Day 35

Well today is the last day of work!!! Our presentation was great and so was everyone else's. After all of them were finished, Nicole and I took our moms over to Building 8 to show them our labs. I will admit that I am excited to be done, primarily because I still have essays to write for school that I have been procrastination all summer. But I did have a lot of fun this summer and got to meet some really amazing people through this internship. Plus, making money was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo awesome. The experience was worth every penny:)

Anyways, I learned a lot of stuff this summer. I was reading over my first blog and I was really nervous and stressed about being in the MRI lab because I haven't had chemistry in school yet. But this was actually the greatest intro to chem I could have experienced and now I know I will be sooooooooo prepared for it this year!

Obviously, I learned a lot about MRI, contrast agents, Omniscan, and Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis. So here is some general stuff I have taken from the internship:

• Wednesday Undergrad Seminar= free lunch
• Free lunch= delicious
• Be on time
• Joe Pow is not as scary as you think
• Carpool
• If you and all the interns behave, you will get a limo bus
• Practice your presentations
• Figure out all the shortcuts to get to places at RIT
• If you got Crossroads, get the spicy chicken sub
• If you go to Java Wallie's, get the Kinky Ragea
• Be nice to the people at the stock room, or else
• Breaking a cuvett is not a big of a deal as you think
• Make your presentation simple so normal people can understand
• Look at the map before you try to find a building
• Realize some of the computers in the Chem department are 10 minutes behind real time
• Listen to Dr. Hornak; the man is a genius
• Eat with other interns after field trips
• Never say you like physics while in the Chemistry department
• Remember to clock back in after lunch
• Get your work done
• Don't put more than one Nanotube in the NMR at once
• Get contacts if you want to participate in visual perception experiments
• Be happy you have a job at RIT and you are making money; its probably better than going back to school

Well I just wrote a lot of random stuff! But that was all I could think of right now...

So i guess I will just stop writing now. Maybe I'll update this later this year let you know how senior year is going! (or where I'm going to college)

Okey dokey then. Ta Ta for Now.

;) Gretchen E. S.

Day 34 Continued

Well I was quite brief on what we did today because I was not in a very "blogy" mood when we got back from U of R. I will expand on the day now:
Laura and I got there first and we decided to get an iced mocha at the little coffee shop in the building. We didn't know what room we had to go to, but I did know that it ended with an 08 so it was either 108, 208, 308, 408, or 508. Therefore, we decided to wait on the first floor. And it was 108 so that was lucky.
When everyone else got there we started the presentations and we alternated UofR and RIT. Dr. Pinto was being very critical of all the RIT presentation, which is a good thing so we knew what to improve. However, he did have to help some of his interns even get through their slides. *sorry for being mean*
When the pizzaa and cookies came, Nicole and I were dissappointed that we didn't get to go before lunch, but we got to go next. I think we did good. There were not many questions, except the "don't say ummm" comment from the girl who said it hereself 22+ times during her's (i counted) So we should be fine tomorrow.
After we went, the day dragged on and on and on; thus the longest day of my life!

We finally finished at 3:30! Erika and Jane followed us back to RIT and Tom almost killed us with his Jeep...and then Erika almost hit us at the 4 way stop!AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Well then it was 4 when we got back. And then we went home at 5:15. Oh shoot, I forgot to sign out. I'll have to eamil Joe powwwwwwww now!

:()

Day 34

Well today was the longest day of my life. We went to U of R to practice our presentations and it took form 9am-3:30pm to finish all of them. It got boring really quickly, but I guess it was good to see what the U of R interns are doing. Our presentation went great! YAYAY We feel prepared for tomorrow!

:)

Day 33

LAST DAY OF REAL WORK YAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!!! :)
Well today we put the finishing touches on the power point notes, and then at 10 we showed the notes to Dr. Hornak. He had some of the wording to change. Then we went lunch for the last time at Crossroads and I bought a M&M cookie.

After lunch, Bob found us an empty room so we could practice our presentation without anyone else. We ran through it twice and then we decided we were ready to present for Dr. Hornak. He only had a few things for us to change so that was good news. Also good news, Joe Pow likes our poster and presentation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY

So that is all for the day! Tomorrow is U of R 'practice.'
:)

Day 32

We actually did something this morning other than work on the powerpoint. Dr. Hornak had us make a solution and take some measurements at different concentrations. But we were done by 10:30 so then we went back to Building 76 to the computer lab. At 11:45 I had to do another eyetracking experiment, the same one where you have to look for brain lesions. It was really boring this time...Then lunch at Crossroads= buffalo chicken sub!
We the went back to the computer lab and didn't do much. That's all for today I guess.
:)
Ohh yeah I hear laura is trying to write more than me today on her blog... i will let her win...today.

Day 31

Well well well. I am sooooooo glad this is the last week of work!!!! I didn't want to wake up this morning, but luckily Joe Pow didn't need us to change anything on our poster so that was one less thing we have to do today!

We are all done with the powerpoint, but we still don't know who is doing what slides. Since I haven't taken chemistry yet, we figured it would be a good idea if Nicole did the ones with the chem stuff on it and I will cover the background information and instrumentation. So then we started writing the scripts for each slide. I probably won't even use it once I get up on the stage because I will be too nervous to even read it, but I it helpful to have one anyways. I wonder if the U of R people think our practice on Thursday is a big deal, because they asked for our abstracts? I hope we don't have to dress up for that too...

