Dear Diary,

I feel: 😊😳😍😮😥🙏🏻(every emotion)

Woah. It’s our last day. I’m not ready for these emotions. Since the symposium was yesterday, our projects have officially ended. It was awesome seeing everyone’s hard work. I wasn’t feeling the greatest (probably because I was nervous), but it was great to share our work with others.

This morning, we filled out an online survey about the program. We also had a post-program group interview regarding our time here.

We had a goodbye lunch today, and I cried. The room was packed with REU students, graduate mentors, professors, and staff. Farewell speeches were exchanged, and we even received gifts! Professor Gilbert gave each team something to remember our work by, and the 3D scanning team got hand held magnifiers. Karina also gave us luggage tags. For the 3D scanning team, one of our graduate mentors each gave us a book applicable to our interests! I got a book on robotics! Alex 3D-printed a cat with a ball for everyone.
One of the coolest gifts we got was a conditional acceptance to ISU’s Human Computer Interaction graduate program. Given our hard work here, they are ready to accept us.
After the lunch, the 3D scanning team had our last group meeting. It was such a bittersweet goodbye. Although they are also our mentors, I consider them my friends too. They have been so kind and supportive this entire program, and we got to talk and laugh about so much more than research.

At the beginning of the program, we wrote letters about our values. Writing your values down is supposed to reinforce your commit to them. Reading my letter now, the values were reinforced. One of the most significant ones listed was communication and honesty, and I have multiple instances where I was honest and open about my thoughts and feelings.

Many thanks are in order for so many reasons. I won’t list the reasons, but I want to recognize the people who have made this program amazing.
Thank you to the program coordinators and staff: Eliot, Stephen, Tiffany, Paul, Abby, and Andrew.
Thank you to all the teachers: Adam, Jack, Mindy, Holly, Kate, Alex, and Robert.
Thank you to my team professors and graduate mentors: Professor Li, Professor Qin, Yi, Vignesh, and Xiao.
Thank you to my team: Kelsey and Jennifer.
Thank you to all the REU students: Vrinda, Karina, Jennifer, Kelsey, Nina, Syema, Roselynn, Emmanuelle, Tiger, Bradon, and Lucas.

Thank you to everyone who read these posts and followed the mundane activities of my daily life these past two months. It’s been a roller coaster of events and emotions, and I’m incredibly thankful and happy for the entire experience!

Tidbit(s) of information:

• If you’re considering applying or committing to the program, it’s worth it. There are so many opportunities to learn and grow professionally, academically, and personally. Take advantage of them!
• This is my 41st post. Given there were 70 days in the program, that’s a lot of posting!
• I’m already missing all of you. Good luck everyone in all of your endeavors!

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 😊(happy), 😳(nervous)

Three days until the symposium!!! 😳(nervous) Our calendar looks really busy again.
As Roselynn puts it, we’re all hard at work tying up loose ends. Today, 3D scanning finished our results and put graphics on our poster! We have a final poster, and it looks awesome. Jennifer has done an awesome job formatting everything.
We need to add a few finishing touches to our paper, and then we’ll be done!

Tidbit(s) of information:

• Abby suggested we have a farewell dinner. Over the weekend, we went to Texas Roadhouse. It was very yummy, and I’m glad we got to go.
• Yesterday was my last Sunday here which also meant my last church service here. I’m really going to miss the family who drove me each week. They are so sweet and the kids are adorable.
• I’m super excited to see my family soon! 😁(excited)
• Is anyone going to post a heartfelt goodbye/wrap up blog post?

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 🙂(good)

Since we went to Minnesota yesterday, it was like we had a three day weekend. It was a nice break from work.
We went to the University of Minnesota to meet other REU students and hear about their work. Some of them were working alone or only had one other partner. It was cool to see their work, and the campus is beautiful.
After our presentations, we got to go to Mall of America! I’m glad I didn’t go with the intent of clothes shopping or I could’ve stayed forever. I went with the mindset to experience the place, and it was amazing. There are roller coasters, an aquarium, a Crayola store/experience where you can make your own crayons!, and so many stores and restaurants.

