Research Progress  

Alejandro continued to wait for the delivery of the parts that he ordered previously from DigiKey; as such, he continued his work with electrodeposition. Shortly after the beginning of the week, he was ready to begin electrodeposition, and so he did. Using counter and reference electrodes in an iridium oxide solution (along with the default settings for current waveform length and number of cycles), he was able to get through half of the stimulation points over the course of the week. This rather slow progress can be attributed to the fact that each electrodeposition process takes multiple hours due to the large number of cycles set for each waveform. On the final working day of the week, the parts for the stimulation circuit arrived; this means that starting next week, Alejandro will be able to begin working on the circuit while he waits for electrodeposition processes. (Note: Alejandro started working on Tuesday instead of Monday due to his delayed arrival from Japan).

Excursions

After wrapping up his Japan trip, Alejandro flew back to South Korea, landing at Incheon airport at around 2:40 pm local time (two hours later than expected due to multiple delays). Due to his late arrival, Alejandro did not report to his lab that day. Soon after arriving home, his three roommates arrived from their labs and the four went out for a rather pricy dinner of grouper and crab at a new branch of an international seafood chain (thanks to one roommate’s affiliation with said chain). Afterwards, the foursome went bowling before heading home from the night. On Tuesday, Alejandro continued his weekly tradition of night basketball with the HOBAS group. Thursday night and Friday night featured dinner with the roommates, followed by a trip to a gaming lounge (Thurs night) and a nightclub (Fri night).

Alejandro, William, and their two roommates with their crab and grouper dinner in front of them.

The weekend was less eventful, with Saturday consisting of a haircut and trip to Myeong-dong (where Alejandro had lunch with two of the roommates) and Sunday consisting of a visit to the nearby Holly’s Coffee. Alejandro spent most of the morning there, starting by getting in touch with his family and some friends who happened to be visiting his family. He later went to lunch with the same roommates he had met in Myeong-dong the day before and went to dinner alone, finally trying a Mexican restaurant that he’d had his eye on since his first week in Seoul. Overall, another fun week for Alejandro