So we had lunch at Crossroads and then went back to the computer lab. I finished the notes that go with my slides. Then we went down to the girl scout thing on the first floor. The first table we went too ironically was dealing with MRI stuff so we told the lady about our Omniscan project. And she actually knew what we were talking about, coooool.

The Xerox people in the fishbowl had a laptop with video of my robotics team when we went to the championship in Atlanta. That was weird. I didn't even know anyone was videotaping us when we were down there.We also got to see the GM Fuel Cell car outside which was really coool!

And that's about all. Yay The last Monday of work this summer! :)

Day 28: Field Trip # 4

Today was funnnnn. We went to Optimax and got to go in a limo bus like one you take to prom or a wedding. That was a lovely surprise.

Well, I'm not allowed to tell you what we actually saw at Optimax, but it was a very laid back place. Most of the workers were wearing tiedied shirts and were playig music. We got a free pop insulator, sunglasses, and a concave lens!!!!!!!!!!!!! Laura, Erika, Matt, and I were all in the same tour group. Splitting us up was a great idea because we could actually see and hear what the workers were saying.

So after we left, we went to Amiels for subs but we brought them back to RIT. We had another enjoyable lunch all together. We discussed Amish people and ficuses ( which is not the generic term for fake tree). Yeah, the food was good too, especially the cookie.

Then we went to see Dr. Hornak and he asked us to do the T1 measurements on the NMR over in Building 8. And so that's what we did for the rest of the afternoon. I'm not working the rest of the week because I have stuff to do with the fam...

:)

Day 27

I think this is the first day we haven't gone over to our lab in building 8. So the whole morning we worked on the poster and powerpoint and then we showed them to Dr. Hornak. He told us that he hates the RIT logo with the tiger so he deleted it from the poster. He showed us the MIT logo and how much more sophisticated it is. Even though he hates it, I really don't mind it a bit. Do I dare say that I love the tiger logo?
So000000000 anyways, once he was done fiddling with the logo and graphs, we went back to the computer lab and put the tiger logo right back on the poster because we have to have it on there. Sorry Dr. Hornak!

For lunch we met Laura and Alex at Crossroads. Tomorrow we are getting a free lunch somewhere because we are going on another field trip. That's exiting, because I'm tired of doing our presentations.

So after lunch we came back to the computer lab and continued our poster and powerpoint. We emailed the poster to JPow and our abstract to Bob.The end.

:)

Day 26

So the dinner party at Dr. Hornak's house on Friday night was interesting. His two girls are soooo cute and smart :) His wife is a really good cook and we had a delicious Italian style dinner!!!! The picture is what the "antipasto" was: prosciutto and fresh mozzarella. YUM!

So today Dr. Hornak came to Building 8 with us and he looked at the measurements we took last Thursday. Then Nicole and I went to the computer lab and worked on the poster and powerpoint. We realized that we have no idea what graphs or data to put in, but we continued to work. We took a break and had lunch at Java Wallies.

Then we emailed the poster and powerpoint to Dr. Hornak and we walked over to visit him in Building 76. He changed a lot of the stuff we did; however, we didn't mind because we understand it a lot better now and now both presentations are almost done!!!!!! yayayay

Tomorrow we plan on finishing the poster, and possibly the powerpoint as well because we have nothing else to do.

:)

Day 25

Wow, I can't believe I've been here for 25 days!!!!!!! Anyways, this morning instead of our meeting we headed over to building 78 to catch the end of the undergrad poster presentations and continental breakfast. There was a lot of people there and I felt underdressed.
So after that ended, we walked back in the rain to building 8 and a huge bolt of lightning scared all of us. Dr. Hornak emailed us Jenn and Britt's powerpoint so we went to the computer lab to check it out. Nicole then continued working on the poster and I started our powerpoint. .
Then we hustled back over to building 78 to see Jenn and Britt present at 11:00. Good thing there was a map in the hallway or else we would have never found the room!They did really well and it helped me understand "the big picture" of why we researched the stuff we did so far. One of the judges grilled them with a few questions, but they handled it like pros. I hope there aren't too many questions when we present...
So after that we went to lunch at crossroads and I bought a buffalo chicken sub. Deliciouso! Then we went back to the computer lab and continued working on the powerpoint. Right now we I have about 9 slides finished!
Wow, I am soooooo tired right now. Dr. Hornak is having me, Nicole, Jenn , and Britt over to his homestead to celebrate the undergrad's last day at about 4 so we get to leave a little early today. I'll let you know how that goes on Monday.

TGIF :)

Day 24

Today = really busy. The data we collected yesterday contradicted some of the stuff on Jenn and Britt's powerpoint for the symposioum tomorrow, so Dr. Hornak had us do a lot of more tests to see if he can come up with a way to explain what's happening before they present. Thats about all we did all day; therefore, my blog is the smallest it has ever been.

:)

Day 23

Happy hump day :) Well today smelled a lot better than yesterday. We used acetic acid today with the copper, which is a very concentrated vinegar... and that's exactly what it smelled like. Nicole and I both consider salt and vinegar our favorite type of chips in the entire world, so therefore, the acetic acid smelled great and made our mouths water. To bad the vending machine does not carry that variety of chips...


So anyways, we did that kinetic test and sent the results to Dr. Hornak whose reply was via email was 'drats.' He was expecting different results; therefore, he had us do the same test with a powdered solution that dissolved in the copper.



Our morning staff meeting inspired Nicole and I to start our poster. We fooled around with powerpoint and found the RIT and CIS logos on google images. Nicole added the title... and that's how far we got today. Luckily, Jenn and Britt are basically presenting all the stuff we have been working with on Friday, so their powerpoint will be helpful for our presentation and poster. When we get a copy of that, making our version should be fairly easy!!!!!!



