Blog Post Week 1

This week was spent working on my powerpoint presentation for the National Role Models Conference in Washington DC. The conference allowed us to go an present our undergraduate research to fellow undergraduate researchers and judges. I had to give an oral presentation which was completely nerve wrecking for me. I have always struggled with oral presentations but the only way that I will get better is by actually going to these conferences and presenting. My presentation was on our findings of Legionella pneumophila. Even though I did not win an actual prize, I won a great experience, the chance to network, and the chance to see other great undergraduate work. At the actual conference I had a chance to attend other undergraduate presentations, which were really interesting. Some of the presentation I got to attend were on lipedema, which is a fat loss resistant condition that affects women. There was also session on statistical methodologies that is being applied to Dravet syndrome dataset that I had the chance to attend. The presentations were divided into three categories. The categories were Biology and Chemistry, math and engineering, and public health and diseases. My presentation was placed in health and infectious diseases. The conference had panels where they spoke of the importance to apply for internships, and to find good role models to further our STEM careers. They gave a lot of helpful information into how to start your own independent research projects. Being able to attend this conference was great, it really motivated to keep trying in my career.
**I have attached a picture of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington. There was so much algae growth in the water! (science related). It is kind of hard to tell in the picture, but it was there. All I wanted to do was collect water and swab for biofilms to test what I could find in it, sadly I could not which was very disappointing. There could have been Legionella or other Pseudomonas present in that water!