This week, our participants visited the MUN Faculty of Medicine and the National Research Council! Check out what Caroline H and Norah D had to say about their first few weeks of SSEP 2024!
Caroline H., Psychology Research Assistant
Hello! My name is Caroline Harris, I am a Summer Student with the WISE program, and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to work as a Psychology Research Assistant! I work in the science building at Memorial University in the Neuro Fog Laboratory. This is my second full week working with the program. I have learned so much new information here at the lab through reading many interesting primers on the production effect, weapon focus and think no think. Also, I’ve learned so much about cognitive psychology and about how statistics works, as I have been reading two text books about these topics. All this information that I am learning is helping me start a cognition project on item method directed forgetting with a MUN student Jenna, hereat the lab. I am also looking forward to working on the menstrual cycle project through Zoom with Zahira Cohen who is a postdoctoral student in Cambridge. Not only did I learn a lot of amazing things, but I’ve also made many new friends including the people here at the lab and the other girls in the WISE program! This week WISE took us on two amazing tours! On Monday morning we went to the Faculty of Medicine where we saw various captivating ways students are engaged and taught. Then in the afternoon we went to the National Research Council where we got to see an ice tank that tested how small boats go through ice and we also got to go through a room that was-20 degrees Celsius. On Friday morning we toured some departments in the Faculty of Science that included a DNA analysis with Biology and Biochemistry, a visit to the Psychology lab, a demonstration from physics where we calculated the speed of light and a visit to Computer Science. So far, this has been such a great experience to be a part of and I am so thankful I got work with WISE NL. I am looking forward to learning even more about Psychology these next few weeks!
Norah D., Design Assistant at the faculty of engineering
My name is Norah Downey and I have been working as a design assistant with the faculty of engineering. For my placement I have been working on simulating triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) using COMSOL. This week I had the task of simulating a 3D model based on the 2D model I made last week with no instructions. It was a long process and required a lot of patience, but I finally mastered the process! At the end of the week, I gave a presentation to my supervisor and two of his PhD students to show them my work. I was nervous at first, but it was a good way to improve my presentation skills. I have also learned a lot about TENGs and how they can be used to harvest wind energy and how they can be used as sensors in medical equipment to monitor cardiovascular activity and hypertension in the body. This week I, along with the other WISE SSEP students, participated in 3 tours, the MUN school of medicine, the NRC and the science buildings. At the Med school we learned about the different tools that are used to teach and prepare med students for real life scenarios. I found the plastination room especially interesting, the way they were able to preserve the specimens in such detail is fascinating. At the NRC we got to see test tanks, ship models and walk through the cold room at-20°C! We finished off the week with a tour of science buildings, where we got to participate in a chemistry and a physics experiment. I have learned so much in this past week alone, I truly cannot believe we are already 2 weeks in! I can not wait to see what the rest of the summer has in store!