The COS end of summer picnic was today and we had free hamburgers, pop, and cookies. I still would like to think of it as the middle of summer, considering all the homework that I have not finished for school yet. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh I will now tell about all of the mandatory (yes, its not optional) homework that I have to do for school, even though it has nothing to do with RIT. Feel free to stop reading at any time:

AP Calc: Read the first chapter in the text book, and do a list of assigned questions from each section. Show all work on good paper to be graded. Expect a test during the first week of school. Now, there are only 43 questions. That won't be hard, right? WRONG. Just about every question has a part a,b,c,d,e, and sometimes even an f and g. Also, some of the parts have parts (ie part c has parts i,ii,iii,iv,v) Luckily, I have already finished most of this homework with one of my best friends. It only took us from 11 am to 8 pm.

AP Gov: Read The Way to Win: Taking the White House in 2008. Write two assigned essays after you have read the 412 page book. Then, read chapter 1 in the text book and 'craft' responses to 12 questions. Now this is the assignment that I have been procrastinating for. Basically, the book is about the secrets to winning the 2008 election, and focuses on what Hillary can do to win the race. There are only two problems with this: 1) I don't plan or ever plan on running in a presidential election 2) Hillary is out of the race; therefore, half of the book is redundant. Ohhhh yeah, and the book is so new, it cost me 30$ on amazon and there are no sparknotes. I personally like to call it "The Way to Ruin Summer." Enough said.

English: Read Frankenstein, Dr. Jekyll and Mr Hyde, and A Room with a View. Then write three assigned essays. A test will be given on the FIRST day of school. Yep, what a way to put a damper on the excitement of a fresh new school year. Seriously, being tested on the first day of school totally ruins everything... and I've had to endure this pain since freshman year. Please note that this is NOT an AP class... you don't even what to know what the girls who are taking AP Lit have to do. So anyways, I only have one more essay to go for this subject; but then again, I will be studying my butt off on September 2.

Now luckily, my Chem, Physics, and Theology teachers aren't into giving homework over vacation. That is because they know the definition of vacation.

So, anyways that wayyyyy off topic. But I needed to vent. If you are still reading, I am terribly sorry for boring you...

:)

Day 22

Well today wasn't especially exciting or boring. But it was smelly. Dr. Hornak asked Nicole and I to do another time series on the UV-Vis spectrometer with copper and one drop of diethylamine. Now the compound diethylamine does not sound or look threatening in any way, shape, or form; however, once you crack the top off the vial, 'your nostrils begin to burn', as Nicole put it. Personally, I think is smells like really, really mad skunk that just sprayed everywhere. If we brought a vial of this stuff to our morning meeting, all of the interns would be cleared out of the reading room in 30 seconds flat, I guarantee. So the point of this story is that diethylamine smells really bad.

So onto what we actually did today. When Nicole and I mixed the copper and diethylamine in the cuvett the solution turned blue; however after an hour of doing the test brown particular matter had precipitated to the bottom of the cuevett. No more blue to be found. As a result our absorbance data was weird, but Dr. Hornak said it was fine. So then we moved on to a more diluted concentration to see what happened... nothing exciting, but overall normal. So we spent the rest of the day finding the peaks in the data and making the absorbance vs time graphs. Yep, how exciting!!!!

:) Sorry no pic todayyyy

Day 21:Field Trip #3

Sooooo today we went to ITT for our 3rd field trip. When we got there, we were forced to give up our camera-phones and prove our citizenship to the USA because they do some secret stuff there...

A guy that knew Dr. Easton gave us a powerpoint about the work they do with taking pictures from space and how the mirrors they make at ITT are better than anyone elses. He showed us lots of pictures of early attempts (cameras strapped onto homing pigeons ha ha) of taking aerial pictures and the more modern pics that come from satellites orbiting the earth.(Hubble) So from what I understand, ITT makes the cameras and mirrors that fly in space, but they do not manufacture the actual satellites. Unfortunately, the 47 slides never told us what ITT stood for so I googled it: International Telephone and Telegraph, which really has nothing to do with ITT's current work. But the slide show was actually very interesting... there are soooooooooooooo many factors that go into making a good image of the earth.

So after the powerpoint, we put on some safety goggles and we given a tour of the plant where they start the process of making the mirrors "optically perfect." There was this machine that used thousands of pounds of water pressure to cut out honeycomb shapes into glass to support the mirrors. There were holes in the concrete floor from mishaps with this machine...

We then moved onto the part of our tour where we got to wear white lab coats, gloves, hairnets, and booties. That was fun, especially when some random guy called Basma Casper the Friendly Ghost because her coat was so big on her. Ohhh yes, the one and only rule in this room was don't touch anything!But anyways, once we were inside the room, the guy showed us a plastic model of the mirror and then we got to see the actual mirror. The piece we saw was one of 18 that is used to make one big mirror.

So at about 12:30 we left ITT and got subs at Dibellas which was crazy crowded! We brought out food back to RIT and all of the interns had a great bonding experience/lunchtime together. Then of course, we had to get to work. So Nicole and I went to Dr. Hornak's office and watched him fix some graphs on Jenn and Britt's powerpoint for Friday. Then we went over to Building 8 to do another time series test for about 45 minutes with Gadodiamide and a higher concentration of Copper. We'll be doing more tests like this tomorrow... yay.

