On a typical day, I arrive at the lab at around 10:30 in the morning. I greet my mentors and the other undergraduate in the lab (Demi Wilson, a lovely Huang fellow). The most pressing matter in the lab currently is the validation portion of the gait analysis. The task for Demi and I is to ( by-hand) place a marker on every portion of the limb ( trunk, hip, knee, ankle) on every frame of a video of a step of someone walking with either a stiff or compliant gait. While it is tedious work, I have actually found great peace in doing it, and having Demi there with me makes it even better.
At around lunch time, Demi and I will either go grab or warm up our lunches and wait for our P.I to come get us for his lunch lectures. Lately, Dr. Daniel Schmitt has been giving us mini-lessons during our lunch time which have not only increased my knowledge base but also contextualized the project that we are doing. One of my favorite lessons so far has been about the “Costs of Locomotion”.
After the lunch lesson, we catch our P.I up to speed on what the morning has entailed and if we have run into any problems. This is often another teaching moment because Dr. Schmitt takes the time to then explain to us what the data means in real time and helps put all of the graphs and numbers that are computed into a bigger picture.
Lately, one of my mentors named Becca has also taken this after lunch time to update the lab on the code that she has been creating to analyze various aspects of the data. She goes line by line with all of the changes that she made and shares both her triumphs and issues, sometimes even tasking Demi and I to try and find a solution to her problems.
For the rest of the day, I get back to digitizing my points and listening to music or even playing a movie in the background!
Very cool! That is so incredible that your PI gives mini lectures during lunch. Make sure they know how much that is appreciated because it is very rare and so helpful 🙂 Sounds like cool lab days!