4 Skills Paul Learned Doing Research His Freshman Year
Paul Destefano is a Sophomore at SDSU Weber Honors College
Paul Destefano is studying Pre Med Biology at SDSU Weber Honors College in San Diego, CA.
1.Honors College Research Fellows Program.
The Honors College Director, Dr. Stacey Sinclair teaches an Honors College Class for Freshman.
During that class she talked about the Honors College Research Fellows Program.
Paul want to be involved with research.
So at the end of one class, he went up to Dr. Stacey Sinclair, and told her that he was very interested in doing research.
He also told her that he’d never done Research,
Nor did he know what area he’d like to do Research in.
The Director said the purpose of this program was to get students involved in research and she encouraged him to apply.
2.The Research
Paul applied and was fortunate enough to be selected for an interview.
He was matched with Dr. Margherita Capriotti, from the Aerospace Engineering department.
Paul wasn't sure what he would do in Aerospace Engineering as a Molecular and Cell Biology major.
While talking to Dr. Capriotti, Paul learned that his project would be shear wave elastography for arterial wall properties investigation.
Simply put, the project was to develop diagnostic techniques for cardiovascular diseases,
Using arteries that students would manufacture to mimic artery tissue and use ultrasound waves to measure the properties of this tissue.
So, it actually was a Biomedical project.
Paul thought that was perfect and was accepted in the lab.
3.Skills Gained Doing Research
Paul has been in charge of project design management in collaboration with Dr. Capriotti.
Here are the 4 Skills he has developed.
a.Literature Reviews
Dr. Capriotti asked for very specific material properties of arteries to manufacture these arteries.
They are called phantoms, tissue mimicking using some sort of material or resin,
Paul was tasked with the job of figuring out what to do.
So Paul started up doing literature reviews.
He discovered that 3d printing was a method most often used,
And the literature suggests Elastic 50A Resin mimics the tissue well.
So they used 3d printing using this resin.
b.Communication
Paul has a lot of people interactions as part of the project:
Write emails to companies, to place orders for different supplies that were needed,
Communicate with Dr. Capriotti,
Setup a time and meet with other members of the lab,
To ensure that they have enough time to conduct experiments, or
To work on something really quickly.
c.Networking
Paul has been fortunate to have the following opportunities:
Participate in events and
Meet many professors from different departments.
d.Interdisciplinary
Paul has learned how to work with MATLAB, which is a code interface that lot of engineers and mathematicians use.
As a Molecular and Cell Biology major, MATLAB would not have been part of his curriculum.
He’s also learning about concepts like acoustic radiation force and how ultrasound waves propagate, which is the the waves that come out of the transducers that they’re using to test.
So it's been a very interdisciplinary educational opportunity for Paul.
4.On with the Podcast
In this Episode, Paul joins to share his undergraduate Honors College journey so far at SDSU, UG Research, Passion for Medicine, and Advice for High Schoolers.
Listen to the Podcast with Paul Destefano on SDSU Weber Honors College. (38-Minute Listen).
Have a Great Week!
Venkat