:)

Day 19: Field Trip #2

So the psychophysics thing was actually really annoying yesterday. Jonathan had 15 different sets of pictures, and in each set there were 9 of the same pic, just different quality. My job was to put the sets in order of best quality to worst quality, according to my own opinion. He made me wear these cloth gloves so I wouldn't get fingerprints on the pictures; however, that made it very difficult to grab separate and pic up the pics. After i finished that, it was time for part II. He had 7 books with pictures in it, except each book had a different printing quality. I had to rank the books from 1-5, 1 being unsatisfied and 5 being very satisfied. Basically, all of the pics and books looked the same to me, so I had a difficult time putting them in order and ranking them. But I guess that was the point of the experiment.

So onto today. We went to U of R to visit the interns we showed our lab yesterday. There labs are actually in the part that I though was the hospital, but I guess it makes sense for them to be over there since they are doing Bioengineering. While we waited for someone to come get us, there were poster in the atrium and we got free doughnuts and chapstick. Then their boss brought us to a little conference room and told us a little about the labs the high schoolers work in. His name is Dr. David Pinto, which is funny because I have an Uncle David Pinto that is a nurse at Strong Hospital. Creepy.

After the introduction, we went to a lab that measures head movements. A person sits in a moving chair with sensors on his head and the computer models the movements. Cool.
Then we went to Dr. Pintos lab that works on epilepsy using rat brains. They keep the brains alive in an artificial brain juice with an oxygen bubbler and analyze the brain slices with a fancy microscope and camera.

Then we went onto the weirdest lab of all. They had all types of mice there, even naked mice. (see pic) This lab was studying how sewing shut a mouse's eye makes a certain chemical (?) more abundant in the brain. I really didn't understand that part. Or maybe I don't remember.

But anyways, to make a long story short, they showed us how to harvest a brain from a mouse. Basically, the little fur ball is given something to tranquilize it. Once it doesn't respond to being pinched on the tail, it is taped onto a board and they cut right into its ribcage. Then, the girl brought it over to the sink and shot two syringes full of some chemical into the beating heart to get all the blood out of the body. Wow... but there's more. The head is guillotined off and the brain (which is the size of a bean) is taken out of the head.

Yeah... that was gross, but it's all in the name of science and making discoveries that will benefit the human species one day . This little demonstration reminded me that I had a pet mouse once. I got her for Christmas and named her Annabell after one of my favorite Christmas movies in which a talking cow(Anabell) gives up her voice to a mute boy and is rewarded by Santa by becoming a reindeer. Or something like that. Anyways, it was a cute Christmas movie and I named my pet mouse after that kind cow.

So after we saw the mouse lab, we went to some other labs that have no significant stories attached. At 12 we had pizza and pop. And then we went home. Home as in RIT.


Nicole and I found Dr. Hornak and we gathered some data for him this afternoon. Then we blogged. Yep: that's it. :)

PS I'm not working tomorrow because I have family plans... see you Monday!

Day 18

The U of R high school interns came to RIT today to see all of the stuff we're doing in the Center for Imaging Science. All but one of them goes to Wilson Magnet, which is also the home of FIRST Robotics team 191 X Cats. I recognized a few of them from the team which is also sponsored by Xerox. While we waited for them to stop by our lab, we retested the first hour of the time series data on the NMR that got messed up a few days ago. So around 11:30, Joe and Bob brought them to our lab and we told them all about the research we are doing with the the contrast agent Omniscan. Since we were the last group they saw, we tried to keep it to the point so we could all go back to Building 76 for free pizza and pop.

After that, Nicole and I decided to go to the lunch seminar for more free pizza. There, we sat with Matt and Erika who were also there for more free food. The two people who did the talks are from the Biology Department and are studying a virus that could possibly replace chemotherapy and radiation for cancer treatments. Overall, this was the boring-est seminar so far. But Erika spotted a guy in the audience that looked just like Harry Potter, which amused us all for a while...

So I have to go to the "pychophysics" experiment in the Color Lab at 4:00 so I probably won't write about it until tomorrow just because I'm lazy...

And I'm glad we we get to visit UofR and see their labs!!!!!!!!! I love field trips!!!!! :)

Day 17

Instead of our morning meeting, we toured the color science building today. I'm glad we did because I have to find my way there tomorrow to be a guinea pig in a 'psychophysics' experiment.

So after a half hour of being shown the labs over there, we headed back to Building 76 to see Dr. Hornak.

He was really excited about the data we collected yesterday ( the once-a-minute-for-an-hour- data) because it showed that the mixture of 6mM Copper, .9 mM Gadodiamide (Omniscan the MRI contrast agent) and 18 megaohm water steadily changed absorbance levels for about the first hour. So obviously there is some chemistry changing in the solution that nobody (nobody meaning Dr. Hornak, Nicole, Britt, Jenn, and I) knew about. So Dr. Hornak was pleasantly surprised that it actually did change. So to continue, we did the same experiment again today except for two changes: we took measurements once-a-minute-for-TWO-hours ; and we used the quartz cuevettes(see pic) instead of the disopsable polystyrene cuvetts we have been using all along. Now the quartz cuvettes look just like the plastic ones except they allow for much more accurate results... I have been told they cost about 200$ each. And they come in a cute little box.

So that's about all that happened today... :)

Day 16

So today was a weird day. I knew that we were going to be doing a kinetics study on the NMR with a Copper, Gadodiamide, and H2O solution. Basically, we are seeing how the solution changes with time. However, when we got to building #8, I was expecting the solutions to be laid out in the NMR room; but they weren't. So, Dr. Hornak came to the rescue and helped us get started.

