This week

Well, this week, I gave my final presentation (sorry about the time misunderstanding) and also have a leopard shark jaw to bring back to school. My final paper will be finished by tomorrow. I just have a bit of computer cleaning up and I am finished for this internship.

Next week

I'll be sharing what I've learned over and over and over and embracing a new school year and a new time zone (the latter I am not looking forward to).

Good/bad/thanks

I cannot believe that this experience is wrapping up. George, you said it at the beginning.... "time will pass quickly" and it did. Perhaps its good that my family left last week, missing them is tempering the sadness of leaving MBARI. A few quick thanks (straight from my paper in case no one reads it, which is a great idea)...

The 2010 INTERNationals.  Thank you for sharing your time and talents (and great senses of humor). Pessimists might say there will never be world peace, but with you all as ambassadors for the myriad of countries that we represent, I beg to differ. I can't wait to see how you all shine in your respective careers. Thank you!

George Matsumoto. Really my thanks to you should be a paper in itself. It was definitely a landmark life moment when I was admitted to the EARTH club back in 2003. You are an inspiration/mentor/mini-god to an enormous group of people (that grows daily) in every age range. You motivate people to move out of their comfort zones and embrace what the world has to offer. Your enthusiasm, kindness and compassion for others is amazing, but want I really want to know is 'do you sleep?"

Danelle Cline. Thanks for being the great guide into the foreign world of software engineering. Your kindness and time were invaluable to me during this summer (who knew that a homegrown avocado could turn a day around). You gently pushed me to think in ways that I don't normally. I'll miss you!

Duane Edgington. Despite your workload you always came through with an insight or "heads up" thought that was right on target.

Linda Kuhnz. Your internship assistance was great but then you started working on videos and updating the MARS observatory photo  gallery... wow! Your knowledge and technical skills are amazing.  My only regret is that your health took a hit while we were here, you have a lot to share.

Erika Raymond Thank you for being the on-site, EITS guru .Your patience with my endless requests even in the midst of your many projects went above and beyond.

Gregor Bwye. Thank you for mining through the footage and finding great clips to share with the educational world and for being a great sport when it comes to recording comments time and time again.

MBARI, the people (although the builiding being 41 strides to the ocean isn't bad either). I know this is a cop-out and I should thank many of you individually, but I also know I'd leave someone out (the aging brain has some downfalls). All of you have made this a better than pleasurable experience. Many of my teacher friends thought I was crazy to "work" all summer (my non-teacher friends think I don't work ever), but if they had been around here for more than a day, they'd realize that this has been a top experience. One of my daily past-times was trying to find out whom I had passed in the halls each day and check you out on the Canyonhead People Page (and people think that Facebook can be a time vacuum). You all do amazing things and work together to make it happen. Thanks for sharing your time, expertise and, occasionally, your stories.  I look forward to reading and hearing about future accomplishments. 

Thank you!

This week:

Linda and I worked on preparing my data and putting it into PRIMER.  We then used this program to run a number of statistical tests.  I was able to generate some interesting data about the biological community around the MARS site.  I've also been producing a lot of figures and tables in excel and working on my written report and presentation.

 Next week:

My goal is to have all the project work finished by Wednesday.  Although I've been working on benthic ecology this summer I'll be moving onto ocean acidification in October.  I would really like to have the time on Thursday and Friday to talk to more of the scientists and engineers working in this field and perhaps help out with some lab work - basically just trying to soak up as much as I can from MBARI before I have to leave!

Going well/ not going well:

I really haven't had any complaints this summer.  My project has been extremely interesting and, although quite challenging at times, this is part of science and I have always felt the support of my mentors.  I have really appreciated all that has been provided for me as an intern here.  This not only includes my project work but all the other opportunities to meet visiting scientists, seminar speakers and even to talk with and encourage school kids who haven't made it to this stage yet.  I feel I've learnt such a wide variety of things, made a lot of good contacts and some really good friends too.  I'm sad to leave but excited to continue into my scientific career!

Thanks for a great summer MBARI!!! 

This week:
I was unable to start the experiment proposed in last weeks blog. 

           The pH of the water in the seawater laboratory appeared to be very low (6.8).  This is at the lower end of the sampling regime.

Started a new experiment.  I am now looking at how temperature alterations at low and ambient oxygen concentrations alter the rate of respiration performed by Fragile Sea Urchin?

Still working on the webpage

I have started compiling the report and presentation

Next Week:

Attempt to analyze and understand the data obtained from the experiment

Finish writing and compiling the report and presentation

Going and not going:

During the past week, I have had little time to work on my webpage, presentation and report.  This will no doubt affect the quality of the finished products.

This week has been a busy one!  Luckily I had a break through with my idiA project and was able to clone and send for sequences.  I am currently in the middle of analyzing my sequences and hope to generate a phylogenetic tree that can help in future optimizations of primer probe sets for the idiA gene among strains of my beloved Synechococcus.  I regret that I don't have the time here at MBARI to work on this, but it has great potential for graduate school. 

