On my way

Braains

2010-02-01T13:49:00.000-08:00

Last week in Quantitative Neural Function, we dissected the brain of a sheep. I finished up the lab report this morning, and though I would share the photos. They can be found here:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027868&id=1265580074&l=27a287a96b
The purpose of the lab was to identify different regions of the brain and determine what sort of imparement would occur if certain regions were damaged.

My favorite class so far this semester is Biomedical Instrumentation and Electronics. It's essentially a circuit analysis, but the professor is fantastic. During every class we're presented with a problem and have to think it through, either as a class or for homework. So far, the questions we've discussed are:
-Two cars have been parked for the same amount of time during the winter, one outside on the street and the other inside of a garage. Which will start faster and why?
-Does a blanket placed over the engine of your car enable it to stay warm?
-How much does it cost to run your refridgerator during the winter?
-Is it current or voltage that is damaging to the human body, and why?
-How does a defibrillator work?

I'll post some of the answers to these questions next week, but feel free to comment with your thoughts on them.

New Semester

2010-01-11T12:48:00.000-08:00

It's a new semester at IIT. I'm really looking forward to all of my classes... except maybe the biology course. This semester I'm registered for 18 credits, two of with are the Army physical training (PT) course. Hopefully this means I'll get in shape. The classes I'm taking are:

Aerobic conditioning (MILS 148)
Quantitative neural function (BME 445)
Animal physiology (BIOL 430)
Biomaterials (BME 310)
Fluids laboratory (BME 320)
Biomedical instrumentation and electronics (BME 443)
Neuromechanics of human motion (BME 475)

So far (two academic courses into the semester), it looks like this semester will be a lot less math and a lot more memorization. Too bad... I prefer deriving to memorizing. Next week in my Neural Function class we're dissecting a cow brain and later in the semester we'll be dissecting eye balls.

It seems pretty strange that after five semesters of college (plus K-12) I still haven't found the best way to take notes and stay organized. I've tried notebooks, folders, and binders in various combinations and still haven't found a completely successful method to stay organized. Usually some time around midterms I pull everything out and my papers get mixed out and out of order, and then, for the rest of the semester, I'm a disorganized mess. This semester I'm trying a method that will require a little more work outside of class, which should force me to review and study more often. I have one notebook and one folder in my bag, and in my room I have a binder for every class. At the end of everyday, I (hopefully) will move the notes and/or papers to the appropriate binder. I'll keep you posted on whether this is an effective method.

I realized today that I can be really productive in the morning. Since PT starts at 7am, I have to get up by 6:30. My earliest next class is at 10am, so I have a nice 2 hour break to be productive afterward.

Right now I'm not holding any office in any organization. It's kind of crazy, but my friend and I are hoping to start a new club in the next few months so I'll be in charge of that. Plus, we're working on organizing a St Baldrick's fundraiser (stbaldricks.org) where people will get sponsored to shave their heads to raise money to find a cure/treatment for childhood cancer.

2009-10-19T10:56:00.000-07:00

Today is probably going to be one of the longest days of my academic career. Three of my midterms ended up scheduled on the same day. My first one went pretty well and only took about a half hour. The next two have me somewhat concerned. My next exam is for Medical Imaging and Sensing, which is a lot of memorization. We've learned things about how to improve image quality while lessening exposure to x-rays. Unfortunately, right now I'm not sure just how you go about doing that. Good thing I have three more hours to study! The test after that is Statistical Tools for Engineers. I think my grade on that exam is really going to depend on what mood the professor was in while he wrote the exam. He gave us a bunch of materials to study from, like a blank copy of the exam from last semester, so hopefully it'll be similar.

This weekend I had a lot of fun and as a consequence, didn't spend too much time studying. On Saturday I went to see the Chicago roller derby team, Windy City Rollers, in their last home match of the season. They were awesome! Even more awesome was I had organized a group of 22 of my sorority sister and our friends to go so we got the group rate and paid only $10 each for our tickets. I was really surprised that everyone enjoyed themselves, but it definitely seems like a trip to repeat. It was a really close match, but they pulled out a win, gaining about 20 points in just two jams (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roller_derby#Rules).

On Sunday I had my CMSA game on the north side at 1pm. We won, but it s was a pretty close game. We got two touch downs in the last two minutes of play. Unfortunately, we also got two injuries in the last two minutes. They were both knee injuries and neither of them could really walk Hopefully they'll be back for next week.

When I got back from that I found out that the sororities were going to be playing the Delts at 7pm. I knew I should probably study, but decided to play anyway. We got a first down once!! And had a really cute play where we made a tunnel and the QB ran through it.

Next weekend is going to be really awesome: no exams, no labs, few homework assignments.

Bad Ideas..