For the first hour, we had to measure the solution as many times as possible. About every 5 minutes, we took another reading. So while Nicole was over in Building 70, participating in an experiment, I ran the NMR.

When she came back, it was my turn to go over there. I kinda went into the wrong building at first because there are two buildings over there with semi-circle entrances, but I eventually got to the right sopt. The point of the experiment was to track my eye as I searched for lesions that looked like tiny circles in images of a brain. It took about 20 minutes and she asked me to come back at the end of the summer for a similar test.

So then we went to lunch at Java Wally's and Laura attempted to teach Nicole and I how to play Euchre. ( ha ha) Unfortunately, we ran out of time to master that card game But we had to be back in the lab by 1:00 because we have to measure the sample on-top of the hour, every hour. That's annoying.

We also are doing the same kind of kinetics study with the Copper, Gadodiamide, and water on the diode array to see if we get similar results. Except for the first hour, we are doing it EVERY MINUTE... yeah that's just buckets of funnnnnn! So basically we will have 60 data points from the first hour and then a few more for the rest of the day.

So the rest of the day went like this: every hour we, measured the solution in the NMR. Then we tried to keep ourselves busy... and that's all.

:)

Day 15

All I can say if TGIF. TGIF. This will be a short blog because I am tired and all I want to do right now is sleep. Soooooo....This was a slow week but today in particular went fast. The sugar high from the Friday morning doughnuts made the morning especially great. Nicole and I filled 11 of the cleaned nanotubes with a Copper and Omniscan solution by 10:00 and then we went up to the computer lab. Dr. Hornak came and showed us what he wanted us to measure on the diode array. When we finished that, it was time for lunch. I meet Dr. Hornak, Britt, and Jenn over in Building 76 for our weekly 1:00 meeting. We shared our data and the meeting lasted 2 hours. Therefore, I did not get to start my Copper T1's until 3:20 when I originally signed up to start at 2:00. So right now that's what I'm doing... T1's. I have about 5 minutes during every sample where I can't do anything but wait so I am writing this very blog right now. Ohhhhh yeah... I forgot to swipe back in from lunch so I also have to give Mr. Pow a shout out on his email.
Yay for weekends! :)

Day 14

Today was a really slowwwwwwww day. Dr. Hornak told us to find the "Lambda Maximum" for all of the samples we have been doing the past 3 weeks( which is basically where the graph reaches its peak) ... it would have been easier to have done this when we were initially doing these samples. So anyways, we were able to give him a few of the Lambda Maxes, but eventually had to go back and scan the Nickle, Cobalt, and Copper samples after lunch.



By the way, Nicole and I met Laura and Ann( the vegan) at Java Wally's for lunch today. Then we were joined by other pre-freshmen: a girl from Texas, a girl who is from around here, Sam aka "Jersey", and a kid with a broken arm. That was a fun place to eat lunch.



So then, as I said, after lunch we re-scanned some of the samples on the diode array. Then we went back to Building 76 to clean the HUGE pile of NMR tubes.I washed them for 30 minutes while Nicole wrote her blog and then vise versa.

We then continued the rest of our day in Building 8 doing more T1 measurements for Jenn. I really like doing T1's for some reason. I makes me feel really scientific :)

Day 13

This morning Nicole and I went to the basement in Building 76 to clean the NMR tubes for Jenn. However, there was no more 18 mega-ohm water so we had to take trek over to Building 8 to fill up the big water container. When we got back, we cleaned about 10 tubes and then we ran out of Hydrochloric Acid.... so Dr. Hornak walked back over to Building 8 with us to get some from the stock room. Since it was about 11 at this time, we decided to stay over in Building 8 since we had NMR time at 11:20.


So this was our first time measuring samples in the NMR without anyone to help us... and luckily everything went smoothly. We decided to each do half, so I did the first 5. By the time we finished the samples, it was time for the lunch talks and free pizza. The Ultrasound lab was doing their presentation today and they used 5 screens to do it... that was a little confusing... a regular PowerPoint would have been just as good.

Then after that, we cleaned the rest of the NMR tubes. At 3:40 we went back to Building 8 because we had more NMR time. This time, Nicole started to do her 5 samples but ran into some problems and therefore didn't finish. So tomorrow, we will wrap that and start a new round of samples :)

Day 12: Field Trip #1

This morning we went on our first field trip to Bausch and Lomb. The bus driver went a roundabout way so it took us a half and hour to get there. Soooooooo the first thing we did is got all dressed up to go onto the line where they make contacts:a disposable white lab coat, a hair net, safety glasses, and ear plugs were required the articles of clothing. When we went in, we got to see the automated process of making the contacts. It was surprising that the huge robotic arms could handle the delicate contacts. Even the inspection of the contacts was fully automated.( however, our tour guide did say that contacts are still manually inspected by "the women." He then changed the subject of the sentence to "people." He had to be politically correct, of course...)


So from the line, we went to some other labs and got to see some cameras and lights that are used to read bar codes and such. Alex and AJ"s eyes were the guinea pigs for two of the instruments. The machines shined light into their eyes and made a topographic map of the shape of their corneas.

So then we left Bausch and Lomb and headed back to Henrietta. We went to Amiel's which is supposedly "Rochester's First Sub Shoppe." My sub was really good and the cookie was delicious. Then, of course, back to RIT we went.

