Dear Diary,

I feel: 🙂(good)

Since tomorrow is our symposium and Friday is wrap up meetings and a goodbye lunch, today was technically our last work day! That’s kind of crazy.

Yesterday, I had a great time filming short clips of our team being productive. We’ll be making a video to wrap up our work here, and Paul wanted some b-roll to include in our interviews. B-roll is sort of like filler so no one gets bored listening to you talk.
Jennifer and I shot a few silly ones, and I think I sent them to Paul on accident. We’ll see what the end video looks like.
Kelsey shot an awesome time-lapse video of our walk from one lab to another. Our ten minute walk was shortened to thirty seconds!

Our last lunch and lecture was yesterday. Professor Birdie Shirtcliff started the lecture with a “Last Lecture” talk before switching topics and talking about her research. In her “Last Lecture” talk, she shared inspiration and encouragement for our futures. She said to be aware of limitations but to look closely about why they are limitations. When she started college, she had her whole career planned out. It didn’t turn out that way at all. The detours we take in our lives shape who we are, and she’s thankful she strayed from the straightforward path.
For her research, she’s done amazing work delving into the complexities of biomarkers and their role in response to stress. She’s also looked at biomarkers in response to environmental impacts. Research has been done to show that the response to stressful environments can be vastly different depending on how the body has learned to interpret it’s surrounding. It was super interesting work, and you can tell she’s very passionate about what she does. She was a great presenter. She taught with anecdotes and laughter. I really enjoyed her approach to presenting.

Yesterday, we finished our poster and it has been sent to the printer!

This morning, we had an HCI class, and it was super interesting. It was about thinking and decision making. People respond differently depending on their experiences and way of thinking. Epistemology is the theory of knowledge, and that’s super weird and interesting.

We put finishing touches on our paper and put it into APA format. We got a few revisions from our graduate mentor, Vignesh, but overall, he liked it! I’m really proud of our team for putting all of this together and doing such a good job!

Tidbit(s) of information:

• I hope all of my stuff fits in my suitcases. How did I acquire so much more here?
• We got our REU t-shirts yesterday! They look super awesome!

Sincerely,
Lara