This week has been a whirlwind of excitement and anticipation. John Paul and I spent our time rehearsing our pitch, and as I type this, I am about to present at the symposium. I am thrilled and grateful for this incredible experience.

Preparing for the Symposium

Rehearsing our presentation with John Paul has been a key focus. We’ve refined our delivery and ensured that our pitch effectively communicates our research findings. The hard work and practice have paid off, and we’re ready to showcase our efforts.

Gratitude and Reflections

Being part of this research internship has been an amazing journey. I have learned so much and grown both personally and professionally. I am immensely grateful to Sunny Kim, our mentor, for her invaluable guidance and support. John Paul has been an incredible partner, making this experience collaborative and enjoyable. A huge thank you to Dr. Vicky Yao for allowing us to be part of her lab, and to Faiza for ensuring we stayed on track throughout the internship.

Final Thanks

Lastly, I want to thank all the RSTEM interns this summer. Sharing this experience with such a talented and supportive group of individuals has been a highlight of my internship.

Thank you all, and until next time!

Week 6 of my rice research internship was short due to the Fourth of July weekend, but it was still packed with valuable experiences. The highlight of my week was attending a workshop about Syzygy Plasmonics and learning about their growth journey.

Workshop on Syzygy Plasmonics

During the workshop, I was amazed to learn that Syzygy Plasmonics has been in business for 6-7 years and is still considered a startup. This was a surprising information for me, as I always thought startups quickly transition into established companies. The session provided deep insights into the unique growth patterns of startups, emphasizing that not all companies follow a linear growth trajectory.

One of the most important lessons I took away from the workshop is that perseverance is key. The story of Syzygy Plasmonics highlighted that success doesn’t always come quickly, and it’s okay to have a prolonged growth phase. What matters most is the commitment to your vision and the willingness to keep pushing forward despite challenges.

Personal Reflection

This realization resonated deeply with me. It reassured me that my journey, both in my internship and future endeavors, doesn’t have to follow a predefined path. Embracing the unique challenges and staying persistent will ultimately lead to growth and success.

Reflecting on my experiences and sharing them through this blog has become something I look forward to each week. It’s a great way to process my learning and share insights.

Thank you for following along with my journey. Despite the short week, it was filled with impactful learning. Stay tuned for more updates as I continue my research internship! Week 6 may have been brief, but it was filled with important lessons and new perspectives. Excited for what’s next!

Week 5 of my rice research internship has been incredibly rewarding. This week marked a major milestone as I successfully created 26 graphs to visualize feature importance across our vast datasets. It was immensely satisfying to see thousands of data points come to life visually. However, the journey didn’t end there.

Enhancing Graphs for Clarity

Initially, the graphs were quite small due to the sheer volume of data. Thanks to Sunny’s advice, I converted them to a log scale, significantly improving clarity and readability. This adjustment not only enhanced the visual impact but also provided deeper insights into the data patterns.

Exploring Thresholds and Cutoffs

Following Sunny’s guidance, I began experimenting with different thresholds and cutoffs. Setting mine at 0.5, I analyzed how many Cpg sites passed this threshold, gaining valuable insights into the significance of different data points. This exploration is crucial as it helps us refine our understanding and focus our research efforts effectively.

Meeting with Dr. Vicky

I also had the opportunity to meet with Dr. Vicky, who provided encouraging feedback on my progress so far. Her support and validation affirmed that I’m on the right track with my research goals. Her insights and guidance continue to be instrumental in shaping my project’s direction.

Looking Ahead

As I reflect on this week’s accomplishments, I am filled with excitement for the next steps. With my visualizations refined and thresholds set, I am eager to delve deeper into our research findings. The journey has been challenging yet immensely fulfilling, and I look forward to what the next week will bring.

Enjoying the Blogging Journey

On a personal note, documenting my internship experience in this blog post has been unexpectedly enjoyable. It has allowed me to reflect on my achievements and share my excitement for research with others. I look forward to continuing to document my journey and sharing more stories of my up’s and down’s.

Week 5 has been a week of milestones and learning. I’m excited to see where this journey takes me next!

Week 4 of my rice research internship was all about gearing up for a significant challenge: creating 26 graphs for our datasets. After meeting with Dr. Vicky, she encouraged us to focus on improving our Python skills using Kaggle, a task that filled most of our week. I dove deep into various datasets and honed my abilities with libraries like Pandas, Matplotlib, and Seaborn, tackling several hands-on challenges to build my confidence in data manipulation and visualization. Throughout the week, John Paul and I stayed closely connected, sharing insights and aligning our approaches to ensure consistency in our upcoming work. We collaborated on our weekly slides presentation for Dr. Vicky’s lab meeting, showcasing our newfound skills and initial visualizations. The presentation went well, and we received valuable feedback that will guide us as we move forward. Now, with our preparations complete, we’re ready and excited to take on the task of creating those 26 graphs next week.

