News from Seoul – July 30, 2019: Skylar

In week 5, Skylar finished her experiments that were conducted in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department. Working with a postdoc in the lab, Skylar successfully calculated the swelling ratios for both polyethylene glycol diacrylate (PEGDA) and alginate. Skylar was able to use the PDMS molds that she created to in week 4 to create the gels. Since her swelling ratios results were good, Skylar’s professor gave her a new project to work on. Her new project is to qualify the adhesive properties of PDMS gels made at different concentrations. Once these properties are calculated, the gels Skylar will create will be used to improve the surgical techniques used in other research projects conducted in her lab.                                               

Skylar has continued to spend time with both her lab and IRiKA mates. Skylar and Shayla went to see the new Lion King movie and tried Japanese curry for the first time. They also visited 명동 (Myeongdong) for the first time to do some sight-seeing and shopping. There Skylar and Shayla ate rose-shaped ice cream, it was almost too pretty to eat! In week 5, Skylar and her lab mates went to eat Korean BBQ before her labmates left for Berlin to attend a conference.  

News from Seoul – July 29, 2019: Shayla

Shayla  has been working on her  design methodology for a T-coil Inductor that the group needs. Since there are no specification for the T-coil Shayla is using Visual Basic to program HFSS to build the coil once the group has specifications. Shayla is excited to be able to create a program the group could continue to use well into the future.  She is debugging the code so that she will be able to demonstrate its use and capabilities in the final presentation next Monday.

Yakusuni Temple Entrance

Rather than spend the weekend in Korea, Shayla ventured to Tokyo, Japan. As a true Otaku, the first places Shayla visited were Ikebukuro and Akihabara.  Manga wasn’t the only thing that caught Shayla’s eye, she enjoyed time in an Owl Café and the Aquarium in Sunshine City. Then She visited various temples and museums across the Tokyo area, her favorite was the Yasukuni Shrine. She also learned a lot about Japan history in the museums from a different perspective and dated earlier than she learned in school.