Monday was really busy - I finished acquiring Raman spectra of Eel River Canyon gas samples from my lab and am looking to analyze some samples from the same area from the Paull lab. It will be nice to have more data to work with, since I have developed a method that works and would like to try it on samples from more dives. I won't be able to work with Paull lab samples until we get more information from their technician, so I've spent a lot of time looking into how to deconvolute peaks so that I can integrate them separately for the different compounds. There are some really complicated algorithms to do so but we'll see what works best... At high pressures I can see propane in some of my samples which I find exciting! I got to go out on the Paragon and help retrieve a wive glider (super fun!) and go surfing this week, and I'm really happy that I'm taking more advantage of opportunities to get out on the water! The BBQ at Hopkins was fun and I got to meet a lot of new people, including my mentor's wife and dog!

Week Four:

So this week is a short one but I have been able to make a few steps forward toward completing a portion of my project. Monday with the help of Jon Erickson, I was able to come up with a center of gravity scale design that would offset the load of the AUV by creating a mechanical advantage; this was done because finding a hanging scale with the capacity and accuracy necessary was incredibly expensive and very difficult. By using this offset we are able to distribute only an eighth of the mass of the AUV to the scale which made it much simpler to find a less expensive and more accurate scale option. Tuesday I modeled the entire design and placed and order with McMaster-Carr for the scales and necessary hardware. Today I refined the design of the Solidworks model and the ordered items arrived around 3pm. Looks like I will be ready to make a few more parts and have this balance ready for use sometime next week. Also looking forward to having Brett and Ben back from their vacations next week. Have a Happy 4th!

Larvacean Log, Week 4:

A short week this week! But incredibly busy in terms of workload. My Matlab code works!!! I could have cried yesterday after fixing the last few problems and seeing exactly what I wanted for the output. Now I will be putting all of the videos through the code to extract the swimming kinematics. I still have to figure out how to outline the organism when it is swimming in its house successfully but I have some really good ideas to make that happen. Cannot wait to be done with the programming aspect and move into some hands-on work. Today, I leave for Alaska for ten days so I will miss work next week. Excited to spend the 4th of July there and see my family. 

Finished extractions for 18S and started PCR. In Matlab, Alice found a way to convert all my cruise names to strings, so the N15 code finally runs all the way. Thanks Alice!

Week four:

I am surprised how time passes very quickly; almost I complete a month here. This week has been very important and decisive in my work. I needed to determine how to continue my work to get done in time. The good news is that I found a way to finish watching my videos next week. So, I can continue to analyze my data and progress in my project.

Moreover, on Tuesday I received an email to start my course MATLAB. More work, but also more opportunities to improve my professional skills.

The BBQ at Hopkins was amazing. I could meet new people and share with them my knowledge. At times like these it is when all the things we are doing as scientists make sense!

Sorry, second week in a row...

Now that I am back from the cruise I have been spending most of my time trying to grasp as much as I can about machine learning. My first attempt to utilize it will be to write a program for the rover to learn from it's course corrections, and compensate for any trends that develop over the course of a deployment. With increasingly longer deployments this could be a useful ability for the rover. If I am able to do this successfully I would love to expand on some fault detection.

Happy 4th to everybody, I hope you all have fun this weekend.

Glad the weekend is finally here! It's been a busy week with plenty of project updates due for my REU. Yesterday I gave a presentation on my project results to date... and I have to admit I have some work to do. The results are there but based upon the feedback I got back my presentation skills are poor, mainly how I'm organizing my talk. Good stuff to know! I have another talk at the end of the REU a few days before the MBARI symposium. I plan on being ready by then.

Glad the weekend is finally here! It's been a busy week with plenty of project updates due for my REU. Yesterday I gave a presentation on my project results to date... and I have to admit I have some work to do. The results are there but based upon the feedback I got back my presentation skills are poor, mainly how I'm organizing my talk. Good stuff to know! I have another talk at the end of the REU a few days before the MBARI symposium. I plan on being ready by then.