At work today, we had another manufacturing class with Xiao. We got to see a 3D concrete printer. We also talked about applications of 3D printing.

For lunch and lecture today, Professor Alex Braidwood came in. Online it says he’s a graphic designer, and he didn’t disappoint with his awesome designs and even audible designs where you listen to data. He’s worked on so many cool and creative projects, and he works at the intersection of graphic design, HCI, and ecology/sustainability. It was definitely an interesting lecture, and I really enjoyed it.

This afternoon, we got to light paint! It’s a really cool photography feature where you can paint with light. We start out in complete darkness and then used our smart phones to introduce light to the scene. The end result is really cool patterns and trails of light.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• I love M&Ms, and a while back they came out with three experimental flavors (mint, coffee, and I think a raspberry or something). All three flavors were limited time items, but by voting, one flavor would get to stay. I actually voted a few times for mint, but I never heard anything about which flavor won. I hadn’t been able to find any mint M&Ms since their initial experimental run, but at the Mall of America, I found mint M&Ms! They won!
• The power went out in all of Ames this weekend for an hour or so. It was a little weird not knowing what to do.

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 🥵(hot)

Walked into work today, and it was a ghost town. It was also very muggy. We got to leave early yesterday afternoon since the air conditioning was turned off, but we figured it would get fixed by the time we came back the next day (today). … Turns out, there was a problem trying to turn it back on, and Howe Hall is a sauna. A sign on the door said faculty and staff were working remotely. This meant we all got to leave and find somewhere cooler to work. Jennifer and I went to the library and worked on preparing our resumes for applying to internships next summer.

We had our lunch and lecture in Elings Hall with Professor Jared Danielson. He was super friendly. He asked us about our research projects, and the lecture was much more of a discussion than a lecture. He shared some HCI research he had conducted such as screen capture lectures, computer versus paper testing, and even a tutorial for making a blood smear.

Since Howe Hall is too hot to get any work done, the 3D scanning team went home to work remotely. 😊(happy) I will finalize our presentation for tomorrow’s group meeting (the same presentation will be used for the Minnesota presentation on Monday).

Tidbit(s) of information:

• I wasn’t a 🥔(potato) yesterday. I worked on my resume and my website.
• Don’t take air conditioning for granted.

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 🙂(good)

This morning, I thought we would be having a manufacturing course with Xiao. Instead, we rescheduled the class and went to scan some more data. We’re almost done scanning data which is nice. We’re going back to coding soon. 😊(happy)

Instead of a lecture during today’s lunch and lecture period, we had a discussion about the book Stand Out of Our Light with Anna Slavina. We really only got to scratch the surface of the book within an hour, but it was still fun to discuss. There are many ways to interpret the book, and everyone brought differing perspectives to the table.

This afternoon, I helped visualize our bullet scans. They look very pretty. I also got to talk with Yi about Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient. Go math.

During craft of research today, Abby gave us a method for critiquing papers. It’s praise, question, then polish. It’s a good method. This method should be applied to all critiques.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• Who should be in charge of determining how algorithms decide what information to display to us? What does it mean for an algorithm to be good?
• We finished Season 3 of Stranger Things! 😮(speechless)

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 😊(happy)

This morning I submitted my questions to Abby for the discussion on Tuesday (July 16) on Stand Out of Our Light. I’m excited to discuss the book. It raises a lot of questions, and there are no concrete answers.

I also worked on the introduction of our paper. We need to include the history and former work, and it’s hard to find the needle in the haystack that we need for the paper.

For lunch, Professor Gul K. Kremer took us out to eat at Cafe Beaudelaire! The place was so delicious. I had the border burger, and we got to order cheese cake for dessert! Aside from great food, we had even better company. Professor Kremer is so kind, and she has such an inspiring outlook on life and learning. She makes me feel that I can dream like a little kid as long as I am dedicated and unafraid to excel. She says “Life is too short to be shy”. Reach out and take chances. The worst thing someone can say to you is no, and even then, there was nothing to lose.

