Remember the story we started with? Well, that little girl… She’s all grown up now.
She’s taking a hold of the chances that come her way. She’s being careless enough to make the most of whatever she has. Even if she knows it’ll wear it out.
Because she knows things are worth more when they hold memories. Of the good, the bad, the stressful, the blissful, the frustrating and the rewarding. It’s because she knows that’s the essence of living. Actually living the moment.
And she has a few things to say to anyone like her. Enjoy the present moment. It’ll disappear one day and you’ll miss it. Make as many experiences as possible. Just like situations, your life’s moving towards an end too.
Say what you feel, feel what you say. The moment is very short and it’s fleeting.
What would it be worth to live a life with risks, without challenges, without ups and downs?
Enjoy it. Make that a priority.
If you can’t tell already, then surprise! The little girl, she’s me. And I’m glad I stayed true to my resolve and made the most of this trip.
Congratulations to everyone on this edition of the SEED program for a project well-done and especially to team FlowMetrics (Brandon Bravo, Deepak Narayan, Olorundarasimi Akojede, Motunrayo Sanyaolu) for being amazing teammates.
Special thanks to our supervisors Dr Holmes, Prof. Nodskov and Dr Moninuola, Rice360 and Chevron.
It was an absolute pleasure spending the summer with you Rice360 2024 SEED interns. Till we meet again.
And remember there’s so much out there that’s yet to be created. You’re amazing, go and build the awesome future you dream of.
Welcome back to my blog! I’m Alinafe, and I’m excited to share with you the highlights and experiences from Weeks 4 through 6 of my internship at OEDK. These weeks have been filled with technical challenges, exciting adventures, and memorable events that have shaped my learning journey. Let’s dive into what we accomplished and experienced during this time!
Week 4: Gel Modification and Prototype Development
Gel Modification Methods
This week, our main focus was on enhancing the gel used for imaging by modifying its properties to improve its performance.
Air Pump and Syringe Methods:
We started by trying to build a homemade air pump using a cane, battery, motor, and balloons
.
Unfortunately, this DIY approach didn’t work as planned, leading us to order a commercial air pump .
commercial pump
Despite our efforts, the commercial pump also failed to achieve the desired results.
Next, we used a syringe to modify our gel . While this method was somewhat effective, it did not gave us required results.
Electric Stirrer Success:
Our breakthrough came with the use of an electric stirrer, which proved to be the most effective method for creating small, uniform bubbles in the gel (Figure 5). This tool allowed us to achieve the precise bubble size we needed for our project, marking a significant step forward.
Prototype Development
Testing and Iteration:
We created test prints and models using different materials to evaluate their effectiveness ). While Material A and B did not work as expected, Material C demonstrated clear imaging results, which was a promising development for our project
Test print model
Model with material B
A Fun Break: Houston Zoo Visit
During a busy week, we took a break and visited the Houston Zoo:
Exploring the Zoo:
We saw lions, monkeys, colorful birds, and many other animals. It was a fun and relaxing way to take a break from work.
Learning About Animals:
We learned about animal conservation and the zoo’s efforts to protect endangered species.
Team Fun:
It was a great chance for us to relax, enjoy the day together, and share our favorite animals.
Week 5: Testing, Reflection, and Client Engagement
This week was a bit quieter due to the Independence Day holiday, offering us time for reflection and preparation for the next stages of our project.
Testing and Client Interaction
Model creation
Model Testing Outcome:
We had a meeting to test our models and found that Material A and B did not yield satisfactory results. However, Material C showed potential, leading us to focus on refining this material
Client Collaboration:
Our client was responsive and supportive throughout Week 5 and Week 6. Their timely feedback and availability for discussions helped us navigate challenges effectively and stay on track with our project goals.
Team Building Activities
Bike Ride Adventure:
Led by Professor Nodskov, we enjoyed a 3-mile bike ride from the bike shop to the post and back. It was a great and fun opportunity to bond with my team members, enjoy the outdoors, and take a break from our usual routine.
Ice Skating Fun:
Our team went ice skating at Galleria Mall, organized by Brooke and Rohan . We started off wobbly on the ice but ended up having a fantastic time as we learned to skate and cheered each other on. It was a fun and memorable experience for all of us.
Week 6: Final Model Refinement, Challenges, and NASA Visit
Week 6 was crucial for finalizing our model and dealing with unexpected challenges, including the effects of Hurricane Berly.
Final Model Preparation and Hurricane Impact
Model Refinement and Testing:
We focused on perfecting our final model for gel testing, making necessary adjustments and conducting thorough tests to ensure it met all specifications.
Hurricane Berly Disruption:
Hurricane Berly caused significant disruptions, including power outages for off-campus students . While our project materials remained safe, the storm impacted communication and work schedules, challenging us to adapt and find solutions.
Inspiring Visit to NASA
NASA Exploration:
We visited NASA’s Johnson Space Center led by Rohan and Renee, where we explored fascinating exhibits. Highlights included:
Spaceships and Rockets: We saw detailed models of historic and current spacecraft, including Apollo missions and Mars rovers.
