It occurred to me this afternoon that I can independently run all but one instrument in the TA lab. I can't troubleshoot very well, I don't know all of the procedures or even the "no-no's", but I can run everything. Today I ran the rheometer by myself. Had I not been a complete ninny, I would have gotten it right the first time. I ended up misreading some data, concluding that something went awry, and started over two times before I got it right.
Work is going much better now. I have quite a few tests left to run and re-run, and my paper is due before I can so much as blink my eyes. That, and I'm going camping at Sonshine Music Fest next week. This means I need to make up another 11 hours, so I'm going to have a great time with that. I should be able to get in early tomorrow and get at least an extra hour of work. I have to chip away at the huge burden because I commute. I believe I'll hope to get a job in the same city in which I live after college. That would be nice...
When I ran a TGA on a 40% sample this afternoon, the sample performed quite peculiarly. Normally when I ramp this stuff from RT to 500C at 25C/min, I get a vulcanized puddle of carbon in the platinum pan. This particular sample more closely resembled...a volcano...complete with the hole in the top. The data looks great, so I'm not worried about it, but it was odd to look at. I should have grabbed a camera and taken a photo.
Tomorrow marks the end of *gasp* 7 weeks! I can't believe how time is flying. How will I ever write/publish a paper?? Oy! Tis late, and early work will be a bummer if I don't get some sleep.
Thursday, July 5, 2007
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
All is not well
Right now my biggest problem in the lab is loneliness.
It's tough to come in as an inexperienced undergraduate from another university. It's tougher because I'm also well over 5 years younger than all but one researcher in my lab (and he's a 5th year senior from ISU). I'm tired of feeling like a pesky younger sister all the time. If I may whine a bit more, I could really use someone to talk to at work.
Reflection: I've learned something about myself. I would hate a job that didn't include team dynamics, even though I've always hated group projects in school. I need to work with people and not by myself.
In other news, I had a work-related accident today. I was steering the 160 L LN2 tank on the dolly for the first time ever and the bottom end stuck out farther than I realized. I put cat-whisker like wrinkles in some sliding safety glass doors on a ground-level display case in the chem store. I fessed up immediately and asked how I would go about replacing them. And blinked back a lot of tears (though how successfully, I don't know). I will not have to pay anything.
Reflection: accidents stink - I'm still feeling upset about this one. However, I am proud that I tried to do the right thing to correct it. (Don't get too excited, though, because a group of people saw me do it...if I had wanted to hide, I couldn't have). I wasn't worth a lot afterwards...I blinked back tears all day. :(
It's tough to come in as an inexperienced undergraduate from another university. It's tougher because I'm also well over 5 years younger than all but one researcher in my lab (and he's a 5th year senior from ISU). I'm tired of feeling like a pesky younger sister all the time. If I may whine a bit more, I could really use someone to talk to at work.
Reflection: I've learned something about myself. I would hate a job that didn't include team dynamics, even though I've always hated group projects in school. I need to work with people and not by myself.
In other news, I had a work-related accident today. I was steering the 160 L LN2 tank on the dolly for the first time ever and the bottom end stuck out farther than I realized. I put cat-whisker like wrinkles in some sliding safety glass doors on a ground-level display case in the chem store. I fessed up immediately and asked how I would go about replacing them. And blinked back a lot of tears (though how successfully, I don't know). I will not have to pay anything.
Reflection: accidents stink - I'm still feeling upset about this one. However, I am proud that I tried to do the right thing to correct it. (Don't get too excited, though, because a group of people saw me do it...if I had wanted to hide, I couldn't have). I wasn't worth a lot afterwards...I blinked back tears all day. :(
Friday, June 1, 2007
Two weeks down and...
This week was much improved over last. The worst part of being employed in a lab that I am still pretty unfamiliar with is not knowing enough to keep myself busy. There is no daily "to-do" list for me - if I'm lucky I hear from my PI in a day. I tried all morning today to snag him, but it wasn't until about 11:30 that we finally connected. He was encouraged by the results from yesterday's run of Wednesday's sample, though they aren't cookie-cutter good. I ran the same test over again starting at an even lower temp (-120oC), and it was identical to yesterday's run. This is superb, because it means the two portions of the same sample are basically the same. Consistent results are good.
These results, however strange and consistent, open the door for further testing. We may try to add a third component to figure out how to eliminate the strange results, or I may have to perform a test that to me sounds iffy (checking for a "cloud point"). I really enjoy the set-it-up-and-walk-away feature of the thermal analysis equipment; the cloud point test is a matter of judgment alone.