I presented today. I was a little awkward and I got through all my slides faster than I thought, but I did it. I also didn’t turn bright red and I was breathing continuously, so that’s a plus.
After the meeting, we went upstairs to take a team photo. It was a hilarious time, because Xiao is very bad at taking photos. We had a lot we wanted to include in our photo, but very little space to include it all. Xiao at one point stood on a chair to get a better angle. The most funny part was the way he took photos though. He clicks the camera button at random intervals. He counts down way too fast (when he remembers to count down). He says “oh this is perfect” every time we rearrange something to redo the photo. At one point he said “Ready. Go.”, but by the time he said “go”, the phone was being handed back to Professor Li. Overall, it was a very entertaining time. I believe the picture will be posted on the 3DAOS lab website soon.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• I’m still in the process of finding the right work-life balance for me, but I know I’ll figure it out as long as I remember to relax.
• Nina introduced me to passion planner which is a site that has templates for bullet journaling! Thank you, Nina. I’m excited, because I love organizing my time.
• I had some great laughs today with fellow interns. 😊(happy)

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 😊(happy)

Today was good. This morning, Kelsey and I went back to scanning. … There might have been an error with the software we used though, so we might be going back.

We had our last ethics class today. Robert talked about social media and the effects it’s having on it’s users. We also talked about confirmation bias and affirmation bias. I’m going to miss these classes, because it’s not common for my major (in my experiences so far) to expose me to these view points. One of the most important takeaways from this program overall will be learning how to understand other people’s perspectives and backgrounds.

For lunch, Professor Qin and his wife took me to a chinese restaurant! It was the same one I had gone to last Saturday. We ordered completely different dishes, and they were so delicious! I really enjoyed getting to know both of them. Professor Qin’s wife is also a professor at ISU, and she works with food sciences. When we went to the food sciences department yesterday, we actually met Professor Qin’s graduate student, and I didn’t even know it. Small world. I feel very fortunate to have so many knowledgable people around me. I’ve learned so much.

This afternoon, I started diving into a bunch of research articles for our literature review. I also worked on my presentation for Friday some more. 😳(nervous) I think I’ve been procrastinating on filling in the slides with information, but I know I’ll complete it when crunch time comes around.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• I got boba today. 😊(happy) It’s really fun to drink, because it’s so different.
• I think I’m starting to feel sad about leaving. I know we still have three weeks left, but thinking about how fast time flew and how close we are to parting is making me sad.

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 🙂(good), 😳(nervous)

We’re beginning week seven today! We just finished a four day weekend, and it was much needed. I had a great time, and I got to relax.
On Thursday (4th of July), my boyfriend surprised me by coming up to Iowa!!! 😁(so happy) We went to downtown Ames where there was a pancake breakfast and a parade! Then, we went and saw Spider-man: Far From Home, went out for dinner, and watched fireworks.
On Friday, we went to Reiman Gardens! Currently, the theme is toys and games (next year it will be animal legos!), so we got to play checkers inside a rubik’s cube, play giant chess, play connect four, and play an environmental awareness game. They even spray painted the grass, so you could play twister. The place was beautiful! Besides the themed exhibits, there’s a butterfly garden and the world’s largest (concrete) gnome. When we went, there were almost 700 butterflies. I highly recommend this place! In the evening, we went to Des Moines for dinner, and we saw more fireworks!
On Saturday, I went to VRAC to work. Afterward, Yi, Vignesh, Jennifer, Emmanuelle, and I went to a chinese restaurant for dinner. It was super yummy, and we talked for a really long time! It’s so cool to learn about the variations in english such as Spanish english, Chinese english, and Indian english. We also talked about interview tips and those were super helpful! After dinner, I watched a documentary about Theranos (a company meant to revolutionize blood work) called The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley. It pertains to a massive product failure and unethical processes occurring behind closed doors. I watched it for the Ethics class we had today.
On Sunday, I went to church, and the family that drives me to church invited me to lunch! We went to a mexican restaurant, and it was delicious! The family has a little boy and baby girl, and they’re absolutely adorable. Playing Peek-a-Boo with them is a lot of fun. When I returned home, I read, and I FaceTimed my family. It was great talking with them. I miss them a lot.
While this might seem like a busy weekend, it was super fun and relaxing. I got lots of hugs from my boyfriend, and I had great company every day.

