person.

The experience I have gained during this research has been amazing. I have made new friends that are now in my classes, as well as work with me as TAs in the math department. In my opinion, meeting new people always contributes to personal transformation. You can meet people who motivate you and allow you to strive towards new accomplishments. You might meet people whose personality teaches you what traits you would not like to develop. You learn from love and pain you experience while interacting with people.

Before starting my research, I was very nervous, as I knew that people participating in it are the top math students at out university. Additionally, there was only one other girl there. Unfortunately, being one of a very few girls in honors math, I have met people, who believe that girls cannot be “good enough” to do math. I was afraid that I would not be treated properly, and that the people in my research group will turn out very arrogant. Luckily, I was proven wrong. My groupmates became my new friends that I spend my free time with. I never felt like my ideas were not valued. I never felt like I was being looked down on. I think this surprised me in a good way and broke my idea about many people.

Another great thing I have gotten better at that has already been helping me a lot is not comparing myself to other people. As I have mentioned before, peers in my research are extraordinarily smart, and most of them are a lot more mathematically mature than I am. They have taken a lot more difficult math classes, have visited a lot more conferences and seminars, and, therefore, they are a lot more educated on various topics. My goal for the summer was to learn how to focus on improving my knowledge, and not how to compare myself to them. This allowed me to grow at my own pace, without overwhelming myself. I am my biggest critic and trying to constantly compare myself to other people would be extremely unhealthy for me. I am very happy with how I took my time to learn more about myself and to focus on my well-being, and, therefore, I think this project was a big success for me.

These changes are very important to me, as they have already been helping a lot. Learning to be independent has been very helpful, as I have been living away from home since the project have ended, and I feel like this summer has prepared me for this more independent lifestyle. As mentioned above, I have been a lot better about focusing on my knowledge instead of comparing it to people’s knowledge. When taking class when many advanced students, it is important to remember your value. I think this research taught me so much, and contributed a lot to my personal growth.

Louis Barry STEP Undergraduate Research

From May 1st to August 1st I was an Undergraduate Research Assistant to Primary Investigator Dr. Puduvalli and post-doctorate researcher Pratibha Sharma at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center, Division of Neuro-oncology. In our lab, I investigated various types of DNA damage to glioblastoma cell lines as a result of drug treatment through experiments like cell culture, western blot, colony formation assay, radiation, flowcytometry, and many more. My daily activities varied from running an experiment all day to reading literature. I am continuing my research throughout the ’19-’20 school year to conclude my findings.

This summer was my first ever hands-on experience researching. It was certainly a life changing experience as it made me question what path I wanted to take my career. Being a pre-med student, I never really thought about going to graduate school. I realized that there is so much that goes on behind the scenes of news headlines declaring a new treatment or cure to a disease. There is a seemingly limitless amount of directions an individual could take their project. I also realized that each individual in a research environment plays such a crucial role in success of the whole team. The amount of collaboration in the building that I worked in was astonishing. Whether it was equipment, data, or just helping someone out if they were on vacation, I could tell that everyone there is working for the greater good. However, nearing the end of my summer, I finally discovered that I want to be on the ‘people side’ of this greater good. My goal is to directly interact with patients suffering from these diseases while having related research on the side.

One day this summer, the families of glioblastoma patients who my PI treated at the James Cancer Hospital visited our lab. They had never been in any kind of research laboratory before, so everything was new to them. Each family was so grateful to each of us in the lab, including me, just a normal undergraduate student. One parent actually told me that she hopes her son would follow in my footsteps and be apart of a neuro-oncology lab when he was in undergrad. Not only this, but the way that everyone admired Dr. Puduvalli when he spoke was really awe-inspiring. That day fully confirmed that my career goal is to be a physician. After this day, I talked to my PI and received a lot of guidance on what he did and what he wished he did when he was in my position. One thing he said is that a physician is not complete without some kind of research and that he wishes he started as early as I have. This mentor ship I gained is something I will always value.

