As someone who has just completed their fifth semester of undergraduate research, I think it goes without saying that the experience is invaluable for gaining a stronger grasp of and learning how to push the frontiers of knowledge in your research field. Not only does this give you a leg up on the competition when…
Tag: CURF
Almost (not really) finished!
Early this semester, my research mentor Dr. Swigonova explained to me the process for creating the 3D digital protein model that would eventually be 3D printed for use in teaching settings. I don’t consider myself the most competent user of technology but I was pretty confident that I could manage this new software, called Chimera….
My CURF Introduction
Hi everyone! I’m Vivek and this semester I’m working with Dr. Xiaowei Jia to study how temporal convolutional neural networks can be used to predict water conditions. What are temporal convolutional neural networks, you might ask? Great question! A temporal convolutional neural network (TCNN) is a type of machine learning (ML) architecture which can take…
Jurkat’s Bizarre Adventures: The Finale
As the semester comes to an end (only one more month left!), I wanted to take the time and reflect on my time in CURF with Dr. Du’s lab. For every semester I’ve been in her lab, I’ve learned more and more about the research process and what it means to be a student researcher….
CURF 3: Reflections and Recommendations to New Researchers
This semester, I learned that the process of conducting research is not often as linear and straightforward as I thought when planning out experiments. There are often unforeseen challenges that arise that can delay or modify the approach you take to conducting the research. Coming into the semester, I had a detailed plan for the…
Me vs Big New Research
Hi again everyone! I am back with another blog post and this time around I get to speak about my experiences on beginning my project. My start was a bit unconventional when it started in Summer 2022. I was gearing up for the summer after concluding my first year at Pitt and I desperately searched…
Jurkat’s Bizarre Adventure: Episode 2
Before officially starting research under my mentor Dr. Du, located at the Hillman Cancer Research Center, I had never been exposed to any form of research before. I heard stories from my friends who had started earlier than me, and I would ask questions in wonder and earnest as I tried to imagine what exactly…
Me vs ACE2, and HIV
Hello everyone! My name is Janet Kim and I am currently a sophomore majoring in Chemistry, minoring in Economics, and pursuing certificates in Global Health and Children’s Literature. I received the Chancellor Undergraduate Research Fellowship under Dr. Ivona Pandrea, who works in the Division of Experimental Pathology. My work started with her in the summer…
Jurkat’s Bizarre Adventure: Episode 1
Hi friends! I’m Annemarie Nguyen and I’m currently a junior, double majoring in Neuroscience and Psychology, minor in Chemistry, and Certificate in Conceptual Foundations of Medicine. I conduct research under the mentorship of Dr. Wei Du in the field of hematology and oncology at the Hillman Cancer Center. For brief context, hematopoietic stem cells (HSC)…
CURF Post 3- Summing Up the Semester
This semester in the lab was different from previous ones in that I was responsible for training a new undergraduate student on top of completing my other lab work. One of the hardest things to balance at least for me in the lab is time. With classes and experiments that run for hours it can…