It's About Time

As Research Showcase approaches, the weeks are getting more and more busy. There is absolutely no time to waste and it's just about the time of research showcase.

Weekly Report 12/4/2017 to 12/10/2017

Time goes by fast especially when you think there’s still time. The past week has been work towards original work, research showcase, and the first formal fall conference. The major part of the conference is the digital portfolio which began to come together this week. Our websites are a huge component of the ISM research showcase as it essentially displays all the information and work that has accumulated over the past few months in ISM. It was difficult to culminate all the information while still keeping up with the color palette chosen at the beginning of the year. The technical difficulties also brought some complications; however, overall the website has been coming together.

In addition to creating our digital portfolio, a part of getting ready for the fall conference was to reflect on our research presentations. It was nerve-wracking to watch the presentations but also an eye opener to the number of mistakes done in the presentation. During the presentation, I tended to notice the how fast I spoke throughout the presentation, but at the moment it did not feel fast paced at all. Another issue was my lack of movement throughout the presentation and instead opting to rock back and forth on my feet which could have been posed as distracting to the audience. Initially, the introduction seemed to be intriguing but during the presentation it sounded like a mere recitation of facts that many people may not find that fascinating as not everyone is interested in this field of study. There are certain aspects that seemed to be more effective as an introduction such as the story of my grandpa which started out my introduction speech. Culminating a few good pieces of the introduction from this speech and the introductory speech could potentially fix that issue. However, I still haven’t seemed to improve in my talking speed which is something that comes with practice. This is essentially a sign that talking slowly should be implemented into my daily life in order to talk at at a slower speed by the end of this year. In addition, something else that seemed to be lacking was the factor of voice inflection and at times I sounded monotone which can get boring very quickly. Again, with adequate practice that is something that should come together if I am not constantly thinking about the content of the speech, then more time can be spent on thinking about these little aspects that can alter the delivery of the speech.

Work towards the original work process as of right now has simply been towards research on pediatric brain tumors and specifically gliomas. The research contributing to the original work right now has simply been the basics and nothing too far in depth. The primary step has been to understand the basics of the structural complications of these tumors and the reasons behind the complications.

Overall, these past few weeks are working towards the research showcase which is in a little over a month and stuff is beginning to speed up quickly. Before we know it, the year will be over but as of right now every little step matters towards the final product at the end which should be eye opening. The goal is to work towards a final product that will inspire and culminate all the ideas from this year into a well defined end result.