I joined the DIY Diagnostics stream because I am a pre-med student and it sounded really interesting to be able to do research and make my own diagnostic tool. I felt that being a part of this stream and learning how to apply research to diagnostic testing was something I could use later on in my career as a physician. I’m really excited about different possibilities of improving testing on different diseases. There’s been a lot of hype surrounding possibly getting a diagnostic for Zika virus, so that is definitely something I would be excited to see one of my classmates work on.
Sometimes explaining what FRI is to people who don’t really understand it can be a challenge. The most typical question that is asked is, “How are you conducting research now, you’re only a freshmen?” I always just say that FRI stands for the Freshmen Research Initiative and so the whole point of the program is to introduce aspiring scientists to the world of research early on in order to ensure that research is a career that they would like to pursue after college.
Being a part of FRI has really helped me here at UT. I’ve learned so much about working in a lab and conducting my own experiments and following protocol. This experience is something that no other UT student gets to have, also another perk is that when sitting in a Gen. Chem. lecture and the professor mentions PCR you’ll not only know what that stands for, but you will know exactly how it works and have run a PCR before going to that class. As a part of FRI there is so much hands on experience and it’s a really unique environment to learn in.
One interesting thing that is typical of the DIY stream is that as a part of the course we learn to code apps. I found this experience really enlightening. I found out that I really don’t like coding, however I am glad that I had this experience because at times it was fun to be able to make my own app and build it from scratch. While coding can be frustrating it is definitely a skill that could come in handy some day and at the very least it was never boring.
Another cool perk, this year since Zika virus has been such a big deal in the news and DIY was working on a diagnostic for it, I actually got to be featured on the nightly news for working on my lab project for the week. The great thing about this stream and FRI in general is that you have the chance to preform ground breaking research and sometimes you will get recognized for your work in cool ways (like being featured on the news). And if for some reason working on a Zika diagnostic sounds unappealing then there is always the opportunity to work on your own research project in the Fall Semester, and you can work on whatever interests you and it can be something completely different than what your classmates are working on. The great thing is that while your research ideas may be vastly different, the same basic skills needed to conduct that research are the same, and that is something you can learn in FRI.