We met Jenn at the NMR so she could teach both of us how to do T1 measurements. There is a list of commands and buttons that have to be entered into the computer in order to get accurate data. So after about 2 hours (each trial takes approximately 12 minutes) Nicole and I both had it down pretty well. We signed up for NMR time tomorrow, so Nicole and I will run the NMR for the first times by ourselves!!! Yay! :)

Day 11

So today everyone is here...Dr. Hornak came back from his conference at MIT and Nicole is back from her vacation :) This morning, we diluted the Iron samples that I worked with on Thursday and we took the measurements again on the diode array. In the process, I showed Nicole how to clean the volumetric flasks with the 18 mega-ohm water and measure the samples with the disposable glass pipettes. So after we finished measuring, we headed up to the computer lab to make the excel scatter plot.

We had lunch with Laura at Crossroads again. After we finished eating, we went back to Building 76 to show Dr. Hornak our graph. We were planning to trek back to Building #8; however, a crazy rain storm stopped us. Soooooo, Dr. Hornak whipped out the poster he presented at MIT last week and he explained his project. It involved putting different sizes of sands with the pure 18 mega-ohm water in the NMR to characterize the different types of sand. Basically, he wants to build a portable NMR that can take measurements and create images of the ground. Steve will be working on this project this summer.

So when the rain let up, we went to Building 8. Dr. Hornak showed us this powerful microscope that has a color camera attached so you can save images on the computer. First, we looked at sand. The computer can actually measure the diameter of the individual sand particles. Then we tried a 1$ and a 10$ bill. Unlike a Xerox copy, the printing on the bills was embedded into the fiber, which I suppose would make it hard to illegally reproduce. After that, Nicole and I each donated a single strand of hair and we looked at that. (See pic) Though we aren't sure, we think my hair is the skinnier and lighter one and Nicole's is the wider darker strand. Though it is hard to see it in the pic, human hair has "growth bands" similar to trees. Which I guess makes sense...Dr. Hornak said it bands could be studied to see a person's diet or stress levels. Pretty cool.

So with that, we ended our day :)

Day 9

Today in our morning meeting Bob gave us an anagram to solve that was someway related to Imaging Science. What he gave us: isotara. What is is unscrambled: astoria. Charles Carlson was the inventor of xerography and in 1938 he produced the first successful copy which read the date and location: "10-22-38 Astoria." So the word Astoria was the first word copied on paper and it was also where Carlson lived. (Astoria, Queens, NY)

So onto what I did today. I used the diode array to scan samples of Iron and I made a the graphs on Excel. This took me about all morning because I had to wait for someone to be at the stock room so I could get more cuvettes. I ate lunch at Crossroads with the VP group and Laura.

After that, Jen showed me how to set up an Excel spreadsheet to keep our data organized and then she showed me the mulit-step process of cleaning NMR tubes ( see pic) with acid and pure water. Then we went back over to Building #8 and mixed up some calcium samples. And that is basically all for the day. Once again, Jenn is really teaching me a lot about chemistry and NMR.

I'm missing work tomorrow for family stuff so this is technically my Friday!!!!

:)

Day 8

So today was a really good day and I learned a lot. Before Jenn came in, I plotted the points that we got from the NMR spectrometer on Excel. Then I continued reading the online book.

When Jenn got here, I showed her my graph and it was almost perfect... i just needed to slightly change the scale on the y-axis from seconds to milliseconds.

The undergrad talks were a little boring today...but the pizza was great :)

After lunch, Jenn showed me how to clean the glasses with the "nanopure" water and I also got to measure out the material to make the stock for the NMR. Though it doesn't seem like I did much, I learned sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo much today. :)

Day 7

This morning we took a quick tour in the Remote Sensing lab and then I headed over to Building #8. I met Steve in the lab and I showed him how to work the diode-array. He caught on pretty quickly, and after he practiced scanning some samples. After a while, we both got kinda bored. Nonetheless, we continued scanning our samples until lunch.

Just like the day before, and the day before, and the day before... we ate at Crossroads. There, I got to meet some more of the honors freshmen that are working in various labs this summer.

( And just for the record, I'm really excited for the free pizza tomorrow :) ) So after lunch, I read some more of The Basics of MRI. As it keeps going on, it's getting a little more complicated and it's harder to stay focused reading... but I know that everything I'm learning from it is helpful.

I also got to meet Sidney today :) (She's the undergrad that talked at last Wednesday's seminar) She explained to us more about her project and showed us the Luminescence Spectrometer that she does most of her work on.

Jenn also came in a little later and I got to attempt to work the NMR for the first time by myself. I should have it down pat in a day or two!!!!

So now all I'm doing is writing this post that you are reading at this very moment, and then I'm goin' home :)

Day 6

This week I'm all alone :( Dr. Hornak is at a conference and Nicole is on vacation with her family. Luckily, Jenn and Brittany will be around this week so I can help them. Also, there is an Honors freshman that is joining the MRI lab today too.

So anyways, I printed out the graphs Nicole and I finished on Friday afternoon this morning. After I did that, I decided to start reading Dr. Hornak's online book The Basics of MRI. By lunchtime, I had finished the first 6 chapters. So far, it is helping me understand the math and physics behind MRI.

So after having lunch with Laura (she's back from Europe...YAY!), I went back to Building #8. Brittany was there and she showed me how to measure and make the stock and samples of Iron solution for the NMR. After I watched her do one sample in the NMR, I came up to the computer lab to write my blog.

