On Friday, our group hopped into a couple vans and drove 2 hours to the University of Iowa. There, we met 11 other REU students and got to watch them present about each of their projects. Their topics were health centered and it was fascinating seeing all the ways they were using technology to research things like modeling tuberculosis, disease spread in a hospital environment, and improving learning environments for children with ADHD.

It was interesting to talk to them and hear about the differences between their program and ours, and after hearing that their group doesn’t do many things together, I gained a special appreciation for how close our group has become over this program. I also met someone from my home college which was exciting and I’ll definitely connect with him after this program to hear how the end of their was.

I also really enjoyed presenting our own projects. It was incredible being able to talk to smoothly and passionately about the things we’ve been working on this whole summer. This experience along with all the other opportunities we’ve had to present, have really helped me develop my public speaking skills—-definitely a valuable take away from this summer.