In addition to running between three labs here at MBARI and a lab at UCSC to target idiA, I have also continued to determine nifH standard curves for various template groups on the MFB2.  And an R^2 = 0.988 means success for the Het-1 templates!!

 Lastly, I am trying to create a matrix for all the primer probe sets and template groups to determine optimal concentrations of MgCl2 for each group.  A PCR is currently thermocycling as I type.

Next week I will hopefully finish running templates on the MFB2 and have standard nifH curves for all five groups. I also hope to finish the primer probe matrix, as well as my paper and presentation in time!

Gone going.. I have absolutely enjoyed my time here at MBARI (even after running several failed PCRs and gels ).  I'm sad to be walking away from my project, experience, and the people who make this place what it is.  Thanks for this opportunity, I hope to be back one day!

This Week:
This week was spent mostly on staring at my paper and presentation trying to figure out how to explain my design process without being too confusing. My PCB also came in on Wednesday and I began stuffing it which is apparently an oddity among EEs. Today, Jose Rosal took over and the process has sped up significantly. As of the time of this update, it is not complete, and a few of the parts have not arrived yet.

Next Week:
Next week I will be going out to sea on Monday so I plan on finishing my paper and presentation by then. Hopefully with some practice as well. If my parts come in in time, I will begin testing the analog components of my PCB and hopefully include some promising results in my paper.

Going Well/Not Well:
So it turns out that parts the size of dust are hard to handle and soldering irons are hot.

This week:
I dedicated mostly to writing the final report and making the video with the demo for the presentation.
I also start to prepare all the artifacts of the project. I upload the instrument software and java tools in the MBARI repository. I wrote the user document for the project, how to use the code for the instrument, to write the SID in SensorML and how to use the java tools.

Next week:
I will do the presentation and hand the final report !

I have had a great time here at MBARI. I am very happy that I meet all the inters, each of them very nice persons, and who knows ... maybe in the future we will have the chance to see again and maybe work together. I will miss also the environment that I found here at MBARI, I had the chance to be close to some of the staff and I meet great people. The experience accumulated in this time is very important to me, and gives me more clarity of the things that I want to do in the future...
Ah... and the last thing, but the most important... you are all welcome to visit me in Barcelona, I will be glad to be your host! And also if one of you goes to Romania you can contact me .

This week:

• Found out how to do some java edits
• Came to terms with what i cannot do
• Finished rough of presentation

Next week:

• Finish final report
• Do final presentation
• Maybe make an easier way for George to have annual updates done!

Thanks everyone!

This week

• This week was a very busy week. I've been running numerous experiments to finalize the procedure for calculating pore water pH
• What we finally decided to be best was saturating sodium chloride solutions with H2S(g) and taking spectra at small pH increments between the range of 6.5-7.5, this way we can use simple relationships using the Henderson Hasselbalch equation and other ships to determine the optical ratio of HS-/H2S observed in a given Raman spectrum
• Turns out, what we observed was totally unpredicted
• So today was my first day of actual data processing and formulating calculations with Ed to apply to the in situ data. No more experiments... really
• Tomorrow I will come in and run the glass sealed ampules obtained on the cruise from push cores recovered from the seafloor that were squeezed to obtain pore water. These recovered pore samples I will take spectra of all day tomorrow and calculate their pH to compare with the in situ data

Next week

• Working on my presentation and paper!
• Present and hand in paper next week!
• Clean up

Thanks to everyone! I had the best experience here at MBARI and learned so much. I'll be sad to walk away from this project and wish I could do more in the Brewer lab to really perfect this technique of calculating the pH of pore water in situ. 

This Week

• Started implementation of a TREX reactor, which can handle more then two state HMM.
• Started working on my presentation.
• Paid my third visit to the Social Security Office.

Next Week

• Finish implementing the reactor
• Finish the report and presentation

Going Well/Not Going Well
Thanks to MBARI, George, Linda, Kanna, Fredric, JD, Thom and all the interns for the wonderful time I had this summer. Any future visit to India, you know whom to contact

This Week

• Heavily edited both AUV and CANON websites
• Uploaded several new flash videos and slideshows
• Uploaded new pictures and additional web pages
• wrote my paper
• created a powerpoint presentation that will precede the website

Next Week

• Finish the report
• Finish the presentation
• Make the websites "live" (viewable to the public) 

Going well/not going well
Great experience here at MBARI. Cannot believe it is almost over. Thanks to George, Linda, my mentor Nancy Barr, and all of the wonderful interns.

This week: I have finished my presentation and just have a few minor edits to make. I have also been working on the final report. The results from some of my analysis with the gridded AUV data have shown some interesting features. There seem to be injections of nitrate near the surface. I had thought these features were actual features, but it turns out that they may be due to some type of lag where the data from the upcast and downcast near the surface produce artificial features. So how do I figure out if these features are real? I have been comparing the non-gridded data with the gridded data and it seems that there is some type of lag. The features that show up on the gridded data set are not always present in the non-gridded set. I have since then been trying to regrid the data so that I have separate plots of the gridded upcast and gridded downcast. I met with Mike McCann who has been helpful in sending some of the m files used to process the data, but I'm getting very lost in the code. Overall--going through this and trying to figure it out has confused me even more. I got some similar code from my mentor which is more simplified, so I'm trying to use that instead...if only I was a better programmer!

