I chose to be in the DIY Diagnostic stream because we have a diverse selection of opportunities available for research and lab experience. There are a variety of group projects available to become a part of, like the FRIome, frack water, and Waller creek projects, but we are also given the opportunity to develop our own research projects. I think it is also really cool that we learn how to code, because without this stream, I’m about 85% positive I would have never learned to code, and I’ve always wondered how it works.
I think I am most excited about the FRIome project simply because I’m a biology major and this field interests me. I have heard many times over here at UT, that there are more bacteria cells in/on your body than there are your own cells, so I definitely believe that these bacterium have to be affecting humans in some way, and FRIome could possibly help to determine how.
Being part of the research community at UT has helped me succeed because you get to meet a tone of ridiculously smart and friendly people and you also learn a lot of techniques that can help you in your future research or labs. I actually went into my Chemistry Lab course with a great understanding of techniques, lab protocols, and tools simply because I had a great learning experience in the DIY Diagnostic stream.
I think the funniest part of the stream was that many of us students would be so completely lost at times and think that everyone else knows what they are doing, but when you talk to students you realize we’re all on the same page. After the first couple of weeks, when all the students were settled in and friends were made, that is when the serious work went down because there was a great sense of community and everyone collaborated to achieve success and spread the skills we had just learned. I think that was a major experience of the stream.
Compared to other undergrads who have done research outside of this stream, or FRI in general, the DIY Diagnostics stream definitely puts a lot of emphasis on student participation. We are the ones collecting samples, analyzing data, and the results. I think it is very important to be a part of every step in the research and we are given every opportunity to do so. I see diagnostics as moving in the direction of primarily “at-home” diagnostics because they will generally be faster and cheaper, and guess what, this stream is called DIY (do it yourself) Diagnostics, and I see this DIY diagnostic stream as a way to force upon the world a more stringent focus on accessibility to technologies we have to capability to produce and help accelerate the production of “at-home” diagnostics.