Second-to-last hello everyone!

 

This week was filled with great work, some highlights below:

Monday – I worked on my poster all day on desktops in the lab and library since I left my laptop charger at home. My progress did not save on my laptop so I’m glad I supplemented the work on my OneDrive during this time! It was a very rough draft.

Tuesday – This day started with an optional OURI meeting about resumes presented by the CCD at Rice. The tips and information were extremely valuable and easy to implement into my resume/CV. Then we had our weekly meeting with Dr. Zafar which focused on poster feedback. I plan on implementing the most common critiques from the note cards. I synthesized copper nanocubes for the rest of the day since I ran out for doping.

Wednesday – I headed straight to the lab to synthesize my final catalyst experiment which was doping the copper nanocubes with palladium and gold. I also completed the elevator pitch assignment, which I found difficult in the sense I had to be very general with my problem and solution, as my exact experiments didn’t really solve the main problem.

Thursday – I spray coated the catalyst onto the carbon paper, then ran a flow cell test with the synthesized catalyst. My electrolyzer was leaking so I’ll have to reassemble and rerun the test. I found it hard to get work done since it was very rainy and gloomy outside, it made me miss relaxing in my PJs and sleeping in.

Friday – I started off the morning at a meeting with Dr. Zafar and presented my PowerPoint presentation. I received some great feedback that I’ll need for presenting my poster. For the rest of the day, I edited and revamped my poster and sent it to my mentor. I will be continuing to work on it during the weekend to have it approved by my mentor. I went to the last social event at the RMC, which was nice to see some of the other R-STEM students. I have been feeling very down lately so it was nice to be in a group where I felt like I belonged.

Overall, this week was productive. I’ve enjoyed any chance I get to hang out with the other interns and discuss the good, bad, and in-betweens.

 

Until next time,

Chloe