And now it’s Monday.
This morning started out with me writing part of our research paper. We went to Jamiahus Walton’s PhD thesis defense today. That was nerve-wracking, and I was only a bystander. Watching someone present in front of a professional board determining if he deserves his degree is tough. I can only imagine how he felt. We didn’t get to see the complete defense, because we had an Ethics class, but I hope he passed! For Ethics, we formally defined the definition of ethics with four principles.
This afternoon, I worked on the research paper and poster draft for tomorrow’s craft of research class.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• At lunch today, I waited in line for 10 minutes for chicken (it was worth it, very yummy). A girl in line struck up a conversation with me and gave me a hug afterward!
• The 403 Forbidden error is fixed! I can now access the VRAC REU website from home now. 😊(happy)

Sincerely,
Lara

This post will not be a “Dear Diary” post, because this is not one of my usual posts. This is a homework assignment to watch and respond to a video about gender-inclusive software.

In our last human computer interaction class, Professor Gilbert introduced an app called SIGCHI. It’s an app for easy access to conference schedules. 

For our homework, we were asked to watch a video called Gender-Inclusive Software by Dr. Margaret Burnett. In it, she talks about GenderMag which is short for Gender Inclusiveness Magnifier. This magnifier brings to attention the gender bias “bugs” in products. The research she conducted with GenderMag found that more often than not (33% of the time), products were biased toward men.

With GenderMag, the goal is to recognize gender bias in order to be able to fix it. The cool way to fix gender bias is through, as she puts it, “talking about gender … by not talking about gender”. Instead, consider a trait which all people have with varying degrees. For example, one of the traits she studied with GenderMag was computer self-efficacy or confidence when using technology. This is going to vary widely, and products need to be sensitive to these differences. In doing so, the product will be applicable to everyone. 

This was a really cool talk, and it’s crazy how much we don’t know about technology. With the app I mentioned at the beginning, I wonder if it has gender bias. 

Disclaimer: This post is a day late. For some reason, I cannot access the VRAC REU 2019 website in the evenings due to a 403 Forbidden error. 😢(sad) I hope this gets resolved soon. In the meantime, here’s my post for July 1st.

Dear Diary,

I feel: asdfghjkl (unknown)

I’d like to preface today’s post by saying I’m okay. Everything will get better. It’s just been a very interesting day, especially with the confusion of last Friday.
I’m not sure if I really want to delve into my emotions right now, so I’ll give you the rundown of today.
Last friday, the 3D scanning team was given a curveball and a whole new project. We didn’t really say anything, because we needed to process what was going on and if this was actually happening.
Over the weekend, Jennifer and I discussed our understanding of where we were going, but we really weren’t sure.
This morning, Kelsey, Jennifer, and I decided to schedule a meeting with Yi to discuss the project. He clarified that we are taking the project in another direction.
With this concrete knowledge, none of us really knew what we wanted to do with it, but we knew we wanted to talk to someone about it.
Abby was really kind, and let us vent it out. We also emailed Stephen and Eliot to schedule a meeting time.
This afternoon, Kelsey and I stopped by Stephen’s office to see if we could meet. He had about five minutes, and we tried to give him a quick rundown of what was going on. He said he wasn’t worried about us, and that everything was going okay.
This wasn’t what we were expecting, but we had another meeting to go to. We went to meet with Professor Gul K. Kremer. She’s the Department Chair of the Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering Department. The meeting was scheduled for 2:00pm, but she was unavailable right away. In the meantime, Professor Qin was there and was talking to us about the project. He also gave us clarification about our project, and it was definitely a new understanding of how the work we’ve been doing ties into the new project we’ve been given.
We got to meet with Professor Gul K. Kremer at 3:00pm, and she’s so sweet! Her passion for her job is evident in the way she talks about her work. She’s got an amazing work ethic and mindset with everything she does. It was great getting to meet her, and she even invited us to lunch!
Now, it’s almost 4:00pm, and we’ve got a meeting with Eliot about our feelings. This is where my emotions kind of bubble up and explode. After the initial rundown of our understanding of where the project is going, I kind of stopped talking. After Eliot began speaking, I started crying. This meeting was definitely an eye opener. It was an eye opener to my understanding of what research is, my feelings of failure, and optimistic and pessimistic viewpoints. It was a lot to take in and comprehend. Overall, I feel better. Whatever happens, I think I’m ready.
I’m at home now, and I just want to relax and let everything calm down. After the numerous emotions I went through today, I’m kind of emoted out.