Mission Control Centers: We got a behind-the-scenes look at the control rooms used for managing space missions.
Astronaut Exhibits: We viewed real spacesuits and learned about astronaut training and experiences.
Presentations: We attended talks from NASA experts and astronauts, gaining insights into space exploration’s history and future goals .
Conclusion
These past three weeks have been transformative, combining technical progress with team bonding and inspirational experiences. We tackled challenges in gel modification, refined our prototype, and navigated the disruptions caused by Hurricane Berly. Our adventures included a fun bike ride, an enjoyable ice skating session, and an inspiring visit to NASA.
Thank you for following along on this journey, and I look forward to sharing more insights with you soon!
I once knew a kid. If you have her a pretty marble, she’d bury it somewhere safe so it’s never scratched. If you gave her a seashell, she’d tuck it away neatly so it never breaks. And if you gave her a crystal pen she’d hide it until the ink ran dry.
I don’t know about you, but this story hits a little close to home… Being afraid to take chances, being afraid to make mistakes… In protecting what is so much, we lose out on the wonderful experiences that could be. It becomes a way of life. Everything that we admire, we tuck away and never actually get to experience the beauty of it.
That’s why these two sentences stuck to me for the last few weeks of this Rice360 internship.
1. Fail fast 2. Have the experience to know when to give up
I heard the first statement from Dr. Holmes and I think there’s a few things embedded in it. Fail fast –
Try new things. Mistakes are like a compass to show that you’re voyaging into unfamiliar territories. Because if you knew everything about everything, you’d know what to do and what not to, always, right…?
Forgive yourself for your mistakes. It turns out, there’s usually no one harder on us than we are on ourselves. Our mistakes weigh on us the most and taunt us. Oh no, I failed… so what?Only in giving ourselves permission to fail do we fail forward.
It’s helped shape my perspective to now seeking mistakes and seeing success as just a pile of accidents and failures that form a heap of experiences. And at the very top of the heap lies the long-sought breakthrough.
Fail fast; this mantra particularly rings true for my team’s (FlowMetrics) Rice360 project. Try, fail, learn, then rinse and repeat. If it goes well, we get the experience, and if it doesn’t… we get the lessons. Win-win!
The second statement was the response Kim Denney; the MD of Newport LLC gave to my question at our first networking lunch. “As someone who sees the potential in things and people and as such, never gives up on them, how do you know what things to actually give up on? Things that are doomed to fail no matter how hard you try. Or things that require more effort than their worth to work out? How do you get the superpower of discernment?”
My question was in the context of engineering problems. Sometimes things just don’t work and spending more effort is a waste of time. Some other times, things require a lot of effort to eventually work and are very valuable. How do you differentiate between the two?
Her response reflected the 30 long years she’s spent developing her expertise: “First off, it’s not a superpower, it’s experience!”
According to her, when you’ve done something time and time again and it’s almost a second nature, it’s much easier to see when something’s going wrong, and to catch the anomaly before it’s too late.
All leading back to the first point. Making mistakes gives you the experience; the superpower of discernment. The power to see what is worth investing in and what’s better off abandoned. In other words, mistakes teach you to not make mistakes… It’s almost counterintuitive.
Oh no, I failed… so what? Do it again! Piles upon piles of errors and you find out many ways of not doing things. And especially why not to. Which leads you to doing things right.
As for that little girl… She never got to appreciate the beauty of the marble nor the seashell and she never got to see the amazing creations that could come of trailing the ink on a canvas…
That’s the real story of failure.
Now… go fail forward andmake something awesome!
Motunrayo Sanyaolu, Electrical Electronics Engineering, Nigeria.
Hi everyone, welcome to my third week of my blog post. I would like to share with you the highlights of this week. Honestly its had been a wonderful week. I learned so much from my teammates as well as from the perspectives of other team members from different groups. I will start with what we have done so far, then the challenges and also I will share with you some of the activities that we had this week
THE DEVELOPMENT OF OUR SECOND PROTOYTPES
This week we focused much on working on our prototypes. We developed different types of prototypes, because we wanted to find out which one was better. We developed two prototypes to start with, using negatives of a 3D model and a syringe. We used gelatin in both of them.
Figure(a). figure (b).
The above pictures show the progress of ones of the prototypes using and syringe (figure a) and the negative of a cervix and a vagina figure b.
Challenges we faced on the above prototypes
The first prototypes with a syringe did not produce any image on the ultrasound after testing.
The second one with the negative of a 3D actually produced some results but the challenge was that to produce an image the probe was not inserted from the hole that was representing vagina but rather from outside
These challenges led us to come up with another solution that will enable us to produce an image by inserting a probe inside the vagina of our prototype.
From the advice we received from Dr. Gei, we thought of coming up with a design as in figure c.in figure c the vagina is perpendicular to the cervix.
Figure (d)
This is the negative 3D model that we made for our prototype where the vagina is perpendicular to the cervix. The final prototype of these will be tested in our next meeting with Dr.Gei
GOAL
Our goal this week was to develop a model or prototype that could produce an image on the ultrasound after inserting the probe through the hole.
