I picked the DIY Diagnostics stream because I like the idea of people taking the initiative when it comes to their health. The simple diagnostics reach conclusions quickly and allow people to take appropriate medical action if necessary. DIY Diagnostics aims to give people more responsibility when it comes to their health, and as someone who hopes to go into the medical field, I think that it is a great way to encourage public health and to promote individual health awareness.
Right now, an emerging problem is the ZIKA virus, and I am excited that we are getting the opportunity to work on a cost-efficient and effective diagnostic for the ZIKA virus.
At first, I did not consider myself a scientist because during the first semester of DIY, I did not realize the importance of the assignments we were doing. I thought they were just designed to teach us basic lab techniques. But I thought that it was really cool that Dr. Riedel compiled our experimental data and used it to help improve the Waller Creek study. I was amazed at all that could be done to analyze the data and how that data could be used to improve future experiments. After that, I realized that each thing in lab had a purpose and that with every experiment, we were in fact contributing to science as a whole.
Doing research has caused me to start thinking in a different way. It has led me to question the world around me more and more, and as a result I have felt more engaged in the other courses I have taken at UT. I can even use what I have done in DIY to help me understand other concepts in biology and chemistry because I have actually done hands-on activities to help me learn about them.
The lab itself is a nice and collaborative environment, and I have made many friends while participating in this stream. Everyone is basically in the same position as you, so it’s nice to be able to work with others on experiments and bounce ideas off each other for future projects. Even when we are doing serious projects in lab, we manage to have fun.
I think that the greatest I have felt during my time in DIY was when I finally started to figure out how to code. It was a completely foreign language to me when I started DIY, and I had no idea why my code worked and didn’t work half of the time. But after a while, it finally clicked, and now I know some basic coding that can help me make apps in the future. I just remember feeling extremely accomplished when I was able to tell the computer program to make a blue rectangle appear on the screen when you pressed a button (it’s more complicated than you think).
FRI has definitely been a great experience for me because it has helped open doors to new possibilities and new research topics. I know that some other people have struggled in labs because they really want to do research but sometimes they’re restricted by what they can do in their assignments whereas in DIY Diagnostics you have the freedom to explore. I would definitely recommend this stream to others because it fosters creativity, teaches lab techniques and coding, improves your scientific writing and communication skills, and allows you to do your own research.