Hi future DIY Students!
If you’re reading this, you are probably looking into joining the DIY Diagnostics stream – which is a great decision by the way! As a current researcher in the FRI lab I’ll tell you some of the reasons DIY should be top on everyone’s stream list.
When I joined the DIY stream in 2013 it was brand new. No mentors, no students, nobody had come before my class. The stream was roughly described as having the end goal of creating a “diagnostic”. Most of my peers and I imagined this to mean that we would be making pregnancy test type devices, only for diseases. The stream seemed to offer a viable end product and a model of how to get there. That turned out to not really be true at all.
The first important thing we learned was that diagnostic doesn’t imply illness. Diagnostics can be created that deal with fracking, pollution, mouth bacteria, most anything you can think of. Diagnostics don’t even have to be held in your hand – they can be digital. We diagnose aches and pains with the internet every day, and apps are one of the simplest ways to get your diagnostic out in the world. Over the summer another girl in the stream and I worked on a diagnostic that tells travelers what diseases to look out for where they are traveling. Not anything like a home pregnancy test, but still effective at being a diagnostic tool.
Another important lesson I learned is that an end product after one semester is highly unlikely. However I also came to realize that a finished product is nice but should never be a serious researcher’s goal. What researchers should aim for, and what this stream provides, is an opportunity to see progress. Whether you’re making an online diagnostic or you’re researching in the lab, progress equals success. Not all labs allow students the opportunity to progress with their own research, so don’t underestimate the value of being able to create and refine your own product.
The last thing I want to say is that when you come to the stream open houses and talk to us one of you is going to ask us what the time requirements are or how hard the stream is. It happened in every open house I went to, and it was the main thing many people considered when choosing a stream. No lab you visit is going to have a 20 hour a week requirement, and no lab is going to have a 1 hour requirement. Pick a lab where you won’t mind spending your time, where you can do something worthwhile, where you feel safe and appreciated, and where you can accomplish your goals for being in FRI in the first place. I joined the stream that I did because I felt that DIY met all of those points, and I haven’t been disappointed yet.