Isaac Velando's blog

Monday through Wednesday we finished up the data collecting for the experiment. We realized we wouldn't be able to complete the final processing steps within the timeframe of the internship so instead we decided I should focus on furthering the model runs.

When all was said and done I finished off my report and paper and rather enjoyed the presentation.

It has been a great experience working with my fellow interns and colleagues at CMOP.

On one hand it's been more of the same - the experiment is just a simple algorithm and I go into the lab, perform it, and that's that. On the other we got a hold of some info on a conference called SACNAS that will take place at Dallas in October. We submitted an abstract and will hear back from them within a few weeks. I just have to put together this final report and presentation and that'll be that for now.

On one hand it's been more of the same - the experiment is just a simple algorithm and I go into the lab, perform it, and that's that. On the other we got a hold of some info on a conference called SACNAS that will take place at Dallas in October. We submitted an abstract and will hear back from them within a few weeks. I just have to put together this final report and presentation and that'll be that for now.

Hard to believe it's almost over. Well this week was all about continuing to gather the data for the model and then playing with the model. I went ahead and set up the model in MATLAB such that I can call it with different sets of parameters very easily and have been running multiple sets of parameters each day. What's difficult is that there isn't any actual data out there for the growth of the elements of the model we have over a long period of time, so we don't necessarily have any data to use to try and calibrate our model (with a Monte Carlo simulation most likely).

Thankfully we've been able to get the experiment moving along and we're on the 8th day of data collection as of now. It looks like they'll be taking their precious time to grow as usual though so we're having to be very careful with how much volume we use for certain experiments like nutrient measurements.

I've been able to rewrite the code for the model so I can set it to run several iterations of the model with different parameter configurations while I'm at work; my computer surely hates me, but the information learned by adjusting these parameters is very useful.

To be frank this week was rather uneventful. We basically had to wait for our samples to grow up enough before we could begin gathering P-I (photosynthesis - irradiance) data from them.

Today they still weren't high enough at all so we made some new samples that should be good enough o go tomorrow.

Really not much else to say.

The Corvallis trip was well worth it. If not just experiencing American Dream's pizza (thanks again Michelle for the itp), what I learned and experienced with Yvette was amazing.

So today was my first day (of five) in Corvallis at the Oregon State University campus. I really have to start by mentioning how beautiful some of this campus is, although to be frank the town isn't all to my liking at first glance.

Well there are setbacks too. Turns out some of our media got tainted a bit and there are now things living in there that shouldn't be. By the beginning of next week hopefully the filtering will be finished and we can get back to trying to isolate them.

Anyway we had an exhausting but fun trip on Friday. We went to Multnomah Falls where we did some hiking (amazing views), then to a fish hatchery, and finally to a tour of the Bonneville Dam. Have a look:

A view from Vista House:

So today we (Tawnya, Michelle and I) took another (longer) trip to gather water samples. We went up to Washington actually - it took about 2-3 hours to get there give or take (the whole thing took about 8 hours). In addition to getting a hold of four new samples that should help Michelle learn more about the chytrid fungus she's studying, I was introduced to saltwater taffy which is apparently a bit of a coastal candy phenomenon. Anyways, I got some pictures of our sampling adventure:

Here's Michelle carrying a water sample from I believe our second destination: