Alessandra H.
Statement of interest, Spring 2023: I am interested in WISRD because I think it will help me grow my confidence through independently working and researching as well as working with other people with the same interests. I hope I will grow as and independent learner while learning more about STEM. Since I am an apprentice I already got a small taste of WISRD and I couldn't wait to be able to sign up for it as a class. I think WISRD would be a great fit for me because I love math and science, as well as having more freedom to explore many new things.
Journal 2023-2024
February 13. 2024
I met with my mentor for the first time on Sunday. She was really nice and seemed very knowledgable. I am excited to get started with the research and finalize my topic. The textbook we are following is Fluid Mechanics Fundamentals and Applications the third edition written by Yunus A. Cengal and John M. Cimbala.
February 6. 2024
My mentor for the MIT research program is Theresa Tsaggaris. She is a PhD student at California Institute of Technology studying mechanical engineering. I am excited to begin researching with the help of someone with a lot more knowledge and experience than me.
January 29. 2024
For the MIT research program, I decided that I wanted to research something related to hydrodynamics. Right now they are matching me with a PhD mentor and I am excited to meet them. Here is more information about the research program I am doing https://www.learnstem.org/our-students
January 25. 2024
I got accepted to the MIT STEM research program, now I have to finalize what exactly I want to research for 12 weeks. I also now know what my topic is for my inquirer pitch and I am almost done writing it.
January 15. 2024
I have been working on an application to the MIT STEM research program. Here is the application to the MIT research program http://x.learnstem.org/x/d?c=37548958&l=d154d7c9-8429-473e-8975-ee99c36fc88c&r=ce94ceca-af04-4ba2-93dd-b51a8f72a4fc I also have been working on the inquirer pitch. I have some ideas for a topic but I am not yet sure.
December 12. 2023
I am excited for the fall poster session tonight and hearing from the speaker about optical engineering. Today we started re-setting up the hydroponics, we set up tube three with water and tomato seedlings.
December 4. 2023
The Fall poster session is soon, and I decided that I am only going to do the hydroponics poster instead of my own until spring since there hasn’t been that much going on with what I have been working on.
November 28. 2023
The model 3D printer is done now. I am currently figuring out if there are certain types of glue that hold acrylic together or if something like hot glue would and I think it is fine as long you are careful with the temperature of the acrylic.
November 6. 2023
Now that dark matter day is over, I am going to continue working on the Ultimaker 5 air manager. I have figured out all of the dimensions and I am working on making a model 3D printer with the 3D printer and then I will make the actual air manager after.
October 10. 2023
I am still working on making an air manager for the UltiMaker 5 and I am planning on making a smaller model just so I can plan out how I will make it. I will most likely use the 3D printer as well as some smaller pieces of other materials to create this model.
September 26. 2023
I am waiting for the materials for the brine shrimp feeder. Today I worked on making the UltiMaker 5 air manager. I have seen some examples of someone making a very similar thing but on the UltiMaker 2 so I am trying to recreate something similar for the UltiMaker 5.
September 19. 2023
Yesterday Megan and I decided that I would work on making an automatic brine shrimp feeder. I have an idea on how I might do it but I haven’t quite decided.
September 11. 2023
Today we filled each of the buckets with water and got the system running. In about one to two weeks we will add the salt to the system and measure how they grow.
September 6. 2023
The tomato seeds started growing and hopefully in about a week we will be able to put them into the different tubes. I also practiced soldering and looked at some of the previous sensors that had been used with hydroponics.
September 5. 2023
I learned how to Solder today, it was a lot of fun! Tomorrow I might learn how to use Adruino sensors.
August 31. 2023
Today we planted all of the tomato seedlings. We 2 seeds in each starter pot and we had 12. Now we will wait until they start to grow before transferring them into each tube where they will be in water with measured salinity to help see what the least amount of water farmers need in order to grow tomatoes that way they can not only save money but also help with climate change.
August 28. 2023
I joined the hydroponics lab and for now, we have to fix some of the small things that got thrown away or moved over the summer, and then after that we can start growing the tomatoes in different salinities.
August 23. 2023
Today was the first day of WISRD. I am still not sure what projects I am going to work on because I am interested in a lot of different labs. I am excited to see which direction I go in.