Well, a busy week that can be quickly summed up: I analysed data, did graphs and work on the presentation.

And of course there was the seminar yesterday that was awsome. Danielle was such a good speaker, it was very interesting.

I go back to my presentation now ....

Wow the last confluence! That reminds me... I really need to get faster at writing papers. I Have received positive feedback on my paper so far, the data analysis is kind of frustrating, and my presentation is coming along. Despite the long days and continual stress, I am enjoying myself and finding motivation in the prospect of presenting my work to my lab group, family, friends, and the folks at MBARI!

EVERYTHING is wrapping up!! This week I have been busy making graphs for biomass much like I made the ones last week for size distribution. I also dabbled with plotting my data in GIS. I was hoping to be able to spot any patterns in my data between the distribution of smaller sizes (juveniles) and larger sizes (adults). There are just so many observations that are very close together that it is unclear as to if there is a pattern. I think I will do more with my data in GIS after the internship. The main focus yesterday and today is on my presentation. I made a lot of progress yesterday on it and I think I should have it just about done today! Then I will continue on my paper...

Two of my illustrations are finished. I am working on final revisions of the third one and I hope to be finished today.

Then I can add it to my presentation.

Almost all the T shirts have been picked up and I have received a lot of really nice feedback for our design. Way to go everyone!

 And then there is my paper...

OK, I gotta go!

This week I've focused on getting my paper and presentation finished up so I'll have little to worry about next week.

Time sure does go by fast when you're working hard and having fun. Sad to know that there is only about a week left of this amazing experience.

Well, back to my paper and presentation.

Heyo! I got some unfortunate news this morning. Turns out some of my pressure cell experiments have to be redone because we used bunk pressure data and neither my mentors or I caught it at the time. Looks like I'll be working up to the wire on this project...sigh. Aside from that, I'm really sad this internship is ending. It has been great in so many respects! I can't wait to hear everyone's presentation next week.

I've been staying pretty busy, trying to tie up some last things on my project and getting the presentation all together and the paper is somewhat taking a back burner until this weekend. I've been trying to choose a propeller suitable for both flight modes, which has been a pretty frustrating search so far. I'm hoping to hear back from my mentor today about some possible companies MBARI has used in the past (that are reliable and efficient.) We are trying to avoid custom made components to reduce the price of this vehicle--and the world of internet and propeller manufacturers is a large amount of information to search through.

I can echo the sentiments of how sad it is that the internship is coming to a close. I've had a great experience here this summer and met some really awesome people who I hope to stay in touch with... and I'm excited to see where we all end up and what we do. ONE WEEK guys! We can do it!  

YES WE CAN BAILEY!

I can't believe it's our last confluence!!! This summer has flown by... I turned in the first version of my paper to my mentor, but haven't received feedback yet. There was a lab meeting yesterday and I had to present next weeks slides to all my group, which was good to see how I was running on time and what things have to be improved. What's left of the week and next week, I'll probably spend between the presentation and/or the paper, depending on the revisions I get.

I just want to say it's been a really fun summer and a great experience to be interning at MBARI. I can't wait to see and listen to everyone's presentation next week!

Data collection of Strongylocentrotus fragilis behavioral response to Ocean acidification stimulations ended this Monday.  This week has involved working on my power point presentation for NEXT WEEK (aaaaaahhhhh!), writing my paper, analyzing my results and creating graphs. 

Tuesday, Bailey and I assisted on the Rachel Carson Cruise with Jim Barry's lab. We retrieved a Sediment Trap at approximately 1300m, and checked on an on-going project at 200m looking at Urchin growth. This project included 6 cages (~ 5 x 5 ft.) settled on the ocean floor. Three cages were inserted with urchins and three cages with no urchins, representing the controls. The project was started in September 2011.   Investigating the cages, they were covered in biodiversity including marine organisms such as, spot prawns, octopi, urchins, sea cucumbers, 5 different species of sea stars (i.e. Basket sea star), and rock fish.

Also, out on the Carson, we were lucky to see a very active breaching humpback whale and several adults!  An awesome Day!

This morning, Todd Walsh generously took time out of his busy schedule to photograph my experimental area, urchins in the Y-mazes, as well as me in data collection action. The images will be very helpful in presenting my work and the methodology of my experiment.

