Out of the lab, into the Rice Paddy
A reflection on engineering principles observed on an adventure in Laos
I’ll pose this question to the MIT and scientific community: how would you identify and separate healthy rice grains from empty or insect-damaged grains to feed to the chickens? As MIT graduate students, we’d probably over-engineer this. Is there some protein in the healthy grain I can image for? I’m a mass spectrometrist, so I’d […]
Girls just wanna have FUNding
My perspective on the proposed tax bill H.R.1
Joining thousands of other activists at the March for Science last spring, I proudly held my handcrafted, glittery poster in the air. “Girls just wanna have FUNding,” it said. Now, I realize I should have been more specific: “Girls just wanna have FUNding–for their research, but also for themselves.” A poster large enough to accommodate […]
Evolution of the MIT Grad Blog
The blog helped her regain a voice, and she didn't want it to end
Understanding what graduate student life is like at MIT is challenging for an outsider. Before I arrived, I had preconceived notions about what the student body would be like: ultra-nerdy kids that participated in hackathons on the weekend and probably couldn’t chug a beer. While admittedly some of these stereotypes are true, I now embody […]
The Seven Deadly Sins of Conferences
Past the construction site, across the deserted parking lot, and through the shrubbery, I finally arrived at the front entrance of Northeastern University for my first academic conference. Over the next two days, with 270 brilliant minds, I learned a lot about machine learning and healthcare. More importantly, however, I discovered how to make the […]
Living the Journey
Five ways to enrich your life in grad school
In undergrad, I lost the journey for the destination. I came to college with blinders on. I was determined to focus 100% of my energy on academics and not let anything distract me from good grades. And, for better or worse, that is exactly what happened. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I fell naturally onto the graduate school […]
