Week 7:
Reading Sensor Research

July 9, 2021

Monday morning was spent saying goodbye and helping my friend pack up her belongings. We rarely get to see each other in person, so it is always sad when we have to say bye. We got McDonald’s for breakfast, the most nutritious breakfast one can have. Then, we started the drive to Hilton Head. It was actually a very cloudy and gray morning, with a high chance of rain in the afternoon. Before we knew it, we had made it to the airport, and I hugged Jane bye. After driving back to Beaufort, I spent the rest of the day relaxing in bed and doing laundry. Later that evening, I decided to cruise around the neighborhood on my skateboard.

Tuesday was a work from home day. We’re currently looking at using different parts for the sensor, so Professor Tye sent me a few research papers from other scientists who built their own sensor. We looked at parts they used and what issues they ran into and the solutions they came up with, and if they are similar to our issues. Professor Tye wants to write a paper on our sensor once we get it up and working. He plans on having me write the paper, so I made sure to look at the setup of the research papers and how they presented their information. I’ve never written a paper that would eventually be published, so I made sure to read these papers very closely. Unfortunately for us, the research papers ended not being as helpful as we hoped they would be.

Wednesday came around, which means it was covid lab day. I split my time between helping out the covid lab and working with Chandler on the sensor. Professor Tye, Chandler, and I  discussed the new parts we would be using and what we hoped they would fix. The two biggest problems with the sensor are a broken microSD cardholder that will randomly eject the SD card and the dissolved oxygen sensor, which is possibly reading the current of the circuit board instead of the actual dissolved oxygen in the water. We ordered a different brand to fix the SD card that we hope will be of better quality. We are getting an isolator for the dissolved oxygen sensor in hopes that it stops any cross-talking that is interfering with the sensor. On that same morning, we processed the new wastewater samples using blenders and centrifuge. We took a quick lunch break and then returned to the lab to extract the RNA. Eventually, we want to start testing the RNA samples for covid and what variants are present, but so far, we have yet to set up that process.

Due to miscommunication, I came in late for the processing of the wastewater samples on Thursday. I arrived for the very tail end of processing, which is just in time for lunch. Today, we decided to go to this cute town in the middle of a forest for some pizza. The pizza was pretty good, but I can be a bit of a pizza snob as someone who grew up in NYC. We played a game where we asked one central question, and everyone answered. The game is a way to get to know each other better. It has been very nice to make friends with everyone I work with. We finished up the day by fixing an RNA extraction that spilled yesterday and then all headed home.

Friday, we received the new SD card holder and began removing the old SD cardholder. We soldered on the new microSD cardholder, and immediately, we could tell this brand’s holder is much better quality. The new holder solved all the issues we had with the previous holder. The isolator has yet to arrive, but we hope it will arrive within the next week. We then assembled the sensor for Professor Tye to deploy later over the weekend.