It has been an interesting first week! On Saturday, we went to an Escape Room and ate a Zombie Burger which was quite interesting. My burger had fried bananas and peanut butter which was actually really good! For the most … Continue reading →
My first week at SPIRE is officially done and I’m so ecstatic! After my first blog, a lot more stuff happened. On Friday we did team building and it gave me a much better understanding of our research goals to … Continue reading →
On Saturday after our escape room, we went to see the Red Bull soapbox race that was going on in De Moines and it was super cool! Although it was hard to see the actual races, it was a great … Continue reading →
Going into week 2 I was swamped with readings, reading around 50 pages of research about our project. Although it was boring and hard to read, it was overall really interesting. Besides that, we started week 2 off with C++ … Continue reading →
The starting of this week is much more intense guys… We are learning C++ programming, and it is a bit scary. We had to install the console at the beginning, and it took so much time! On the other hand, … Continue reading →
It’s the start of our first full week for the program and we are learning C++. I haven’t used C++ before, but I can definitely see the parallels to other object-oriented programming languages like C#. I’m still learning and hope … Continue reading →
Work-wise, the first week was more focused on team building, tours of the lab, and learning foundational research skills. We began reading some background papers in related studies. I’m excited for the weeks to come. The NAVI team is looking at some really cool stuff. … Continue reading →
Alright, we’ve made it to the second week! I’m working on putting together a slideshow of one of the research papers I found about cyber sickness and reading the other papers we were given to review. Everything is going by … Continue reading →
What’s up, today is the first Monday since the start of the program and a some exciting stuff has happened. With the research stuff first, we have learned C++ for the first time today, we had some team building activities … Continue reading →
We made it to the first week! Meeting the interns and the mentors I’ll be working with has been so exciting. Everyone is from a different US state which is exciting, as I’m hoping to learn from their various geographical … Continue reading →
The week was a lot of fun getting to know all the other interns here along with getting to all of the great faculty and mentors. We got to look at the early stages of the research process which included … Continue reading →
After a few days here, I’m kind of upset that everything is so nice compared to KU and that it seems like there is so much opportunity for good quality research. Maybe my view is just biased because I’ve very … Continue reading →
Yesterday, we did the famous team activity tower building with marshmallows and pasta, ours (team EchoXR) was really hummm… Today, we learnt a lot about all the projects, and I particularly learnt more about the project I’ll be working on … Continue reading →
It’s been 2.5 days of the SPIRE-EIT REU program, and so much has already been done! First coming here I was nervous meeting everyone, but everyone is so nice! On the first day we all went to Dr. Gilbert’s house … Continue reading →
Hmmmm, let’s talk a little bit about my arrival two days ago. First, I was so excited to get to ISU and meet the other interns and our mentors. I took the same plane as Jacky (who is by the … Continue reading →
It’s been two days since I arrived in Ames and started my research internships at Iowa State University. It honestly already feels like I have found a home here. I super excited to start learning and doing some research but … Continue reading →
Today is my 3rd day as an intern! We’ve learned a bunch about research and done a lot of introductory stuff. We just got back from Thai Kitchen (great food), had a great lunch with our faculty mentors. I found … Continue reading →
For today’s blog, I’ll talk about my arrival on the 27th to what I did now. Waking up at 2:30 am on the 27th was probably the worst part, but I was able to sleep on the plane over here, … Continue reading →
Today we got an introduction to the three different research projects. Each mentor and staff members presented a slide of what their research project was about. We then got into our individual groups to discuss more about our projects and … Continue reading →
Tuesday was a lot of fun, getting to know some faculty and our mentors over dinner at Stephen’s house. Also our oven fan is basically a jet engine smh. Wednesday was a long day. The highlights included winning the scavenger … Continue reading →
I am thrilled to share that the 2025 SPIRE-EIT REU program is coming together beautifully! This year promises to be an incredible journey of learning, discovery, and collaboration. Here are some of the exciting updates: Welcoming Our Program MentorsWe are … Continue reading →
We are excited to announce that applications for the SPIRE-EIT REU (Research Experiences for Undergraduates) program are now being accepted! This is a fantastic opportunity for undergraduate students to engage in cutting-edge research and gain valuable experience in the field … Continue reading →
We are thrilled to announce the dates for our 2025 Summer SPIRE-EIT (Summer Program for Interdisciplinary Research and Education – Emerging Interface Technologies) REU program! Mark your calendars for May 27, 2025 – August 2, 2025. Applications will be opening … Continue reading →
Exciting News: Our New SPIRE-EIT REU Website is About to Go Live! We are thrilled to announce that our website for the SPIRE-EIT 2025 program is about to go live! 🎉 Reflecting on an Amazing SPIRE-EIT 2024 This past year has … Continue reading →