WORKSHOP
We had a workshop this week led by our team leads, Shifan and Renee. In this workshop, we developed a small system where a motor rotated after receiving a message sent through a transmitter on a breadboard to a receiver on another board. Once we operated the transmitter board, the motor on the other board began to rotate.
TEAM LUNCH NETWORKING
Another highlight in this week is that we also had a networking lunch with professionals from Houston community. It was a great time to get know people from different professionals and learn from them. This had been a very wonderful week for me as an individual and also a s a team
TEAM LUNCH WITH PROFESSOR NODSKOV
Another interesting event this week was the celebration of the Juneteenth holiday. Prof. Nodskov took our team out for a delightful lunch at Mendocino Farms. It was a fantastic opportunity for us to unwind, socialize, and strengthen our bonds outside of the usual work environment. Despite the continual rain throughout the day, our inner beings were high, and the weather didn’t lower our excitement.
We had a wonderful time chatting and getting to know each other on a more personal level. I enjoyed some delicious food; I opted for a sandwich, the name of which i forgot, but it was made out of pork. The taste was spectacular, and it was easily one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. It was my first time trying this particular type of sandwich, and I don’t regret having it. The experience was unforgettable, not just because of the great food, but also due to the good fellowship and enjoyable conversations we shared. Overall, it was a perfect blend of good food, great company, and a festive atmosphere, making the Juneteenth holiday celebration truly special.
Conclusion
This week had been a wonderful week, very educative and also memorable.
I am Precious Faseyosan, a final-year student of Petroleum Engineering at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. I am beyond excited to be in Houston this summer, interning at Rice University’s Oshman Engineering Design Kitchen (OEDK). To God’s praise and glory, I finally made it here and am super grateful for this incredible opportunity.
I arrived in Houston with two other interns from the University of Lagos, Nigeria. We boarded the same flight. There are also three other interns from Kenya, Malawi, and Tanzania. Together, we make up six African students here on a fully-sponsored program. We are interning with nine other students from various countries and Rice University.
The 3 interns from Lagos, Nigeria on our way from the airport to Rice campus.
All six interns from Africa (Of course, I’m the lady on glasses. 😎)
Love at First Sight:
The Rice University campus is so magnificent and beautiful. Gosh! 😍 The campus has such a stunning scenery that different people come from time to time with professional photographers for photoshoot sessions! It’s also charming to see friendly lovely cute squirrels run around in search for food or companionship from humans.
My first visit to the OEDK left me in awe; the tools, machinery, and innovative projects worked on by students and staff were mind-blowing. The realization that I was in for an enriching learning experience filled my heart with gratitude and enthusiasm.
(A little backstory: I didn’t initially have a passion for engineering. My family’s disapproval of my desire to study psychology led me to choose petroleum engineering instead since I loved mathematics and was quite proficient at it. My genuine interest in engineering started during my internship at the University of Ibadan Design Studio and Innovation Hub, an affiliate of OEDK, where we worked on many fascinating engineering design projects in my third year. This passion for engineering is continually growing.)
Meeting the other interns from various countries, our team leads Shifan and Renee, our supervisor Dr. Kevin Holmes, and the visiting mentor Dr. Funmi was equally thrilling. Their warm welcome and support made Rice University feel like home. I mustn’t forget to mention Michelle Nodskov, the Education Programs Coordinator at Rice360, who ensures that all the international interns have a blissful stay. I’m really thankful for the supplies and snackssss (the extra ‘s’s were intentional. 😂) she got us. She’s been so kind and helpful. It’s been a great delight working with every single person, and I’m glad we still have more days to work together.
The Learning Experience:
Okay, enough of the stories. Let’s get to the main purpose of this blog—my first week at the OEDK. The first week was superb, definitely. We were introduced to engineering design as a problem-solving tool and the engineering design process, which involves the steps in problem-solving. What stood out to me during the introductory classes was this statement by Dr. Holmes (paraphrased):
“High-performing teams fail fast and learn faster when they do.”
We learned to approach problems with an open-minded mindset, embrace our mistakes and failures, and learn from them.
Clients pitched their ideas to us, presenting real-world problems they wanted to solve. We were asked to choose a project to work on over the next six weeks and were divided into four teams based on our choices. I chose a project aimed at improving the gel used for transvaginal ultrasound, pitched by Dr. Gei from the Houston Methodist Center. The current gel does not provide clear and accurate imaging of the cervix length, contributing to inaccurate diagnoses and preterm births globally. Our goal is to develop a model that accurately represents the female cervix and improve the current ultrasound gel. I was drawn to this project because of my interest in revolutionizing healthcare. My team spent much of last week researching and defining the problem. More about the project in subsequent blog posts…
Personal Reflections:
This experience has reinforced my belief that engineering is a powerful tool for changing the world and improving lives. Virtually every field benefits from the impact of engineering and design. I have no regrets choosing to study engineering. 🤩
I am excited about the opportunity to learn and work with a diverse team and the professional networking opportunities this internship offers. I also look forward to exploring fun places in Houston. By the end of this internship, I aim to have significantly improved my design thinking and research skills.
Thank you for following my journey. Stay tuned for more updates! 🥂
