Dear Diary,

I feel: 😊(happy)

This morning, the 3D scanning team had our industrial engineering class. This class was a lot of fun. We got to make micro pipettes! We took a tube and pulled it apart, and the diameter of the pipette is 10 micrometers! So small. Then, we watched a few videos about how water responds to different surface tensions. That was really cool and satisfying, because we watched the videos in slow motion. After that, we went to another lab to meet a food science researcher. She is working on 3D printing pills!

For craft of research, we walked around and studied former posters. We pinpointed the good and bad aspects of various posters. Choose very contrasting color scheme if choosing a non-white background. Utilize white space well but not overwhelmingly. Add descriptions for images. Less is more. Although fancy/complex designs may be visually appealing, it’s can be very hard to follow or find information. We also talked about how to communicate with others while presenting a poster. Be ready to give someone a quick pitch, but also be ready to delve into very specific features of your work.

This afternoon, we didn’t have our Major Course Activity presentation due to communication errors. Instead, it has been moved to Thursday. With our free time, we went to ISU’s residential department to pick up campus money gift cards! These are condolence gift cards for the inconvenience of taking our washer and dryers out of our apartments. It’s really nice of them to give us gift cards!

Another thing that’s been on my mind recently is that I’ve been offered a resident advisor (RA) position at my university. I applied back in February, went through the interview process, and got wait listed. I got a call last week regarding an opening, and I’m pretty excited. I just received and accepted my formal job offer! 🎉(celebration)

Tidbit(s) of information:

• The material for 3D printed drugs is a squishy jelly, and then it dries out to become a hard pill. We got to see a 3D printed gummy bear pill.
• Another person did a PhD thesis defense today, and although I didn’t see it, I got to see the person hear their response back from the board! It was so sweet! They came back, shook his hand, and said “Congratulations, Dr. …”.
• My mom sent me a video of a baby elephant playing chase with birds, and it was adorable. I love little heart warming moments that make my day.

Sincerely,
Lara