I also got to meet Steve today. He's the honors freshman that will be working in the MRI lab. Tomorrow I will finally get to spread my weeks-worth of knowledge with the world by showing him how to use the diode-array spectrometer. YAY!!! So thats about all for today :)

Day 5

Yippee, new homework. On one of the bulletin boards, there are about 10 different jobs that are available and I have to tell you what one I would choose if I had all of the qualifications. It took me a while to decide because I was being fickle, but eventually I chose a Color Scientist/Engineer that would work somewhere in California. I actually didn't even know there was such a thing as color science until this Monday and that is why I chose it. It sounds pretty fascinating...plus, I am exploring all of my engineering options for the future as well. So with that aside...

Our staff meeting was extra amazing today because Bob bought us donuts. And not just any donuts, Wegmans donuts! (my favorite) Thanks Bob :)

This morning I worked on samples of Iron with the diode array spectrometer. The Iron samples have been causing Brittany some problems because some of the higher concentrations are conglomerating, so it will be interesting to see the results when I graph it. Other than that, Nicole and I spent the morning reprinting the graphs we did this week for our 2:30 meeting and writing our blogs. We had lunch and continued surfing the net until our meeting... and that's about all for my first week of work!

TGIF!!!!!! :)

Day 4

So after our staff meeting this morning (I'll talk about that in a bit) Nicole and I showed Dr. Hornak the graphs we made yesterday afternoon. I knew something was wrong on mine because the data points were spread all over the scatter plot and didn't form a noticeable trend. So we went to Building #8, hoping that there was something wrong with the spectrometer that I used yesterday that would be easy to fix.

When we got there, Dr. H got Tom Allston, the equipment guy, to come inspect my spectrometer. Basically one of the "cells" that holds the clear cuvettes was messing up the data for some reason. After about and hour, Tom was done fiddling with the instrument and I got to test the data again. Nicole also tested the same samples on her spectrometer so we could compare the results.

Then we got to learn how to use the brand-spanking new "Lambda 25" spectrometer in the connecting lab. But just as Tom finished working all of the kinks out of this too, it was time for lunch. Just like yesterday, and the day before, and the day before, we went to Crossroads; however, this time Nicole and I both brought our lunch from home today. We were joined by Alex of Remote Sensing. He shared his salt and vinegar Pringles and told us all about the work he was going to be doing with ice this summer.

After our lunch break, we went back to Building #8 to use the new spectrometer. It takes longer than the older ones because apparently it is more accurate and measures the absorbance differently. We finished up with that and then went to the computer lab to make all our data into graphs. Today, all of the graphs pretty much matched each other which is a good sign. We took the graphs to Dr. Hornak and he showed us how to calculate the uncertainty of our data on Excel. Then we went back to Building #8 to do some tests on blank cuvettes ... and now I'm writing my blog.

So back to our meeting this morning. We met up in a room on the third floor with all the light turned off. When we were all there, Bob shut the door and let our eyes "adjust" for a few minutes. Then he made us try to navigate our way around the room back to our seats. Of course, we were all bumping into each other because we couldn't see very well at all. Then, with one eye covered and closed, we took a loop around the third floor and then back to the dark room. When the door was closed, we were allowed to open the eye we had covered during our little parade around the hall. This time, I could see the scattered chairs, tables, and everyone around me much better from the eye that was covered. Now it is my homework to tell you why:

But before I do, I would like to mention this is just like the Pirate Special Episode on Mythbusters. They were testing to see if pirates' eye patches could have also served as nightvision aids. If you haven't seen this one, you should. It's a pretty amusing episode. :) It's basically what we did this morning, except we covered our eye with our hand instead of an eye patch. And we weren't dressed up like pirates.

Sooooooo....There is a pair of chemicals in the eye called rhodopsin and iodopsin that allow you to see in the dark. When the eye is exposed to light, this pair breaks down. So when we tried to walk around the room for first time, we had difficulty because we did not have enough of these chemicals in the eye yet. But after our walk with around the third floor, we could see much better with the eye that was covered because the rhodopsin and iodopsin had time to build up. So there you have it...I have to credit AJ for helpfully explaining this to me.

Tomorrow is Friday!!!! :)

Day 3

Right after our meeting this morning, Nicole and I went to Dr. Hornak's office to show him the graph we made yesterday. He showed us how to tweak it so it showed the data better and so it was set up more like a graph you would find in a scientific article.Then we walked over to building #8 to get started on our work.



Nicole and I got to work on separate spectrometers today that are almost identical. I got to scan pre-prepared samples of Omniscan with various concentrations of Nickle while Nicole scanned another combination of substances. Dr. Hornak said no one at RIT has used the spectrometer to scan this Nickle-Omniscan combination before, so I guess I am the first one to investigate this.

It took me about an hour to do all of the Nickle samples because there were 20 separate ones that I had to scan. I printed out the data and then moved on to different concentrated samples of Gadiodiamide. This took me less time because there were less samples and I had fallen into a rhythm after all the practice.

By 11:30 we were both done with the spectrometers so we went up to the computer lab to start making our Excel graphs. I hate typing numbers... it is soooooooo easy to mess up the whole graph by punching in one number wrong.

So then an hour or more went by and it was time for the science talks in the auditorium. It was nice that it was in Building #8 so we didn't have to walk outside. The pizza was delicious :) I didn't know what the first guy was presenting because it was some heavy chemistry... so I was surprised to find that the second speaker was using some of the same instruments that I will be working in this summer and her graphs were just like the one we made yesterday from the spectrometer. Three days ago I would have had no idea what she was talking about.

