iUTAH Undergraduate iFellows

 

Week 8 Recap

July 7-11, 2014

 

Allison Albert

This week I focused on flushing the lysimeters so that we could install them. We were able to flush and install all 36 of the 2in lysimeters, but the 1in ones have not been flushed and installed yet. Also, this week was iUtah's Summer Research Institute, so we showed the participants stormwater systems around Logan on Wednesday, helped with their posters on Thursday, and went to the iUtah Symposium all day Friday. 

 

 

 

Tim Beach

Last week was spent trying to put all of my work together onto posters for the iUtah all-hands meeting. I completed organizing the maps I intended to present and added them to my posters. I ended up changing the layout of my main poster a little bit, but I think I was able to display it in a way that is more effective than what I had before. The all-hands meeting was a good experience. I enjoyed being able to explain my research with other people. I learned that it was easier than I thought it was to talk about the research that I am doing. I was able to meet new people, strengthen connections and friendships I had already created, and learn a lot about iUtah and some of the research that is currently going on within the group

 

Toby Brotherton

I began the week doing data analysis on evapotranspiration data collected by Youcan and me. I created ET curves for all three lysimeters over a 4 day period. I was not able to create all the graphs of climatic factors for the sampling days before I had to get my poster printed. The rest of my week was spent with poster preparation and also with collecting more evapotranspiration data.

 

 

Andrew Butterfield

 

 

 

Kenyon Gentry

I began my Arduino based datalogger project on Monday; I installed a datalogger shield which contains a real time clock and SD card slot. I also received my sensors and have begun prototyping a suitable set up. Toby and I completed our posters for presenting and attended the session on Friday.​

Adam Henrie

I spent my week exploring different methodologies of survey administration with my mentor. We are in the process of creating several new surveys, and we are identifying our target populations, sample populations, and the appropriate survey methods we plan to use for each. I've also spent time finding ways to validate a survey instrument, both with statistical methods and known-group administration comparison.

 

Katy Hicks

The first part of the week was spent finishing up my research project by analyzing my results and revising my poster for the iUTAH symposium. Getting results was really cool - it was neat to see the end product of what I had been working on over the past few weeks! Wednesday was spent helping my mentors with the social sciences part of the Summer Institute program. We went out with the Summer Institute participants to different stores in Logan and passed out short surveys on water perceptions in Cache Valley that were given on iPads. My role was to recruit people to take the survey. Friday was the big day where we finally had our poster session to present our research posters to iUTAH. The poster session went really well! I was extremely nervous but in the end I was really pleased with how I did. I was able to walk around a little bit to see the other iFellows posters and they all did a great job! Overall, it was a great experience with good practice in public speaking. I feel more prepared and more at ease for the upcoming iFellows Symposium. 

 

Alexis Holzwarth

Week eight was a BLAST! My work mostly consisted of finalizing my poster for the iUtah Symposium All Hands meeting. The meeting was great for networking and introducing myself to new people in the science community, as well as receiving some feedback on the poster itself and on the work I have been doing. Meanwhile, I was writing a couple papers concerning urban water use analysis and findings derived from the database my colleagues and I created. I have several new ideas for what the next step may be in the water use data analysis and hope to move forward with these ideas. The meeting also helped me decide what the next step will be in my career. 

 

 

 

Jeffery D. Josephson

Presentation Day is always the most nerve-taxing day of any learning experience for me.  Last year, as a member of a Summer Institute Team I could rely on others to fill in any gaps I might have in my knowledge of our joint project.  But this year, well, I was on my own.  My project was a sort of ad-hoc and put together after my initial project fell through.  My first project had more to do with work with LiDAR derived data and less to do with direct water involvement.  But the LiDAR data necessary for my project, even though it was meant to be available in June 2014, did not become available until July 8--too late to be of use in my poster project.  So on to plan B.  In my poster presentation I was constrained by the fact that my data was not all present and had to rely on hypothetical charts and expected results.  A weak place to argue from, to be sure.  I did feel, however, that I explained my purpose and methods well.  My results had to be anticipatory but even those were well received.  As incomplete as my poster was, I know this work will play an important part of my future projects, especially in my senior thesis at Weber State University.

 

 

 

Claire O'Donnell 

Last week I was able to plant for my experiment. The species chosen were phlox, irises, geraniums, day lilies, salvias, and petunias. Last week I also had the opportunity to present at the iUtah Summer Symposium. It was nerve wracking at first but as I continued to present I grew more confident. I'm grateful for the added experience it gave me.

 

 

 

 

 

Anne Thomas 

The survey continues! Every other day I went out and measured trees, and on the other days I processed data. Every homeowner I talked to was very cooperative except for one, but he came around as we were leaving.

 

Michelle-Kei Williams