This weekend was pretty awesome. On Saturday, we went to the Des Moines Art Festival. It’s a massive art festival. I was only able to get through half of it in two hours! For lunch, we went to Zombie Burgers and I got Sarah’s Revenge.
On Sunday, my friend stopped by! We went and got breakfast together to catch up. I also went to church and took a nap.
I also began reading Stand Out of Our Light by James Williams. The book is for the program, and it’s about the attention economy.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• We went to a new dining place for lunch today. It’s more modern looking, and they have ice cream! Today, they even had chocolate chip cookie dough! 😍(love)
• I’m a little upset that this post wasn’t posted on the correct day. For some reason, I cannot access the website at home anymore. I hope this gets resolved soon, especially since I usually post at night.
• When walking back from lunch, Jennifer and I saw four chipmunks running around! So cute!
• Today’s post title was originally created around noon, but later I added “- except not really anymore” after all of the conversations from the day.

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 🙂(good)

I spent this morning reading.

For lunch and lecture, we had guest speaker Professor Carmen Gomes come in. She gave a really cool presentation about nanotechnology for pathogen monitoring through biomimicry! That might not make sense, so what it means is really really small technology with inspiration from nature to determine whether or not a certain pathogen (for example, bacteria or a virus) is present. I looked up the size of a nanometer, and it’s smaller than the micrometers I’m using with the 3D scanning team. 1000 nanometer = 1 micrometer. [1]
One of the research projects she shared with us has inspiration from the Hawaiian Bobtail Squid. It’s super adorable. The reason the squid is inspiring is due to it’s symbiotic relationship with a bacteria called Vibrio fishcheri which enables it to glow in the dark! [2] Since the squid wants to let a very specific bacteria in, how does it distinguish good versus bad bacteria? Professor Gomes is trying to mimic the way the squid selects only the Vibrio fishcheri so nanotechnology can specifically select a specific pathogen. It’s really cool research!

This afternoon, I did some more reading and started working on my presentation for next week. I was supposed to present on July 5th, but since we’re being given the day off, I get the choice to present on Wednesday (July 3rd) or Monday (July 8th). I’d like to have the four day weekend to relax, so I’m planning to present on the 3rd.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• Last night, I took some time off. I watched some TV and did my laundry. That’s it. That’s all I did, and it was so nice.

[1] Micrometer to Nanometer Conversion: https://www.unitconverters.net/length/micrometer-to-nanometer.htm
[2] Hawaiian Bobtail Squid Symbiosis with Vibrio fishcheri: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/science_nation/glowingsquid.jsp

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 😴(sleepy)

This morning I showed up at 8:15am. I put together questions for the Department Chair of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering here at ISU. As I was looking up ISU faculty, I also Googled University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder) faculty. There are so many professors working with robotics. I’m thinking about reaching out to some professors working in robotics labs I’m interested in. It’s a dream come true to be attending a school so jam packed with knowledge.

Professor Stephen Gilbert came to speak with us for the lunch and lecture today! Although we already know who he is, we didn’t know what he was working on or his background. He shared former research projects utilizing emerging technologies and future research projects he’s interested in.
Professor Gilbert also shared his career path to where he is now. It seems that the place where people end up can never be predicted. He mentioned how people noticed him through his hard work and connections he had through others. He also kept his options open enabling him to go to Cyprus, start a company, and ultimately find the job he wanted.

This afternoon, the 3D scanning team worked on Matlab coding and the x3p file conversion implementation. The coding is going well, but we’re having difficulties with the file conversion.

We had a Craft of Research class this afternoon, and Andrew taught us about good and bad graphics/figures. It’s important that the visuals you include are easy to understand. He also discussed the importance of knowing your audience. For example, people looking to learn more versus clients looking to utilize your work. Being able to cater to both audiences well is definitely an important skill.