This week has been especially good with the Sunshine!   

I've been finishing the paper and the power point this week, and I received a good feedback from my mentors about the paper. Everything seems to go on time, so I'm glad about it, and I will start preparing some notes for the presentation of next week.

In spite of everything is going pretty good, I feel sad because I can't believe that this is the last week. It's been an awesome experience that will be impossible to forget, I hope being able to stay in touch with all of you.

PD: Remember to sit scattered throughout the Pacific forum on Wednesday
Thank you!!!!

This week I've been working on my audio and video, and making sure my presentation is in order.  The paper is on a temporary hold as I get things figured out.  It's amazing how fast everything is going this week!

I am finishing my lab work this week and am wrapping up data analysis while working on my presentation and paper. Hard to believe the program is almost over, but I'm already looking at what's next in my thesis. Gotta stay focused to finsih this project before adding more work

Busybusybusy... mostly been working in the Vrijenhoek lab this week, running my samples for molecular analysis. Also tackling the beast that is the bug-ridden batch processing software for the LISST-HOLO. So much left to do and so little time, can't believe the summer's almost over.

The last confluence update! Like everyone else, this week has been taken up by last minute data reshuffling, figure finalization, and paper writing/presentation making! Things are going well and I'm looking forward to presenting next week. Over and out!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh last confluenceeeee.

This week has been a little bit stressful to me. I am still collecting data on the test tank. The plan is to leave in there for 12 hours and then tomorrow take it out to the bay to do some real sampling. Nevertheless, the module has its own mood and seems to not like me. Lets see what happens.

Also I think finally the radio communication system is almost done, unfortunately I wont know until I tested on the real module. Other than that, I am almost done with paper and presentation, just need to include some data from whatever results come out of the CO2 sensing module. I am crossing my fingers.

I have been so productive this week! I built a position controller for my benchtop prototype, finished my hydrodynamic model of the float, got some preliminary estimations for the added mass and drag coefficients, reassembled the heavy spring casing for the benchtop simulation, wrote tons of matlab scripts to process efficiency data, collected efficiency data, and started working on a powerpoint. While I've finished all of the work I set out to do at the beginning of the summer, there still are so many things left that I want to do... Some of it will have to wait because my mentor has been gone all week, but I'm hoping that early next week I will have some time to finish up one or two more tests.

So much to do so little time!

This week I collected data from the slough off the MLML small boats dock. I've been crunching the data that I had and making sure that my methods were field ready. The method we used was new and I am unable to use any of the scripts I had written previously, though now that I have a decent understanding of python getting it to do what I want shouldn't take too long. I just have to figure out what I need it to do...

After getting all the samples run Tuesday, I worked a little bit on my slides and added some text to my materials and methods. It's gonna be an interesting weekend, with long nights. Wednesday was a mixed blessing, it was great to stand on the stage in the Pacific forum to make sure all the text and contrasts were readable from the back. I had a blast talking to Dr. Lee, she had such a great perspective on science. I was really interested in her outreach and blogging activities I would really like to incorporate some of the learning/teaching concepts she talked about in the outreach I do. Even though I'm not an ecological behaviorist her talk was entertaining and engaging.  The only downside to yesterday was all the breaks kept me from making as much progress on my project as I would have liked.

Today was another day of head banging and journal searching. The temperature correction I was using to adjust my data wasn't giving us numbers that made sense so Josh and I went back and analyzed it step by step. We found an error in the formula and then spent the afternoon figuring out the correct way to do it. He made the major break-through that made it possible. So I should be able to fix my scripts, write new ones, process all the data, and begin drawing conclusions about the application of my method.

Good luck this weekend guys! 

Was focusing on more papers to cite, and provide more scientific insight to what I am interested in (which was long-term and high frequency measurements in Monterey bay). ANOVA is pretty tricky, and I have not completely mastered it and I'm hoping I'll get a better grasp on it. Apart from that, I've started adding a sentence or two for the slides as the day goes by and it seems it taking its shape now. Have a great weekend guys!

AAaaaand..I didn't miss the confluence update for this week! wohoo!