Course development plans expanding

This morning I met with the professor of the CS class I'm on staff for. The class is going to be changing over the next few semesters, especially in the assignment department (which I've been working on this semester). That means there's a very large new project for me that will be very important for next semester. Exciting!

Presenting in April

Today I got an email from the Office of Undergraduate Research informing me that my application to the Undergraduate Research Symposium was accepted. At the symposium in April, I'll be presenting a poster about my research. I'll need to have a draft ready soon - the lab scheduled a practice talk for me in March.

Possible summer plans

The lab asked me about summer research fellowships - they suggested that I stay around and do research this summer. We investigated a bit and found that the normal biochemistry student research fellowships aren't an option because I'm not yet far enough along to have taken the core biochemistry class. I have, however, found another grant possibility through the university's Office of Undergraduate Research, which I may apply for. If that works out, I might be staying on campus this summer.

Plasmid assembly continues

Last week's production and purification of the first half of my desired plasmids worked well. Today I started making the second half by running another 30-tube PCR. On Wednesday I'll run a gel to see if the PCR worked. The full plasmids could be ready by sometime next week.

Another assignment's development begins

The current two-week assignment in the class I'm on staff for is now in its second week. So we've started planning for the next assignment, which is a modest update of an assignment from the semester I took the class. I did the simple rearrangement parts of the update today and will begin adding the new parts soon.

Walking in the rain

Today seems to have been the last day of reasonably warm weather before it gets cold for a long time again, so despite the rain I took the opportunity to go walking. I went directly east for a while through places I had been before, then went south past some shopping centers, then further past some residential subdivisions. I covered 5.7 miles today and have now visited 35% of the bus stops in town.

Assignment correction

The latest CS assignment I helped update was released to students on Monday. It looked like it came out quite nicely. But tonight I was helping a student with an issue and I realized that I made a small mistake in the autograder. My intent was to allow a certain part that would usually be dependent on another student-written part to be tested in isolation, but for one test the dependency remains. It's not a huge deal, but it would have made students' lives a little easier, and it can't really be fixed post-release. Oops.

App hits 300 users

The Android app I made about the local bus system jumped above 300 installs recently. Before it was hovering around 260, but earlier this week the bus company's API had some temporary problems, which my app can handle better than most others.

Other MCB exam went well

Earlier today, scores came out for the microbiology exam I took earlier this month. I got 100% - a good start to the semester's exams!

Exams going well so far

The first MCB 252 exam's results came out a couple days ago: 97%. MCB 300's isn't graded yet, but I think it went well. Tomorrow I have the second CS 233 exam in the computer-based testing facility.

Primers here

All 20 primers we ordered Monday arrived yesterday. Today in lab I started a Gibson assembly by doing half the PCR reactions we'll need. On Monday I'll see if they all worked as intended.

Primers ordered

This morning I went into the lab and reviewed all my proposed primers with my supervisor. I found an error in the step prior to primer design, so I corrected that and adjusted the affected primers. Then we placed the order. They should arrive by Friday!

FPGA class starting

The CS 233 honors section (the one with the FPGAs) is up and running. Last week I met with my project partner at the computer center to do the introductory lab. Labs are now happening weekly. I did a preparatory worksheet for this week's lab tonight and will meet with my partner again soon.

New lab project starting

At the very end of last semester, my computer analyses suggested two new splice variants of the protein we're studying in lab. My supervisor suggested preparing plasmids of those and several other known splice variants. I've started some design/preparations for that and will probably begin the project this week!

Exam season begins again

It's now the fourth week of the semester, so exams are starting up in earnest. (CS 233 uses a different schedule of more exams that are smaller, so I had one of those already.) Tomorrow MCB 300 will hold its first exam during lecture time, so it will only take 50 minutes. Next Tuesday MCB 252 has a standard evening exam.

Warm weather walking

After an exam yesterday, I decided to take advantage of the warm weather by continuing my quest to visit all the town's bus stops by foot. The exam center was already on the north end of campus, so I continued north by a small park, following one route through a residential area until it crossed the territory of another whose stops I had mostly finished. That route has a loop served only a few times during the day, going by some industrial areas. I've now visited 360 stops (32% done).

Warming up

This week was very cold - so remarkably cold that the university canceled class on Wednesday for safety. Thursday was chilly too, but the next several days will feature highs in the 40s and 50s. That will give me an opportunity to continue my walking tour of all the bus stops in town.