I'm also going to need to synthesize some more cross-linker. I want to, because I don't want Xia to be upset at me for using up all of his, but I'm afraid my skillz won't be honed enough to try. I'd also like to feel like I can be a little less worried about every last drop of cross-linker. Wishful thinking, I believe.
Reflection: it's been two weeks and I still despise trying to come up with things to do without guidance.
These results, however strange and consistent, open the door for further testing. We may try to add a third component to figure out how to eliminate the strange results, or I may have to perform a test that to me sounds iffy (checking for a "cloud point"). I really enjoy the set-it-up-and-walk-away feature of the thermal analysis equipment; the cloud point test is a matter of judgment alone.
I'm also going to need to synthesize some more cross-linker. I want to, because I don't want Xia to be upset at me for using up all of his, but I'm afraid my skillz won't be honed enough to try. I'd also like to feel like I can be a little less worried about every last drop of cross-linker. Wishful thinking, I believe.
Reflection: it's been two weeks and I still despise trying to come up with things to do without guidance.
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Hmmm...
My first sample didn't work so well. Either I didn't mix the cross-linker in well enough with the dilulin/catalyst blend, or it phase-separated in the curing process. Today felt more productive than Friday, so I'm not entirely upset with my work, but I'm afraid my results are more the end-product of inexperience than chemical craziness. Round two tomorrow. I hope it goes better.
In other news, collecting thermal analysis lab quotes is going to be trickier than I thought. I emailed one lab earlier today and got a curt response along the lines of "idiot, you don't ask the competition what they charge!" I don't know how else to handle it, other than to play these people and make them believe I'm a prospective customer. :( I ought to send out my samples for testing just so I won't screw them up. Now there's a thought!
Reflection: today was more productive, but that last email makes me a little sad. Oh, and a photographer is coming in on Thursday. My 14 week stint gets me a place in the group photo (I think)! So much going on right now. *sigh*
In other news, collecting thermal analysis lab quotes is going to be trickier than I thought. I emailed one lab earlier today and got a curt response along the lines of "idiot, you don't ask the competition what they charge!" I don't know how else to handle it, other than to play these people and make them believe I'm a prospective customer. :( I ought to send out my samples for testing just so I won't screw them up. Now there's a thought!
Reflection: today was more productive, but that last email makes me a little sad. Oh, and a photographer is coming in on Thursday. My 14 week stint gets me a place in the group photo (I think)! So much going on right now. *sigh*
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Break-through!
I had very little to do today at work because the oven I needed in order to cure a sample was otherwise occupied with a grad student's sample. In a late afternoon attempt at productivity, I observed Wonje as he attached and calibrated a clamp onto the DMA for tension testing. He had to call in Xia because it wasn't working (Xia is better at it, I guess). It was all business for a long time, and then Wonje (Korean) asked me (in his understandable, yet broken English) where in town I live. I explained how I'm from out of town, and he replied he'd heard of it. Wonje thought for a moment and then his face lit up. "Do you know Ankeny?" he asked. "Yeah, do you go there often?" I replied. With big eyes and a grin, he exclaimed "Super Wal-Mart!" My heart started smiling right then. I've heard this guy make different pitched grunts, hums, and whines when some instrument is acting up, I saw him run-skipping down the hall from the lab, and then this. I hope this would be the initiator (polymer-talk) for further conversations. Xia, also with Wonje on the Super Wal-Mart, asked me if I knew some store name that was unintelligible to my Western ears. He proceeded right there to pick up a dry-erase marker and write "Marble Slab" and draw me a map. Marble Slab is an Ankeny ice cream shop. I later left that room with a light heart.
The ironic thing is, I'm trying to get in touch with a sales rep with the company that sold us the instruments in the thermal analysis lab to discuss purchasing marble slabs to reduce vibrational noise that is showing up in the data. "Marble Slab" was written pretty darn close to the prime offender (the DMA).
I'm flying solo making a sample tomorrow. I finally worked out some dissolving issues I was having with the dilulin and catalyst today. I'm nervous, and I don't exactly know what to do with myself for the rest of the day. I mean...what else is there after making a sample???? I hope it takes a long time! Things are a little more comfortable, but I still have my panicky moments. Not having a computer at my desk means I do a lot of walking back and forth...and I basically have to pass my PI's open office door each trip I make...unless I walk out of the way (which I'm not going to deny having done a few times already). I would suppose I don't look very busy, though Wonje commented that I did just before I left today.
