DIY Diagnostics is an awesome stream where you can work on fascinating and relevant projects that most people just don’t have the opportunity to do in their freshman year. I chose to do DIY Diagnostics because there were so many different areas to work in. In addition to the fact that we get to dabble in 3D printing, we also got some experience with computer science. It was very often difficult to do figure out how to code things I didn’t really know about but I learned so much from it.
For me, the most exciting diagnostic idea is finding a LAMP protocol for Zika virus. We have been talking about working on Zika since day one and have made incredible amounts of progress in finding a way to create a diagnostic. However, we still have so much work ahead of us and are working hard every day in lab to see what new results we can get.
What we are working with is not the same as what you do in a lab course or in high school. The experiments we come up with are not standardized or found in a science textbook and we never know what our outcome will be. Because of this I like to consider myself a researcher. This is what makes FRI such a great program. While the students who do research are most often near graduation or grad students, FRI allows freshmen with no experience to gain that hands-on knowledge that everyone wishes they had.
Being a part of the research community has helped me most in time management. The required hours might seem overwhelming for people at first but it’s really a matter of making sure you block out enough time to go to lab and get work done and stick to your schedule. I had a hard time coming to terms with the fact that my “free time” that showed up on my schedule was actually my pre-determined lab time. I’m not gonna lie, every time I had to show up for lab I dreaded it. But once I was here I would get lost in my work and accidentally stay an extra hour just working on my notebook or coding.
Coding is not my forte. I realized this every time we had an app assignment. It was fun but it was a struggle for me. I liked being able to say that I was making a mobile app. And when something I did worked I would get so excited. I don’t hate doing coding, I just never want to do it again. However, doing the coding stuff I really learned just how helpful it is to work with people. I used to take for granted the times I would collaborate with someone on a difficult task but it really is life-saving to be able to work through problems with another person.
Overall, it’s a very fun experience and I would recommend anyone to do it. I never once saw myself being in a lab and doing research and being able to talk to someone and say “hey so my research lab is doing this…”. I realize now why so many people were trying to convince me to do it. You meet people, you do science, you learn a lot and you find something you love here.