July 13, 2017, Filed Under: 2017, learning, researchDeliberate Practice: Becoming an Expert Constant, albeit creepy, reminder for us scientists to practice wearing our Personal Protective Equipment. Photo by Gabriel Garcia. “Practice makes perfect,” just one of many clichéd inspirational sayings anyone can find passing a Hallmark store. One of many iterations our parents continuously drill into our minds as we make our way through life. Even though the phrase may have lost meaning through its advertisement in society, the message it carries still holds true and will probably continue to do so for the many years to come, until society transcends into the highest form of intelligence (if at all possible). Everything we do in our everyday lives requires practice; the theory of evolution, the progression of life itself, is an inherent form of practice (survival of the fittest, adaptation, etc.). Our species has evolved in technological, social, political and spiritual aspects through the use of practice. Clearly, then, practice can be applied to almost anything, including our short-lived summer research in the field of cancer. Scientists have dedicated their wholes lives to a single field in science and still come up short in understanding, so it would be rather arrogant to claim that we can become experts in the field of cancer by the coming month through “practice”. What I will suggest is that we can become experts of ourselves through practice; experts in being on time, in taking notes of your everyday methods and findings, even experts in managing our finances. Do not continue this journey with the mindset of just learning about cancer or proper cell culture techniques, learn about each of your own shortcomings and how to fix them through practice. This work ethic will diffuse into your lab work and everyday life, and make things easier to deal with. Of course, this is not to diminish the importance of improving lab techniques. We should all strive to continuously improve ourselves and our work ethics, as both ultimately affect the progress of our society and societal standards. -Gabriel Garcia, The University of Texas at El Paso
June 19, 2017, Filed Under: 2017, austin, cancer, researchResearch Dedications Lab Bench. Credit: Guillermo Beckmann. Through our stay here at UT Austin, each Friday before going to work on our individual Labs, we dedicate the week to something. This in order to motivate us to continue working to a cure and better understanding of cancer. The idea was borrowed from the Texas 4000, that is an organization that rides 4000 miles to raise funds for cancer research. Cancer has impacted many lives, and everyone has their own individual story and their own reason to want to beat cancer. Everyone, no matter what their dedications and intentions, is invested in trying to defeat this serious threat that kills millions of people everyday world-wide. Sometimes the dedications don’t have to be in a personal way but it is always something to keep the importance of our research in mind. Sometimes we dedicate to the people that are affected by cancer, and sometimes to the adventures and new thing we will learn that week in our labs and our life. Overall, we have to keep reminding ourselves and everyone that research and fighting against cancer will benefit everyone. As well as it will make us, the researchers, grow personally as a person and build on our skills to become better in our research. Guillermo Beckmann, University of Texas at El Paso Yahir, Andrew, Gabriel, Bianca, Guillermo, and Octavio.
January 27, 2017, Filed Under: 2016, researchBMES 2016 Presentations Every year, the summer scholars present their work at the annual meeting of the Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES). This year’s scholars each presented a poster at BMES in Minneapolis, Minnesota in October. Here are each of the scholars with their posters: Grant Ashby, Georgia Tech Dylan Beam, The Ohio State University Nyrobi Celestine, Milwaukee School of Mines Daniel Chavarria (right), University of Texas at El Paso Alston Feggins, Florida Institute of Technology Rachel Hegab, Louisiana Tech University Adiel Hernandez, University of Miami Hannah Horng, University of Maryland-College Park Sydney Hutton, Stanford University Emilio Loera, University of Texas at El Paso Jose Perez, University of Texas at El Paso