Reflection: Everyone is still really nice. Will, whom I've never worked under, always asks me (using my name) how I'm doing. He's about 2 weeks away from his thesis due date and a month from his defense. But he took the time to learn the peon undergraduate's name and treat me like a person. This lab is unreal...I've never seen an office so seemingly friendly with each other! Oh wait...that's right...I'm the only girl. Mystery solved. ;)
The ironic thing is, I'm trying to get in touch with a sales rep with the company that sold us the instruments in the thermal analysis lab to discuss purchasing marble slabs to reduce vibrational noise that is showing up in the data. "Marble Slab" was written pretty darn close to the prime offender (the DMA).
I'm flying solo making a sample tomorrow. I finally worked out some dissolving issues I was having with the dilulin and catalyst today. I'm nervous, and I don't exactly know what to do with myself for the rest of the day. I mean...what else is there after making a sample???? I hope it takes a long time! Things are a little more comfortable, but I still have my panicky moments. Not having a computer at my desk means I do a lot of walking back and forth...and I basically have to pass my PI's open office door each trip I make...unless I walk out of the way (which I'm not going to deny having done a few times already). I would suppose I don't look very busy, though Wonje commented that I did just before I left today.
Reflection: Everyone is still really nice. Will, whom I've never worked under, always asks me (using my name) how I'm doing. He's about 2 weeks away from his thesis due date and a month from his defense. But he took the time to learn the peon undergraduate's name and treat me like a person. This lab is unreal...I've never seen an office so seemingly friendly with each other! Oh wait...that's right...I'm the only girl. Mystery solved. ;)
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
So that's how you hold a pipette!
In a month (or perhaps a few days), I'm going to think myself pretty crazy. Yesterday I met Xia, and when I got to try to prepare a sample, I discovered that you shouldn't hold a glass pipette by the detachable bulb. No tragedies occurred, but I had zero control! That'll get better.
I found out a lot more about what it is we're looking for yesterday, and I hope it sticks. I had the opportunity to remember some important stuff, and I promptly forgot it. I believe I also caused one of the machines to "blip" when it was running. There were two small disturbances on the graph, and since I have nowhere else to go during an experiment at this point, I believe they were my fault. Boo.
Speaking of instruments, I did some looking after I finished up the tutorials yesterday. I will probably work with 4 machines (though two are exactly the same). They are:
Reflection: On a more personal note, I fulfilled a lifelong dream yesterday. I got a labcoat. :) Work already seems pretty independent, so I hope I understand enough to start trying some of these things on my own soon. Otherwise I sit around wondering who I can bother. (Not cool).
Starting at 9 in the morning stinks. I'm no longer tired at that point, but if I eat lunch, I have to stay after 5 to get in 8 hours. Yesterday I got home at 6, finished cleaning up dinner at 7, and ended up falling asleep at 10:30. There wasn't a lot of time in there for "fun." Oh well. Another day starts in 2 hours, so I'd better get ready for it.
I found out a lot more about what it is we're looking for yesterday, and I hope it sticks. I had the opportunity to remember some important stuff, and I promptly forgot it. I believe I also caused one of the machines to "blip" when it was running. There were two small disturbances on the graph, and since I have nowhere else to go during an experiment at this point, I believe they were my fault. Boo.
Speaking of instruments, I did some looking after I finished up the tutorials yesterday. I will probably work with 4 machines (though two are exactly the same). They are:
- Dynamic Mechanic Analyzer (DMA): super sensitive - this is the one I caused to "blip"
- Differential Scanning Calorimeter (DSC): There are two of these, and one is much fancier than the other
- Thermogravimetric Analyzer (TGA): supposedly I must find the thermal decomposition of the polymer before I heat and stress it.
Reflection: On a more personal note, I fulfilled a lifelong dream yesterday. I got a labcoat. :) Work already seems pretty independent, so I hope I understand enough to start trying some of these things on my own soon. Otherwise I sit around wondering who I can bother. (Not cool).
Starting at 9 in the morning stinks. I'm no longer tired at that point, but if I eat lunch, I have to stay after 5 to get in 8 hours. Yesterday I got home at 6, finished cleaning up dinner at 7, and ended up falling asleep at 10:30. There wasn't a lot of time in there for "fun." Oh well. Another day starts in 2 hours, so I'd better get ready for it.
Monday, May 21, 2007
First Day
I kicked off my summer research experience today, arriving at Gilman Hall just before 9 a.m. After a short initial tour with my PI, we left the lab to obtain computer access and lab keys from other buildings on campus. My PI explained in greater detail what I'll be up to this summer, and it looks like my responsibilities fit into two roles: I'm to act as a 'lab manager' of sorts for the brand new (as in 6 months old) lab and develop my own research on some polymers formed from bio-renewable (vegetable) oils, cross-linkers, and dicyclopentadiene.