2009-10-09T20:26:00.001-07:00

I'm pretty much a pro when it comes to finding ways to avoid studying. Between this upcoming Tuesday and the following Monday I have four midterms and a lab report due. So far today I have 1) went grocery shopping, 2) baked cookies, 3) ate several of those cookies, 4) got pretty interested in the Flawles and Beaver Bunch YouTube channels, and 5) cleaned my room.

You may notice none of those have anything to do with homework, studying or lab reports.

Some days, the getting started hill is pretty steep. Today, it's like climbing up a cliff. On the plus side, this is the cleanest my room has been since the semester started. I even found my camera! On the negative, FOUR midterms. Yikes. I'm really glad we don't have class on Monday because of fall break. I'm hoping to have a little bit of fun this weekend along with a lot of the work.

On Monday I'm taking a trip to Niles, Michigan. It's 1.5 hours away and I'll be able to renew my drivers license! I'd really like to accomplish enough over the new two days to be able to spend some time shopping or just having fun on that trip. I guess I'm going to have to cut down on the YouTube. I'm for sure staying away from my Netflix account--they just added Heroes Season 4 to Instant Watch and I'm dying to watch it.

Times like right now are went I get ambitious. There are so many projects I want to do right now, but the one I'm about to start is my Medical Imaging assignment.

Until later!

2009-09-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

This semester I decided to try something new. I'm trying to work on a regular schedule. The past two years, my day started at 11am and went well past 1am most nights. After spending the whole summer working at a job that started at 8:30am, I have adjusted myself to morning. This semester I'm trying to continue that trend. As basic day for me is:
8:30a-12:00p: Work at Admissions
12:00-2:00p: Lunch and club/work meetings
2:00-5:00p: Classes (two classes fit in this time)
5:00-9:00p: Dinner, homework, work at the BOG, hanging out
9:00-10:30p: ASA meetings, Greek Council meetings, study group meetings
Bed by 12:00a.

I've found out that I can be a morning person if necessary and I'm way more productive before midnight. I even have time to have fun on the weekends! One of my favorite weekend activities is to play recreational sports. Over the summer, I found a group of women who played softball together and joined their team. In the fall, they all play football together and so I have the opportunity to get off campus every Sunday to go do something I enjoy.

IIT has a new program that highlights intramural sports and wellness. Included in this program are several tournaments in basketball, flag football, and softball as well as weekly classes in yoga, tai chi and pilates. This is the first time all students have had the opportunity to exercise in a fun way. I'm planning on going to the pilates class this week and will be sure to report back.

On an unrelated note, my sorority, Alpha Sigma Alpha, has finally finished our "official" recruitment period. This year rush week (where anyone interested in Greek life can meet everyone in all the chapters) lasted for two weeks. During the two weeks following that, anyone who we did not initially invite to join our chapter for whatever reason was invited over to get to know the rest of the members. We officially have 11 new members this semester which brings our chapter size up to 60. I'm really excited for all of our new members!

This next week doesn't look too bad for me, which I'm pretty grateful. After having an assignment in every class plus a lab report and an essay, I'm thankful for the lull in class work, but I know next week will be a lab report and essay week again.

Year Number 3!

2009-09-10T09:48:00.000-07:00

The first three weeks of my third year have been busier than I could have expected. The third year curriculum is hard in most majors, but the Biomedical Engineering department really steps up the demands. Last week I preformed a lab on Spectrophotometry and yesterday, with my lab partner, I presented our findings to our professor and our class. After the fifteen minute presentation we got grilled with some pretty difficult questions. Next week we're doing a lab where we will use MATLAB to look at photos of our blood cells taken by a camera attached to a microscope.

Outside of my classes, I've been busy with a lot of things that do not include homework. The Greek rush period ended Saturday. As the President of Alpha Sigma Alpha, I worked hard to ensure that all of our events went well and I met everyone at our events. My first official day working in the Office of Admissions was on Tuesday, so that added several more hours to my week. I'm also working one night a week as a manager in our on campus recreation center and pub, the BOG (http://bog.iit.edu/).

Right now, I am looking into a study abroad program. The one that interests me the most in the FAME program at ENSEA. FAME, or French-American Exchange, is a program for Electrical Engineers. It offers a set curriculum six of third year Electrical Engineering (EE) classes, from which students can choose as many (or few) as they like, so long as they take at least 12 credit hours. Over the summer I decided to officially declare EE as a second major.

Last Spring I was awarded the Leadership Academy scholarship (http://leadershipacademy.iit.edu/), which is a full tuition scholarship for four full years from the time it is awarded. Knowing this, I decided that it would be worthwhile to extend my stay at IIT by one year to get a second degree. The Leadership Academy holds several seminars each semester that talk about different aspects of leadership (and provide a free lunch!). This month we will learn about creativity through painting. The Leadership Academy offers other resources to all IIT students. The week before classes started I attended our Sophomore Leadership Retreat as a facilitator. For this program, we go to Wisconsin and have the opportunity to participate in activities like kayaking, canoeing, high ropes, and rock climbing.

Until later...