Weekly Report #2: “Interviewing and topic searching” (September 9th, 2024)

These past 2 weeks were tiring yet fun. We focused on the interview process and it was cool leading the group and I felt more comfortable and confident doing so. I was able to tell my group what to improve on and was even able to realize the mistakes I made myself and improved on them. We did the interview practice 3 times each as an interviewer and the interviewee, and by doing so I think we all got enough practice to learn how to do an interview well. I also bonded with my group more and found it fun doing the practice with them. Other than that, I emailed my mentor with different ideas for my ISM 2 topic. There are so many interesting topics and experiments I can do in Biomedical Engineering and I am a bit confused on where to start or what topic to do. While there are many possibilities, as a highschool student I can’t really get that much hands-on experience with the field currently. I am not sure on what I am going to do yet, but I think I am leaning towards optgenetics and clickable CRISPR “off” switches. The human body has so many mechanisms and therefore complications and it’s so fascinating yet so confusing. I am excited to explore the complications again this year, and to work with my group.