As the "lab manager", I'm expected to become proficient in the operation of 6 brand-new thermal analysis instruments (names to follow in later posts). I will then train outside companies/researchers to use the equipment or take on their material analysis myself. I'm supposed to become the "go-to" for this kind of thing, and I'm afraid it means I've got a rough couple of weeks of learning ahead of me. I will also be expected to design some sort of worksheet to standardize monthly usage reports (versus 6 unique reporting styles from 6 unique graduate students) and develop some charging scheme to bring in profit for the lab (this in addition to the brochure(s) I'll be developing to advertise to outside interests). This part of the job is both scary and exciting. Responsibility!
The second part of my job is the 'get your hands dirty' research I've been hoping to get for a long time. The polymers metathesized from Dilulin (a modified linseed oil) and dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) aren't yet optimal - there are reasons I'm not remembering - and the group is looking to add cross-linkers to improve the kinetics and possibly the strength. I'll be testing different compositions of the Dilulin, DCPD, and a cross-linker (CL-2) as well as different procedures to see if the cross-linker improves anything. Not only will I be preparing samples (with trips to the chem store for supplies and my very own lab notebook!), but I'll be analyzing them on the equipment that I'm now scrambling to understand. It's good for me, and I hear this equipment is prevalent in the chemical engineering field.
For the remainder of my time today, I completed several long tutorials about the instruments and met a chemistry grad student, Phil, who prepared a couple of polymer samples and recrystalized the Grubbs catalyst for my viewing benefit. My PI, a student from another research group using this equipment, and I tried to run some corn protein through an instrument called a DSC (I promise I'll learn what all of the acronyms stand for and make a note of it!) in the afternoon. Something went awry, however, because the heating element never kicked on, and the LN2 that was supposed to cool the 40oC sample to 25oC ended up going all the way to -40oC before we aborted the run.
------
Reflection: A good first day. I was super nervous going in, but everybody I met was really nice. I'll meet another grad student tomorrow who I'll be working more closely with (but still unlike my previous non-stop shadowing). I have a desk (no computer) that I'll need to wash off...it's covered in old, old spilled coffee. I don't know if I can have formal lunch breaks (I ate while working today, and only a peanut butter sandwich at that!), and I don't know how I'm supposed to cut it off and leave. I didn't check my email until just before I left for home today. I'm excited and nervous both. I think this is going to be a cool summer!
As the "lab manager", I'm expected to become proficient in the operation of 6 brand-new thermal analysis instruments (names to follow in later posts). I will then train outside companies/researchers to use the equipment or take on their material analysis myself. I'm supposed to become the "go-to" for this kind of thing, and I'm afraid it means I've got a rough couple of weeks of learning ahead of me. I will also be expected to design some sort of worksheet to standardize monthly usage reports (versus 6 unique reporting styles from 6 unique graduate students) and develop some charging scheme to bring in profit for the lab (this in addition to the brochure(s) I'll be developing to advertise to outside interests). This part of the job is both scary and exciting. Responsibility!
The second part of my job is the 'get your hands dirty' research I've been hoping to get for a long time. The polymers metathesized from Dilulin (a modified linseed oil) and dicyclopentadiene (DCPD) aren't yet optimal - there are reasons I'm not remembering - and the group is looking to add cross-linkers to improve the kinetics and possibly the strength. I'll be testing different compositions of the Dilulin, DCPD, and a cross-linker (CL-2) as well as different procedures to see if the cross-linker improves anything. Not only will I be preparing samples (with trips to the chem store for supplies and my very own lab notebook!), but I'll be analyzing them on the equipment that I'm now scrambling to understand. It's good for me, and I hear this equipment is prevalent in the chemical engineering field.
For the remainder of my time today, I completed several long tutorials about the instruments and met a chemistry grad student, Phil, who prepared a couple of polymer samples and recrystalized the Grubbs catalyst for my viewing benefit. My PI, a student from another research group using this equipment, and I tried to run some corn protein through an instrument called a DSC (I promise I'll learn what all of the acronyms stand for and make a note of it!) in the afternoon. Something went awry, however, because the heating element never kicked on, and the LN2 that was supposed to cool the 40oC sample to 25oC ended up going all the way to -40oC before we aborted the run.
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Reflection: A good first day. I was super nervous going in, but everybody I met was really nice. I'll meet another grad student tomorrow who I'll be working more closely with (but still unlike my previous non-stop shadowing). I have a desk (no computer) that I'll need to wash off...it's covered in old, old spilled coffee. I don't know if I can have formal lunch breaks (I ate while working today, and only a peanut butter sandwich at that!), and I don't know how I'm supposed to cut it off and leave. I didn't check my email until just before I left for home today. I'm excited and nervous both. I think this is going to be a cool summer!
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