Week four:

Although this was a short week, I did manage to make some progress on my code. I have managed to get a code to plot an ellipse around jellies in a video frame and now I am trying to plot the points that I manually obtained on the same video frames. I think I am very close to getting that done. Other than my Matlab, I have been doing some surfing and it has been wonderful. Hope everyone has a fun and safe long weekend!

I start working on the transceiver of the instrument simulator. The arduino due had too much current when I was testing it...so I had to get another arduino due to test the instrument simulator. I am still trouble shooting the pH sensor data. I was able to output successfully, but I cannot get the data format that I want. I am also working on researching the compensation resistor and capacitor for the electronic load for my write up.

Apologies for this week's lateness, I was thrown off by the much longe weekend. The week was focused on learning Django, a web framework software. I'm going to be the test dummy to see how easy it is to learn and whether it fits the databases. I'm still trying to learn it's structure, hopefully I can start implementing the software by the end of this week. Also, I can't wait for tomorrow!

Week four:

 This week was a short week! On Monday, I was able to plot some BOG data for different isopycnals; I do get a trend, especially on sigma-theta 26.8, which is consistent with what the Chavez group has seen.  (Also, it is their data ... makes sense).  On Tuesday, I learned more about the BOG data from data-keeper, Reiko, of the BOG data.  I also met with Lynn Dewitt of NOAA who answered some questions about ERDAPP and possible data sources.  On Wednesday, I obtained BOG data for "M1" stations and plotted, and was in the middle of obtaining rover CTD data for "M1" using the STOQS database, but that didn't quite work out.  I tried again on Thursday, but this will have to be completed in week five.

I have been reading about the natural history of the Monterey Bay Sanctuary and trying to memorize some phytoplankton.  I wrote a couple of lines of code with Z, and it was fun, right Z?

It was a fun week! I learned how to weld batteries together, which I will be using for my sensor. It was also the first time I was able to go out on the Paragon to pick up a wave glider as well as one of the Whalers to clean a mooring in Elkhorn. My project is moving forward. I was able to calibrate one of the sensors that will be able to be deployed hopefully this week. I also hope to build the second sensor.

Week Four:

I spent the week helping the lab pack up for the cruise and attempting to create digital models of radiolaria from SEM images. 2D is pretty simple, but I need 3D for it to be worthwhile, so that's going to be a challenge. I also ordered stains and prepared other supplies for a couple experiments while on the cruise. I have no idea how successful they'll be, but I'll get to try my hand at keeping radiolarians alive and fluorescence microscopy! In non-work news, I got to show my boyfriend around MBARI and Monterey, and we spent the long weekend up in San Francisco. Overall, an excellent week!

This is my first late confluence and it makes me sad T-T anyways, my project thus far is going pretty smooth. Previously I had my project working by reading the files locally, because I couldn't get it to work via online; however, I'm at the point in my project where I need to make it work online so I can proceed. Should be fun!

Since the last time I posted, I was able to complete and understand the statistical analysis (thank you Kathy)! We found that error had a significant effect both length and angle. However, we also saw that there is a strong relationship between length and angle, so strong that it leads us to believe it is just making it seem like there is a significant relationship between error and length. We say this because when plotting angle and error there is a clear pattern shown, but when plotting error and length there is no pattern present. So now looking forward our next couple steps is to better define the relationship between error and angle, then incorporate this into an algorithm.

This past week I have been busy setting up for my lab's next abalone spawning experiment which is scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday, July 8th. I also presented my research to my REU group this past Thursday (which is why I forgot about confluence, sorry Linda and George...), but I think my I did decent. I've noted things I need to work on, but for my first presentation I think it went pretty well. Finally, after a strenuous week, I celebrated the holiday weekend in Santa Cruz with lots of waves and good times to be had for all.

Looking forward to the Chavez CTD cruise on Tuesday!!

Week Four:

 Last week was pretty busy especially since we only had three work days. I spent my time trying to cram in as much data collection as possible. I am so close to finishing reviewing the time-lapse images and now that I have 2gb more of ram it is going much faster (thanks Zorba )! My brother and his wife came by earlier in the week so it was really great to show them around and spend some time with them since I rarely get to see them. Sorry for the confluence delay!