Hello World,
At the time of this writing, the date is June 03, 2024, marking the start of Week Two. I forgot to mention this in last week’s post, but I haven’t been able to conduct experiments in the lab yet because I need to complete my SEA training. If all goes right, I could get my SEA training this week so I can begin working in the lab but until then, I will be at my cubicle learning more about Rheology and what it entails. By the end of this week, my goal is to be able to explain what Rheology is a lot clearer than I can now.
Continuing my summarization, I’ve included below how each day went and what I learned highlighted in red.
Monday 06/03: I started my day by stopping by the RUPD to get my ID fixed because I couldn’t get access to my lab and was issued a new card. I then drove to Greenbriar Lot where I waited for the shuttle to arrive. Upon arriving at the lab, I tried the new card but it didn’t work either. I was informed by my mentor that it may take about 24 hours for my card to work so I will give it another try again tomorrow. Today, I spent most of my hours at my desk learning about new terms such as Thixotropy which is the property of certain fluids and gels to become thinner when a constant force is applied. Not quite sure how to properly pronounce that term just yet but we’ll get there. For lunch, I went to the Rice Memorial Center and bought a sandwich which cost about $11. The sandwich tasted a lot better than I thought so definitely recommend it to anyone who is looking to get something on campus.
Tuesday 06/04: Today’s schedule was slightly different than what my typical day looked like. To start it off, I had the OURI meeting today which occurs every Tuesday from 9am to 10am with today marking the first day. The content covered different mentor relationship and mentor styles. We had several examples where we had to come with solutions for the given scenarios. Next we had a workshop on how to read literature. The first half was spent going over areas of concerns as well as questions that we may have. This made me feel sort of behind as most people have already begun getting their hands dirty and were working in the lab. However, I did leave with some nuggets of wisdom on how to approach reading literature by realizing that skimming over an article isn’t lazy but rather efficient and encouraged. After that, I headed to my cubicle where I continued my research on Rheology.
Wednesday 06/05: Today was more of a lazy day for me. Starting off the day, I texted my mentor if I could have the chance to work from home given the fact that I haven’t begun any work in the lab quite work. This saved me hours of commute as well as gave me the chance to finish up some assignments that were coming up on canvas and for my mentor as well. I also did more research on my topic, specifically areas that were already known to gain a better understanding of what’s to come.
Thursday 06/06: The commute to campus today was quite different than what I normally experience. I left my house at 7:10 am in preparation to arrive at Rice around 8:28 am, however, there was a severe accident that caused a delay of 28 minutes. Past that accident, I was also caught in another wave of traffic that delayed my whole commute drastically. This led me to arrive at the Greenbriar Lot at 9:30 am. I then waited for the bus for approximately 18 minutes and realized that by the time I arrived at the BRK, I would have missed the whole presentation so I decided to head into my cubicle. I did more research on the computer and with the help of my mentor, I was able to learn a new term today known as amplitude sweep. Amplitude sweeps generally aim at describing the deformation behavior of samples in the non-destructive deformation range.
Friday 06/07: Last day of the week. Bad news, I wasn’t able to get my SEA training done this week like I was hoping but good news, I was able to get them scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday of next week which means I’ll be able to get some hands on experience any time soon. So far through out this week, I’ve been able to learn some thing new bringing me closer and closer to understanding my project. Today, I learnt that optical tweezers allow for precision active micro rheology measurements. I also gave a presentation on what I’ve learned to my mentor as outlined by the Mentor Compact.
Lots of repetitiveness this week but each produced a different outcome. I look forward to getting some time experimenting with the polymers next week. Until then.
Cheers,
Samuel
Thanks for all the details you provided in your blog and the different terms you learned this week. I wonder how Thixtropy and Rheology are connected?
I hope your presentation to the mentor went well – I bet the OURI workshop on Journal Clubs came in handy?
It’s all very complex and still blurred to me right now but in my understanding, Thixotropy is one of many properties that some viscoelastic materials exhibit, and viscoelasticity is a subtopic under rheology.
Samuel, it’s great that while you are awaiting an opportunity for hands-on learning that you are familiarizing yourself with the theory that accompanies your research. You will find this information useful once you start with hands-on experimentation. Stay engaged and focused on the work you’re doing!