I also developed a very close relationship with both the post-doctorate researcher and graduate students I worked under. I came into the lab with absolutely zero experience. This could have been very frustrating for impatient teachers. However, my teachers (the students) always explained everything thoroughly and took time out of their day to make sure I was understanding all the details. Within no time at all, I was able to work independently, which was my main goal of the summer. Pratibha Sharma, the post-doctorate researcher, asked me halfway through the summer if I caught the ‘bug’. I was confused until she explained how research can be addicting once you dedicate yourself. I had to agree with her. After working hard in the lab for a few months, she offered to include my name on her soon published paper. I could not have been more ecstatic about her generosity and felt immense pride in myself for having hard work pay off. Having a publication is a major statement when applying to medical school, and this was another goal I was trying to achieve this summer.

One last experience that will stick with me from this summer of research was our lab group meetings. Our group met once per week for about three hours. In this time, each lab member had a chance to present their data or goals for future projects. I have never been the best at public speaking, but these meetings required confidence in yourself and in your data. Preparing these presentations was stressful, but in the end, worth it. I would present data from experiments that I had only run for the first time that past week and was nervous about what my peers would think. I realized that there is more to research than getting conclusive data. It is a constant cycle of attempting to understand the unknown.

This STEP Undergraduate Experience has taught me more than any classroom ever could. I learned many things; how to work with others in an academic setting, time management, critical thinking, and independent research to name a few. The skills I have obtained will better prepare me for the next step in my career goal – applying to medical school. A successful applicant needs to be well rounded, and I think this experience has given me an edge over other applicants without. Even though my future goal is to be a physician, I will still crave to research, just as my PI does. There is a balance between patient interaction and clinical research that will take time to learn. I will be eager to use the skills I learned this summer again soon

 

 

STEP Post Reflection

  1. Over the summer, I worked as a student researcher in Dr. Matt Anderson’s microbiology lab. I worked on a project to identify filamentous regulators in Candida albicans by using quantitative genetics. I used a variety of wet lab and dry lab techniques to conduct my research.
  2. One of my original project goals was to confirm my belief that research is what I want to do as a career. Over the summer, I spent 20 – 28 hours a week in the lab. I didn’t think it was going to be as hard as it was. However, I feel like I learned a lot and grew as a scientist and a person. Additionally, I wanted to see what it would be like to do research in both a dry and wet lab setting which I was able to do.
  3. Something that I found instrumental to making my summer as successful as it was are the interpersonal relationships I formed with the members of the lab. I work in this lab during the school year, but due to classes and what not I never really got to spend much time actually talking to people and being friendly. Being in the lab every day for 6-7 hours allowed me to really get to know everyone. It might sound trivial, but being able to feel comfortable in a working environment is an important aspect to enjoying what you do. I also worked closely with a graduate student for the entire summer. His guidance allowed me to become more familiar with the process without feeling like I was thrown in the deep end.I didn’t think that this would have the impact that it did, but going in as often as I did was way more of a struggle than I originally thought. Admittedly, I was also taking biochemistry on top of that but I found it hard to balance everything. Although it was rewarding, it was tiring as well. I think that it was important for me to learn how to balance everything I had going on.

    I spent the previous school year switching around my majors and trying to figure out what I wanted to do. At the end of the school year I was a double major in Molecular Genetics and CIS (Computer and Information Science). My work in the lab, both over the summer and before, helped influence my idea of what I wanted to do. I ended up applying to the Data Analytics major and am now on the Biomedical Informatics track of the Data Analytics major.

  4. The experiences I had this summer were instrumental to my future plans because it allowed me to get a glimpse of what life might be like for me later. My current intent is to go to graduate school in a similar field so my summer in the Anderson lab is very relevant to that. Additionally, the skills I have picked up will no doubt be useful to me regardless of where I end up. I’m very grateful to have spent my summer there, as I was able to better form an idea of what I want to do as a major and more importantly as a career.

 

Pictured is a failed transformation (bottom) alongside a positive control for reference (top).