This evening we went on a hike at Ledges State Park. On the drive there, the surrounding area was … flat. We saw corn!!! 😊(happy) Mind you, it was very very short, but we still saw it! When we got there, there was a lake path or another steeper path. We ended up choosing the steeper path, and it was nice. It was interesting though, because the path wasn’t just dirt. The path was made almost completely with wood. There were even wooden stairs! There was also a section where you crossed through a stream of water.
It was surprising to find elevation here in Iowa. My iPhone says I climbed 30 flights of stairs in an hour. This also probably means I went down a decent amount of stairs too. While the group was a little divided due to the rate at which some of us climbed, I really enjoyed the slower pace group (Emmanuelle, Jennifer, Bradon, and I). We got to talk and enjoy nature.
When we got back to the dorms, there were fireflies out and about in our courtyard area! They’re really pretty. Lucas and Emmanuelle even caught a few for us to look at!

Tidbit(s) of information:

• Professor Gilbert mentioned one of the purposes of these blogs is to record the mundane, and it makes me feel better about my systematic “Hi. Today I did x, y, and z actions” posts. While I sometimes add thoughts and feelings, overall, having a record of what I did this summer will be fun to look back at. I’ve never had a progress record this detailed before.
• I’m confident taking the bus now! 😊(happy) I can now be lazy and take the bus to work everyday.
• Quick shoutout to my family: I love you, and I miss you.

Sincerely,
Lara

Dear Diary,

I feel: 😊(happy), 🌧(drenched)

I had a great day (besides being cold from the rain).

We began the morning with our first deeper dive meeting. It was more of a history lecture, which was okay, but it was a little hard to stay engaged at 9:00am.

At 11:30am, the 3D scanning team went to lunch with Professor Beiwen Li and graduate mentors Yi Zheng and Vignesh Suresh. It was great to sit down and get to know Professor Li (especially since he was in China (getting married! 🎉(celebration)) during the first week of this program).

This afternoon I got to walk and talk with Holly Baiotto. She’s a current graduate student at Iowa State University, and she was also an REU intern in 2014! It was really nice to talk with her about her experiences with the program and see the similarities and differences with my experiences so far. I’m working on communicating with others, and she gave good advice of making smaller goals to accomplish speaking up.

We had our second deeper dive meeting, and this one was more hands on. We took the work we had made in our Maya and Unity classes, and guess what?! We turned it into a VR experience! 👌(so cool) 😍(love) I said Maya is only hindered by your own imagination, but my imagination is running wild with all the ideas of what I could make in VR. It’s really cool to see your work in a game, but being able to be immersed in your work is a whole new level of excitement.

After the deeper dive meeting, the 3D scanning team had a group meeting. Jennifer gave her presentation today! Thank you for stepping up and going first, Jennifer. Professor Qin is also planning lunch with the Department Chair of the Department of Industrial and Manufacturing Systems Engineering.

At 5:00pm, I figured it was time to leave. We were done for the day. Kelsey asked when I wanted to work on some code for our research team. When I realized she meant either now or later (meaning we’d go to the apartments and then come back to VRAC), I committed to staying longer. It’s too much travel time to go back to the apartments and then to Howe Hall and then back. So … we went to work.
There’s a whiteboard in our lab area, and dang if our team didn’t need it. I don’t think we would’ve completed our code without drawing every idea out. I forgot how much I enjoyed working on challenging problems with others. Kelsey, Jennifer, and I argued back and forth, and I find it exhilarating to compare ideas and try to find the best solution.
The most satisfying moment though is when the code runs perfectly. Sure, there are multiple errors when you first compile, and weeding out each one can be tiring, but the end result is so worth the hard work. I’m so happy with the work we did this evening, but I’m also ready for some well earned rest.

Tidbit(s) of information:

• This morning it was really rainy. Thank you, Karina, for sharing your umbrella. 😊(happy) My shoes got really wet though, so my feet were pretty cold throughout the day (reasoning behind the title of today’s post).
• During the walk with Holly, we saw two chipmunks out and about! Chipmunks are so small and cute.

Sincerely,
Lara