So after that, we started looking for Dr. Hornak. He was in his office in the Imaging building but he was talking on the phone so we didn't disturb him. Then we had to get Joe to open the computer lab for us because our ID cards still don't allow us to do so. We finished up our graphs and then started writing our blogs. So pretty much I'm all set for today...

Day 2

So today started off the same as yesterday, except I arrived a little earlier so I wouldn't be late. After our staff meeting, we got a great surprise: free imaging science t-shirts!!!! I got a blue one that says "we see everything" on the front. I would be the happiest girl alive if we got something free everyday :)

After receiving our awesome shirts, Nicole and I went to Dr. Hornak's office to see what we were going to be doing today. He gave us a notepad so we can begin to collect notes and data and then we made our long journey to Building #8. When we got there, he showed us the equipment we would be learning about today: the optical spectrometer. Basically it is a "light separator" that separates light into different wavelengths. When a material or solution is placed in the machine. it makes a graph on the computer showing how much light the solution/material absorbs at different wavelengths. So to begin, we practiced with Dr. Hornak's glasses, my glasses, a cheap-o pair of sunglasses, and a polarized pair of sunglasses. Surprisingly, the polarized sunglasses absorbed just about the same amount of light as Dr. H's regular glasses.

So after about and hour and a half of measuring different materials in the lab (like plastic glove's, a microscope slide, a CD cover, Nicole's hand, etc.) we moved on to solutions. We had about 11 bottles that each contained a constant amount of Omniscan (a Gadolinium based contrast agent) and differing amounts of Copper. Using a cuvette ( which is a small rectangular shaped bottle) we put the different solutions in the spectrometer. We printed out the graph and Dr. Hornak asked us to plot the points in Excel.

But since it was just about 12, we went to lunch at Crossroads. I brought my lunch today because I'd rather spend my money on something else. When we were done eating, we went to the bookstore to see how much the lanyards are. Since Nicole and I both have 4 keys to get into labs now, we need something to keep track of them all. Neither of us had enough money to buy one, so we'll probably get one later this week.


After that, we walked all the way back to the Imaging Building to punch back in. Since we didn't feel like walking all the way back to Building #8, we decided to use the computer there to make our Excel graph. I think it took us longer to type in all the data numbers than it did to make the actual graph. As the graph showed, as the concentration of Copper increased, the more light was absorbed. The first 3/4 of the graph had a roughly constant slope; however, there was a point at which the slope increased significantly. Maybe tomorrow we can begin to figure out why the graph changes its slope at this certain point.

So on our way back to Building #8, we ran into Jen. She told us that she and Brittany would be in the lab doing some tests, and since Dr. Hornak was nowhere to be found, we decided to go see what they were up to.

We got to watch Jen put a test tube of some solution (I can't remember what it was) in the NMR machine. Like the optical spectrometer, the NMR is hooked up to a computer that graphs data, except this machine is much bigger and much more expensive...300,000$! She showed us the way to tune the NMR, which is a very important part of the process. If it is not tuned correctly, the data will be inaccurate. Then we waited 4 minutes for the NMR to "do its thing." I don't really know what it does to the sample yet, but hopefully I will soon. Jen did a few samples before she got the one she wanted... and then we were basically done for the day.

Day 1

Today, at promptly 8:45 am, I began my summer adventure at RIT. For seven weeks, I will be working with Dr. Hornak and exploring the world of MRI. Specifically, we will be looking at certain contrast agents that are injected into the human body during MRI scans. From what I understand so far, we will be analyzing how these agents react when in contact with various metals that are in the human body. (More in this to come later...)

To start off our day, we learned how to "punch in" to keep track of the hours we work. Then Joe Pow and Bob Callens gave us a PowerPoint presentation about Imaging Science stuff. I was happy to find that I actually knew some of the info all because of the photography class I took this year. (now I'm glad my guidance counselor forced me to take it!)

So then we headed off to the Red Barn for some team building activities. We did the classic "introduce your partner to the group" game and then got to play Killer all together. Then, to practice our teamwork, we were split up into equal groups and had to race the clock to organize a deck of cards, build the tallest PVC structure to hold a rubber ring, and to balance twelve nails on a block. Unfortunately, we were not granted the opportunity to use the huge rock climbing wall
:( Mabey another day.

So after two hours at the Red Barn, we got to enjoy a free lunch at Crossroads. Then we got a full tour of the RIT campus, the dorms and academic side included.Lets just say we walked and walked and walked. When we returned to the CIS building, (and we had to take the long way because of all of the construction going on behind our building), Joe and Bob show us all of the labs that all of the interns will be working at. We're all going to be spread out, so hopefully I'll be able to catch up with everyone throughout the summer.

After the tour, Nicole and I went to meet with Dr. Hornak. He gave us our very own keys to the MRI lab in the CIS building.(mine didn't work so I got a new one...I'll let you know if it works tomorrow) Then we went over to Building #8 where all of the MRI equipment is and all the chemistry labs are. There, we got to meet the Brittany and Jen, the two students we will be spending most of the summer with.

So lets say that I am a bit apprehensive about working in the MRI lab because I haven't taken chemistry yet... AHHHHH...... It's not that I didn't want to....it's just that my school (Nazareth Academy) is very small and couldn't fit chem into my schedule this year. (but don't worry, I'm taking it senior year finally) So needless to say, I will have to learn a lot about basics of chemistry along with the basics of MRI. I'm pretty sure I'll be able to catch on quickly, but cross your fingers!!!