STIP Student Kinda Dabbagh Explores Forensic Nursing

I've always been drawn to research and I stumbled upon this opportunity by mistake. I love my major (nursing) and I’ve committed to pursuing psychiatric nursing. Detecting subtle injuries and photographing them can make a huge difference to anyone who has been through an instance of physical violence and being a part of a study that is trying to improve the clinical protocols for it made applying a no-brainer.

My long-term goal is to get my NP and help open a psychiatric ER. Domestic violence is an area of interest for me and exploring the forensic nurse specialty has opened my eyes to many details that I would need to consider when working with persons who have been through instances of physical violence. 

Every week is a different challenge. I do a lot of data analysis, but we were also given the opportunity to conduct our own study. Participant recruitment takes more energy than I anticipated, and we spend a significant amount of time on that. The rest of our time is dedicated to actually carrying out the study. 

I discovered that thinking critically is a skill and that I still have a lot to learn. I’m so grateful to have been exposed to minds that are creative and flexible. I was never particularly good at school; I still am not, but learning that thinking is a skill made a huge impact on me. Skills can be developed, and I hope that I can get to where I want to be.

STIP Student Levern Currie Implements Neural Engineering with Cybernetic Research

I would like to think that my journey into this project began during the fall semester of my freshman year. I was working in the neural engineering lab, learning robotics and other topics that not only have served as a means of giving me the foundation that I have used for other projects, but also opening up many other opportunities to meet new people, explore and discuss new topics and work on projects that ultimately will help influence and even change the world around us; which, has helped me in my pursuit of being able to study brain and mind, along with robotics, and the multifaceted approaches that has the opportunity to apply directly towards a multitude of fields/topics. I am fascinated with the topic of human-machine interfaces of all types, along with the potential of cybernetics research.

I would like to think that I, like many others, am still unsure of as to what exactly it is, that I would like to do in the long term. Ideally, I plan on going into a PhD program after I graduate this Spring. It would also be pretty cool if I begin a startup in the next few months, all the while, continuing to produce and publish research papers, while working on developing other robotic systems and implementing them on both small-and large-scale platforms. Which is ultimately, what my research and other projects have led me to. 

When I am not doing research or working on robots, I can normally be, playing in the green machine, or chilling at home with my pets. I also enjoy going on adventures, visiting new places, going out and in general just fitting as much excitement and fun as possible, that my lifestyle permits. During this term, I have discovered that there are so many possibilities available to those who not only look hard but are also willing to work hard to achieve that which at the beginning, may have seemed like an impossible feat. I’ve also discovered the importance of partnerships and helping people even if there is no clear benefit at the time. There are also many other things I have learned this summer, mainly how I have been able to overcome what seemed to have been limitations and make the most out of some dicey situations.

STIP Student Don Cederland Studied Sports Medicine under the National Athletic Trainers Association

Research is a large part of our degree path and career field, so staying up to date on the latest evidence-based practice is imperative. Diving into conducting and gaining more experience will make me not only a better researcher but also a more knowledgeable clinician. Furthermore, Having the experience will help with job opportunities to further expand in the field of research, or create more opportunities within the fields we are currently working.

I would like to become an educator within academia and to have the knowledge and understanding to teach younger generations within health and science. In addition, constantly staying up to date with current practices as a requirement through the National Athletic Trainers Association (NATA), helps to maintain our license and certifications. Every week, we would meet Monday through Thursday. Monday and Wednesday would be the movement and fitness testing and baseline data collection, along with an educational/ research discussion meeting. Tuesday and Thursday were lab services at the Sports medicine assessment and research testing lab, where we would conduct VO2-max tests, resting metabolic rate assessments, and body mass assessments.

The biggest learning curve for myself during this summer was the meticulous data collection and making sure that everything matched up. Having a standard to follow helps but things are subjective when dealing with a group of people. Making sure everyone follows the same protocol when documenting data and stating that when writing our research.

STIP Student Owen Conducts In-Depth Electrical Analysis of Hydropwer Micro-turbine to Charge Cell Phones

I started working on this project a little over a year and a half ago. My project began when I was approached by Dr. Jen about working on the project. This project has been enjoyable to research and now recently to construct. This project became very important to my long-term goals because it allowed me to experience what it is like to create something along side of other engineers. The project also has a vision of helping to provide a clean source of energy to other countries that are in need. That is important to me because as an engineer it is important to me to be able to create something positive for the world.

Each week is different with this project. I am the head of a small engineering team that meets weekly to discuss calculations needed for the project and ideas of how to advance it. Currently we have begun construction and each week we move forward with that. Once the meeting comes to a close I usually delegate work to different people then I figure out what I need to find during the week as well as help others with any questions. I also regularly meet with professors to check the work that has been done to ensure our project is not missing anything or is incorrect in any way. 

This all has allowed me to discover myself as a leader and as an engineer. It has also allowed me to discover what real world research is like because I have had to figure out mathematics that I have never done before, and I have had to learn about turbines which I knew little about coming into the project. Studying other people’s designs and learning how to calculate things and create a design of my own using real world resources truly made me realize how fun engineering can be.

STIP Student Will Barnett Focuses on Programming a System that Detects Large Ejections from the Sunusing Images Studying Solar Radii

My name is Will Barnett and I am a senior physics major with a concentration in astrophysics. I have spent this summer of 2019 performing research as a part of the URSP program. The focus of my research has been the development of a program that can automatically detect large ejections from the Sunusing images from a telescope that can see up to a distance of 30 solar radii. The detections are marked on the processed images and are then uploaded online.

This project was my first experience conducting research, and I have to say that it was much less intimidating than I expected. The other people in the Space Weather Lab, where I did my research, are very friendly and relaxed. This calm and supportive environment was perfect for my research, as I spent my time programming and would frequently ask for assistance from those around me. My mentor, Dr. Jie Zhang, was certainly extremely helpful in this way. Several times throughout the summer I would be stuck after working on the same issue for a week, but after just a few hours of Dr. Zhang’s assistance I would be able to move on to the next step in the process of my research.

My experience conducting research this summer has been incredibly beneficial to me. The freedom and opportunities to thrive that were provided to me during this project has shown me what I want out of a future career. I desire an occupation that allows me to pursue solutions to problems with a large amount of freedom during the problem-solving process. I strongly commend George Mason University and OSCAR for this fantastic program that has helped introduce me to the professional world. I very much hope that the rest of my career contains many more experiences like this.