Next week: Finalize my presentation--it's mostly done but I still need to complete a few edits. I also need to finish my report. I want to keep on reading about instrumentation involving turbulence and the different methods of determining turbulent parameters from different instruments (shear probe, thermistor, microconductivity sensors, etc.).

Going well: This has been a great experience, and I have appreciated how challenging it's been. I've learned so much in the weeks I've been here. The people here have been great and I have seen so many different perspectives as to what can be done with a background in science. I especially appreciated seminars and meeting with people who have science backgrounds and PhDs in science, but are not involved in traditional science careers. I will be sad to conclude this project. Lastly, I want to thank Bartolome. He has been a great help, and I would be very lost (in Matlab) without him.

This Week
I mad a presentation in the lab meeting and received quite a bit of inputs. This will be very helpful when I make my final presentation next week. Also, wrapped up my project by making a few more microscopy slides/pictures to show for next week.

Next Week
Make the final presentation and hand in the report!

Well/Not well
Everything going well! I am very happy to see how the project coming together at the end (as you all will see next week)!

Plus, this has been an incredible summer here at MBARI! Now we have contacts in the US, India, Spain, Romania, UK, Scotland, I will add China and Canada to this list as well! Many thanks to George, Linda, the Worden lab and of course all of the INTERNationals!!!

This Week

• Started the presentation and report.
• Kept on running tests of the path planner I have developed to get some interesting results.

Next Week

• Finish the presentation and keep on with the report.
• Show the presentation to the mentors on Monday
• Fix the presentation and tune details on Tuesday
• Do the presentation on Wednesday
• Fix the report and tune details on Thursday
• Hand in the report on Friday
• Pack everything and go back to Spain on Saturday
• Busy week!

Going Well/Not Going Well

As usual, the end is closer than what we would like, but that is the way it goes. The summer internship has been a great experience for all of us. We learnt a lot, we put our skills to the test, and we met lots of people.

I should add a list of people after a "Thanks to". I should put my mentors, Sergey Frolov and James Bellingham, for giving me the opportunity to be here at MBARI this summer. I should also put Thomas Hoover, Brian Kieft, Michael Godin, Robert Mcewen and all the AUV Lab for having me this summer in their lab and helping me always with a smile in everything I needed. I could not forget George Matsumoto and Linda Kuhnz for running such a successful internship program. I could also add a list of people I met during this internship, like Kanna Rajan, Frederic Py, Tomas O'Reilly, Steven Ramp, John Ryan, Jon Erikson, Denis Klimov, Mike McCann, Judith Connor, Jeffrey Paduan, ... and many more. And finally, I should make a special mention to all the interns that shared with me this experience, Hana, Becks, Sandeep, Katie Lodes, Melissa, Roman, Spencer, Chris, Katie Morrice, Matt, Aaron, Sara, Dan, John, Izzy, Hang and Greg . But even if I did that, the list would be incomplete, and trying to complete it would be a never ending process. So, after saying a big "thank you very much" to all of them, I will add a thank you... yes, you, because if you are reading this is because you have participated somehow in this wonderful time during this summer, and want to know a bit about how we feel after the internship. No matter if your participation was big or small, you helped making this summer unforgettable.

Do not hesitate to contact me whenever passing by Mallorca, in Spain.

Today, two updates for the price of one. The testing for the laser rangefinder is fully complete. the rangefinder is now cleared for use inside the pneumatic spring. I began work on a second smaller project at the beginning of next week. A temperature sensing probe needs to be inside the spring while the piston is cycling. this means that we cant just stick a thermometer in there and run it. I was able to use some existing designs and modify them to get a part that would work for our application. I machined the parts and this week I will be finishing the project. All in all everything is going well, I completed my main objective and have even been able to start another project. Once again, another solid summer, Thank you Andy, George and Linda for all the help.

Last Week:

I was on the western flyer all week. We completed 6 out of 7 dives and collected more than 100 samples so all in all a success.

I have also completed my report (apart from the abstract) and nearly completed my presentation.

Next Week:

Complete and practice presentation

Complete Report

Organize data I'm taking home

Put together a plan for paper

Going well/not:

 Everything's going well. The cruise was a great experience and it was great to go to see with a different set of people. My report is coming along well and we think we can write a paper on my work. The internship has been a fantastic experience, thanks to all the other interns, George, Linda, Dave and Jenny my supervisors and everybody else who's helped make it such an amazing summer.

This week:

Time to dig in on actually writing the behaviors and code for the SES.  I have the movements of the carousel down but am still working on the start up behaviors as well as the finer aspects of making this equipment sea-worthy. I also started in on my presentation and paper. The paper will be surprisingly easier than the presentation. I still wonder what i should present to the staff.

Next week:

Crunch time! Presentation, paper, and project! I still have so many pictures to take, ideas to organize and i really want to get my project as close to complete as possible.

Going well/not well:

Last week here. I cant believe time has past so quickly. I will truly miss this place and cherish the experience.