Day 6: 112 Liters of Smelly Pee

Today was disgusting… all we did was transfer human urine from gallon milk jugs to graduated cylinders to giant containers so that the urine could be filtered and sterilized. Eventually we had transferred and poured 112 liters of pee from place to place. It was utterly gross. Personally, I thought the pee smelled like wet dog food; however, some of the donor’s pee smelled way worse than that. At least we could pass the time and get our minds off of the scent with jokes made by the lab workers. It was reassuring to know that the lab workers weren’t super serious about human urine and could be quite humorous about the subject. It was also very humorous when the lab manager spilled pee all over Jonathan’s lab coat on accident, which down his leg and into his shoe a bit. It was very funny how comfortable they all were dealing with human urine

Me pouring urine from a gallon jug to a 4 L graduated cylinder:

Jonathan pouring urine from the graduated cylinder into the big jug (it is evident from his face that he is not enjoying it):

A total of 112 L of human urine:

I wouldn’t consider today really fun or informative, but I guess it was cool to witness how the dirty work gets done, and how essential it actually is to forensics. I will definitely not take this kind of stuff for granted again! – Kiran W.

Day 6: Ubatuba!

(that’s the name of a popular, black granite type, by the way.)
Grace again! Today was another paperwork day, where we went further back into the records and consolodated more delivery reports and invoices of previous months. Also, Charlene described to us the process of wholesaling, where she contacts the sellers and creates a business deal solely through email, arranging shipping, order amount, and transport. We learned the process of how the granite is purchased, displayed, and sold, and even got to walk through the warehouse following customers to see the process of picking out granite!

The beautiful warehouse itself, what a nice day!

The granites are impressive and beautiful, even from an amateur perspective. Vitoria Regis (the one in green in the picture) is one of my favorites!

Day 5: Using Drugs at Work?

Today we our first day at RTI working with the forensic science department. We started the day with a brief presentation on “Mass Spectrometry”, which is using a machine to identify drugs by separating them out of a substance by analyzing the unknown drug compound using its known molecular mass. We then got a tour of the labs and were able to actually use a mass spectrometer to identify certain drugs. We were able to identify drugs such as cocaine and codeine.

Jonathan pipetting a solution containing an unknown drug onto a transfer sheet to place into the mass spectrometer:

Then, we were able to go and use a very powerful microscope that was able to zoom in on individual molecules so that we could analyze their crystal lattice structures.

Me using the microscope to examine grains of salt (NaCl):

The enlarged grains of salt on a computer screen:

Overall today was a pretty interesting day and I got to learn some neat things about chemistry that I didn’t even learn in my ADV Chemistry class this year! – Kiran W.

Day 4: It made a lasting “impression” on us

Today was a very interesting day because we got to learn about different patients’ backstories, and one backstory in particular amazed us. Referred to as Carolina Ear and Hearing Clinic’s most interesting patients (at least by us), this patient came in for her hearing aid upgrade to a newer model, and we learned a lot about her during her visit. She was born fairly deaf – so much so that the first time that she heard birds chirping was when she was 45 years old! Thus, when she was younger, learned how to speak fluent English without ever hearing her own voice! She also passed nursing school only by reading lips! Jonathan and I were amazed. This patient was a very cool person to have been able to meet. After this patient, it was time for our lunch break, and the staff surprised us with pizza to celebrate our last day at the clinic! It was really generous of them to do that, which made us even sadder to leave when the workday ended. Before we left however, we were able to play around with some of the impression substance that the audiologists put in people’s ears if they need to have a custom hearing aid built to fit their ear.

Nicolle, one of the audiologists, demonstrating how to fill y ear canal with the impression putty:

Jonathan attempting to fill my other ear with the putty:

My ear canal with the impression putty filling it:

Me filling Nicolle’s ear with impression putty:

At the end of the day we were really sad to leave the office as we had such an amazing week interning at Carolina Ear and Hearing Clinic. It was one of my most influential experiences up to date, and I am so grateful that we had this opportunity! – Kiran W.

The Good the Bad and the Ugly

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At a lunch meeting today I was asked what I would change about the intern program at RTI, my answer: nothing.

There was a tense silence during which Cameron and I looked at each other, both deliberating the entire experience, but everything had gone so well I couldn’t think of anything even remotely critical to say. Take today for instance, we met so many different, amazing, people. First we met Marty, a chemical engineer, who was so incredibly passionate about his work that he talked to us for hours about alternative fuel and increasing the efficiency of preexisting fuel options. He even toured us around all the labs and pointed out different radiators and their functions.

Then came Seung-Hyu Cho. She grew up and studied in South Korea before realizing she wanted to be a scientist and transferred to the University of Cincinnati to fulfill her dream. She talked about her job at RTI and how she got to where she is. Stephanie also shared her experience coming from Clemson to a corporate lab to RTI. But of course the lunch was not complete without a lengthy conversation about cats!

