Hi future researchers,
I welcome you all to your first year here at the University of Texas at Austin. Our campus has various facilities that you will be able to explore, however the university is known for various research breakthroughs. I would like to congratulate everyone for being accepted into the FRI program and taking advantage of this opportunity to experience what it’s like to work in a laboratory. I want to introduce to you a stream where our goal is to develop conventional methods to improve healthcare by making it accessible to every household. We are DIY Diagnostics and we are here to make a difference for the community and developing diagnostics by utilizing tools that are available/accessible to undergraduate researchers.
When I visited the DIY Diagnostics lab during the last few weeks of being in my FRI class, it was interesting to see the various independent projects that students were working on. An example of this was during the tour of the lab as Dr. Riedel was discussing how one of his students was working with artificial intelligence. The students that were with him were also able to explain the flexibility that they have with the student’s schedule such as how many hours you need to come into lab per week and the kind of work to expect when you join. The overall tour of the facility had influenced me to make this research as one of my top choices to conduct research and learn more about the stream.
Some projects that I had enjoyed doing throughout the year was learning how to code, and field sampling. When Dr. Reidel first introduced an assignment where we would need to code, my initial reaction was, “Do we need to have any previous knowledge to code? I have never done this before…” I was in panic as I had no experience in coding, however he was able to guide us by using different programs such as Codecademy, GitHub, etc. Not only I learned how to code but I was able to learn how to collect samples from Waller Creek. The objective of collecting the creek water was to extract DNA and observe the type of organisms residing there.
I hope that by sharing my experience with DIY Diagnostics will encourage you to join our stream. The memories and hardships you will face in our lab will be worth it and you won’t ever be working alone. There will always be someone there for you to help and guide you, therefore never hesitate to ask for assistance.