Week 3 of My Rice Research Internship: Learning and Growing Through Data Challenges

Exploring Data Visualization

This week, I delved deep into a few data visualization techniques to effectively communicate our research insights:

• Heatmaps: Visualizing data density and patterns to uncover correlations.
• Histograms: Analyzing data distributions to understand central tendencies.
• Pairplot: Exploring relationships between multiple variables simultaneously.

Overcoming Challenges with Guidance

I encountered challenges along the way, including a setback in my approach to a task. Thanks to Sunny’s expert guidance, I quickly corrected my course and regained momentum. I realized that I tried to run my huge dataset of 475k+ columns and after waiting over 15 minutes for my code to run, I asked sunny and she said that’s a wrong idea.

Meeting with Dr. Vicky and Taking on Complex Tasks

During a meeting with Dr. Vicky, I realized I would have to create 26 separate graphs—a daunting prospect at first. However, I look forward to embracing the challenge next week with determination, realizing that perseverance and continuous learning are key to achieving our goals in research.

Embracing the Learning Journey

Reflecting on this week’s experiences, I’ve come to appreciate the importance of resilience and adaptability in research. Each challenge has been an opportunity for personal and professional growth, reinforcing my commitment to mastering data analysis and visualization techniques.

Week 2 of My Rice Research Internship: Jumping into Data Visualization

This week marked an exciting step in my research internship. Meeting my mentor and research partner, John Paul, online via Microsoft Teams set the stage for a productive and insightful week into our project. Here’s a quick rundown of our progress and plans.

Meeting the Team

We kicked off the week with a productive meeting on Microsoft Teams. Our mentor sunny and John Paul, my research partner, were both ready to dive into the details of our project. Having already met last week, we quickly caught up on our progress and our goals. Our mentor’s insights about what our tasks were invaluable, and John Paul and I talked more and we got papers that she recommended we read.

Project Focus: Data Visualization

Our main task this week was to think about how we can best visualize and summarize the data we’ll be working with. Effective visualization is crucial as it helps turn raw data into comprehensible and impactful insights.

We have two key datasets to explore:

1. The Default Dataset (My Focus)
2. The Structural-Aware Dataset (John Paul’s Focus)

Although still working and having a good time, our next steps involve diving deeper into each dataset to summarize their key features and begin crafting our visualizations.

Reflecting on the Week

This week has been instrumental in setting a strong foundation for our project. The collaboration with John Paul and the guidance from Sunny have been crucial. I’m eager to see how our visualization efforts will transform our data insights in the coming weeks.

Hello Earth!

So, picture this: it’s my first week in the virtual Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) internship at Rice University. It’s been a ride—a mix of nerves, excitement, and a whole lot of learning packed into just a few days.

It started with a long orientation session the first day, but meeting my fellow interns made it better. Seriously, such a diverse and enthusiastic group! Dr. Zafar and Dr. Clay were amazing too, answering all our questions and making sure we had everything we needed to hit the ground running.

Then came day two, the day we met our mentors. Let me tell you about Sunny—total icon. She’s in her fifth year of her Ph.D., and she broke down our project into bite-sized pieces for me. As a computer science student, I was stoked to hear we’d be diving into Python for data analysis. I’ve dabbled a bit before, but learning from the pros? That’s a whole new ball game.

I got to meet Dr Vicky and the rest of the lab on day 2 to and every week, I and my partner John Paul will meet with her. Hearing about everyone’s projects and passions was downright inspiring. I left that meeting feeling like part of something bigger, like I was truly a part of the Rice research community.

So, what’s my project all about? Think data science meets epigenetics. We’re diving deep into the world of DNA, analyzing how it varies across different tissues. It’s like uncovering secrets encoded in our genes, and I couldn’t be more excited to crack the code. 

Oh, and did I mention exploring the Rice campus? Getting lost, hopping on buses—it’s been an adventure. This place feels so homey, with its cozy vibe and a lot greenery.

As my first week wraps up, I’m filled with anticipation for what’s to come. With mentors like Sunny and Vicky, and a project that’s as fascinating as it is challenging, I know the weeks ahead will be nothing short of amazing. Here’s to diving deeper into the world of data science and epigenetics—and maybe getting a little lost along the way.

Avey