The coolest part of the day came when Stephanie and I (and later Phil) assembled test HIV devices from the films we cast yesterday. The job was tedious no doubt, and I’m sure Stephanie dreads every minute, but I thought it was so much fun to work in a group – constantly solving problems, coming up with new solutions, and joking about it the whole time. I learned how to heat seal the film and stuff the “drug” into the film using a complex (and rather scrappy) series of homemade funnels and “poking devices”. As it turns out I know about pretty much no movies ever. To quote Phil, “ask her if she knows a movie..any movie…the answer will be no”. And ironically a high tech lab filled with millions of dollars of equipment has a lack of functioning scissors (which caused us to label them with happy or sad faces). I think it’s awesome how they can make every chore fun and exciting. It truly is a testament to the ambiance of RTI. I wish I could never leave.

Testing out our device with this gigantic needle

Left: Phil goofing around with the labeled scissors- the good, the bad, and the ugly 🙂 😦

Right: Hey look that’s me!

Day 6: Contacts

I returned to the Southpoint location today and continued to shadow Dr. Besharat. There were a lot of patients who came in for contact lenses today. Through shadowing I got learn about the distinct differences between using glasses and contact lenses. Glasses are usually more effective than contacts for two reasons. The first is that a contact lens makes contact with the surface of the eye which can lead to dryness and irritation on the eye. Dryness and irritation ultimately lead to a compromise of a patients vision. If not managed correctly dryness can lead to clouded vision and ultimately the contact lenses cannot be used again and the patient will have to go back to glasses. The second reason for the change in disparity is because of astigmatism. Astigmatism is irregularity in he curverture of the surface of the eye. Instead of being one smooth curve, the eye has varying areas of sloping. These variances lead to light entering the eye in irregular way and vision to be compromised. Glasses can be custom made to a persons eye so a correction for astigmatism can be added. The shape of a contact lens is standard and there are limitations to the amount if astigmatism correction that can be added to the prescription. In general a contact lens and glasses have different prescription because the lens sits on the surface of the eye whereas glasses sit on the ridge of the nose so there is a gap between the correction and the eyes. The below photos are of the machinery used to read the glasses, evaluate and rectify the prescription, and also of a case with lenses in them that can be used to mimic the effect of a contact lens:

Katie Day 6-Peachy

Today I helped run the Interfaith Food Shuttle stand at the Wakemed Farmer’s Market again. There were even more vendors than last week! I recognized some familiar faces, and also met some new local businesses. My favorite stand was the peach/peach ice cream stand right beside us, which smelled delicious all day! It was also great to meet some of the same EBT customers I had seen last week. On woman with three children remarked how she had been waiting all year for the Wakemed Farmer’s Market to open back up for the season. It’s wonderful to see the direct impact of bringing fresh produce to a food desert.

Peach stand customers

Panoramic view of the market

Katie Day 4-Farm Fresh

Today I got a tour of the Interfaith Food Shuttle farm. I remember volunteering here before with my advisory for service days. Today, however, I got a better look into the different ways the farm helps the community. Parts of the farm are dedicated to different farmers and farming communities. For example, one section is designated for the use of immigrants who are unfamiliar with our food system. Also, I got to see the IFFS farm stand just across the road, where fresh produce harvested from the farm is sold.

Farm stand
Produce that was being washed during my visit

Day 7 – The Review Room

Today was my second day with Trailblazer Studios, and today I worked with the post-production department. I spent the day reviewing an episode of Sister Wives with a group of editors and producers who have been working on the show for a while. There were four of us in the room and one gentleman who called in from L.A. There was the editor/finisher, Alan, who does most of the final touches on the show such as stabilization, color correction, and brightness adjustments. There was also a coordinator from Figure 8 who is a producer of the show, as well as a woman from Trailblazer Studios. The specific episode of sister wives we were reviewing was a two hour special. The whole review itself took about three and a half hours total. However, after the review the editor still had a lot of work left to do making sure the show was ready to send to TLC. Despite a few connectivity errors with the guy calling in from L.A. the review went very well, or not very well depending on the point of view. From what I was told there were more fixes than normal which would mean more work for Alan, but good that they were able to fix all of the them, so long as Alan had time. Alan talked to me a little bit about the things he was trying to fix, and I learned a lot by listening to the kinds of things that were noted both during the review session and while Alan was editing. I will definitely keep those things in mind the next time I go out for a shoot, or sit in the editing booth. Ha! That rhymes. TBStudios - Finishing Room

It’s about time

Today Joe and I were able to find out what was going on with the time stamps for the data points and after a lot of time experimenting with the programming, and multiple calls to the manufacturer we were able to sync the time on the computer to the time stamps. After fixing the time stamps we measured the dimensions of the sensor to make sure it would fit on our cart. While Joe and I were over with the cart we were able to work on it for a little while. We were able to create a mount for one of the sensors that was movable so we can adjust the height. I have included a picture of the sensor at maximum height. cart with sensor max height.jpg

CA Work Experience Program 2016

DICE-ing in the Real World

Month: June 2016