Hello World! (Yes, this programming reference is completely intentional.) I’ve successfully finished my first week as a visiting research scholar in the Mechanobiology Institute (MBI) at the National University of Singapore (NUS)! The most important research accomplishment for this week was completing most of the paperwork and safety training required for access to work in… Read More Settling in, Singapore Week 1

Hello World! I’m all done with my second week of my international research experience. The required safety trainings and paperwork for the “Ministry of Manpower” (MOM) are not yet complete, and I’ve had to attend several hours of informational training on proper lab safety. Considering that many institutions base their training on a somewhat globally… Read More All about the research, Singapore Week 2

Hello World! Things are finally coming together in Singapore! My trainings are complete, I have all the required access cards, all my required reagents have arrived, and it’s time to get down to real work. Last week, we sent out an email to all the students and post-docs in our group introducing ourselves, our research,… Read More Getting down to business, Singapore Week 3

Hello World! This week was off to a great start—our journal paper on engineered skeletal muscle based bio-bots (in which I am co-first author along with a fellow lab mate) was accepted to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences! It feels great to have our work recognized by such a prestigious journal and… Read More Thoughts on biotechnology, Singapore Week 4

Hello World! The weeks are absolutely flying by, and I feel barely able to process all the thoughts flying through my brain! First and foremost, I was able to do several trial runs of my muscle strip stiffness measurements on an atomic force microscope (AFM) located in one of the research buildings/institutes (“SMART” – Singapore… Read More Learning about my learning style, Singapore Week 5

Hello World! I have wrapped up my time in Singapore – I can hardly believe that I lived and worked in another country for six whole weeks! I’d grown quite accustomed to the Singaporean environment and will miss many aspects of my life there as I return to Champaign-Urbana. All the same, I miss being… Read More Tips and tricks for research success abroad, Singapore Week 6

Hello World! After I returned from Singapore, I dove right into the annual retreat for the NSF EBICS research center (see this blog entry for more on EBICS). Since the retreat was held at Illinois this year, and since I’m a member of the Student Leadership Council, I played the part of “hostess” to all… Read More Research Exchanges: How to make them productive

Hello World! I’ve been “in motion” quite a bit over the past month, so I thought I’d compile all my travel experiences into one grand special conference edition of my blog – something encompassing the huge, the tiny, and the medium-sized but just plain exotic research conferences that make the lives of graduate students all… Read More Types of research conferences

Hello World! I attended the most non-traditional conference of my graduate career this past month and, since it’s an opportunity open to every student at Illinois, I wanted to share my experiences on this blog. The Technology Entrepreneur Center at Illinois (TEC), in collaboration with the Chicago Mayor’s office, organizes an annual conference called ThinkChicago… Read More Exploring Entrepreneurship: ThinkChicago | Lollapalooza

Hello World! This time last year, I wrote a blog post on the different types of technical conferences I’ve had the opportunity to attend during my years in graduate school. 2015 wrapped up in pretty much the same way as 2014 – jam-packed with technical conferences big and small (Boston -> Tampa -> Boston ->… Read More My take on non-technical conferences