Caltech

Flashback: Amgen Symposium (Part 2)

The latter half of the Amgen symposium was comprised of a lot of fun activities including late night Jenga at the student game lounge with an espresso station, where one can get as much coffee as one wants. Normally this would be good, but I don't drink coffee. However, it was still really fun relaxing after a long weekend with friends. 

I don't think I've seen a higher Jenga tower.

Another game we attempted was Cranium. It's definitely challenging with so many players, especially since some of the cards referred us to people way before our generation of pop culture.

While playing board games at UCLA is pretty fun, we couldn't help it but explore off campus. We ended up going to a cookie/ice cream shop that is known for stacking ice cream with cookies to make a homemade ice cream sandwhich with your favorite cookie and ice cream. The line was longer than expected since there were a lot of other summer students from UCLA.

Diddy Riese was the place's name. It was a nice midnight dessert.

On the way to and from Diddy Riese, a few of us were in a really cheerful mood and we sang a lot of songs out loud including old favorites and new pop songs. Hey! It was summer, and we wanted to enjoy it!

The above images are blurry due to the fact that I didn't use flash... moral of the story: use your camera's flash at night to take pictures.

Of course nothing is complete without a party! On the second day of our 3 day stay, there was an outdoor party hosted by Amgen in the evening on UCLA's really large grassy field. There was an outdoor barbecue as well as many games including volleyball, karaoke, and a large blow-up slide.

Going down the slide for fun!

There was also foosball, and you can tell the person I'm playing against, Arvind, was really into it.

So, I mentioned there was karaoke. Well, being the energetic guy that I am and not having the ability to sing very well, I ended up filling in as the group's percussion guy instead by using my trusty cowbell.

I found the picture so energetic that I couldn't help but add some captions. Here are four:

People in background: Let's do the wave!

Me: No! Let's hit the cowbell!

While we're on the subject of karaoke, let me tell you how it worked during the big outdoor party. Since each group of summer students represented a school, the karaoke would strongly favor a group representing a school over individual singers. This was why almost our entire Amgen group from Caltech was in the stands behind me.

M.I.T. also happened to be a host institution, so they had a group of singers as well. While they were singing, I got another MIT summer student from our group to mess around in the stands behind the singers as a way of having fun. In fact, someone with a camera caught my act in the background.

The karaoke is to the left and in front you can see the tables set up for the barbecue. 

The next day, after closing ceremonies, the group left back for Caltech, but it didn't take too long. The bridge was fixed and we got back quickly. Being the hard working students that we are, most students went back to lab for the remainder of the day. What a great way to end a Monday!

Overall, the symposium was worth attending and was a special feature of the Amgen Scholars program. If you'd like to experience some of these activities, be sure to apply for this program. It isn't only available at Caltech, bur many other institutions as well!

Flashback: Amgen Symposium (Part 1)

This event occured from July to early August, but it's still worth discussing in case any of you, who are currently at Caltech are interested in applying. The Amgen Scholars program is a joint summer research project funded by the Amgen Foundation for students to do research at one of ten top-tier colleges around the U.S. Here's the link to Caltech's Amgen program: http://www.amgenscholars.caltech.edu

Some of these colleges include Cambridge, UC Berkley, MIT, Stanford, Columbia, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Washington and of course Caltech. 25 students are selected to participate at each of these schools with approximately half the scholars originating from the host university and the other half from colleges all around the US. That being said, the Amgen scholars program is indeed very competitive. 

However, that being said, the Amgen scholars program focuses primarily on research with a motivation in biology. The research must be somehow broadly related to biology such that pure mathematics won't get in. However, if you're a mathematician and say you're doing a project related to epidemiology, then you may have a chance.

Before I move on to the symposium, I want to encourage all eligible Caltech students who are interested in doing research that is broadly related to biology. You can even do a JPL project if you wish! It is much easier to get into Caltech's Amgen program than programs at the 9 other universities provided you are a Caltech student. Freshmen and seniors are automatically barred from applying according to current rules. This means half the possible competition is automatically eliminated. Additionally, we all know that not everyone at Caltech is interested in biology and those who are may not want to apply to the program. This further limits the number of potential applicants, which means by all means apply to the Amgen program if you're eligible at Caltech and want to be a part of an awesome group of similar-minded students over the summer!

Now, onto the SYMPOSIUM!

We arrived at UCLA on July 16th much earlier than we expected. The reason is that we set out early, expecting traffic delays due to the expected Carmageddon from the closing of highway 405. As it turns out, no Carmageddon occurred because most of L.A. either stayed off the highway or stayed at home.  

UCLA was a very pretty campus (even though it was not as gorgeous as Caltech).  Here are some pictures that were taken while touring the campus.

There are several museums on the campus with people standing at each display/artifact. That must be a really boring job to have to stand in the same room for the whole day with few if any people touring the facility and no TV or Internet to use.

The UCLA dormitories are huge owing to the school's exceptionally large student body! It might be fun living in a large campus, but I certainly prefer Caltech's much smaller size.

The campus is pretty spacious.

After touring the campus, we finally got our temporary dorm rooms. Then, we followed up with a few Amgen activities, which included an ice-breaker socializing event, where we found out about the incredible achievements of like-minded students from different universities. Several of the people I talked to had already published several papers as undergrads. One even had 10 published and was first author on two of them. That's really impressive!

Next, we got seated in UCLA's largest rooms at tables, where we would have dinner that evening. Before that however, the program sponsors got up and gave a brief introduction. There were several other scientists, who gave talks about research and Amgen's goals as well as the goals of the program. Students were invited to ask questions and each school had a "shout-out" when their names were introduced.

Since Caltech for the past few years has not really made an effort to "shout out" at all, our group this year made an extra effort to be acknowledged. One of the more vocal students in our group, Jordan, got up on a chair and literally screamed out loud our rehearsed chant. You can tell we definitely had more participation this year. In fact, so much, that we were recognized immediately afterward for being so loud.

Here's the podium from which the presenter gave his talks. Here's Jordan again.

After dinner and speeches and talk about each student's research at the round tables, the group disbanded momentarily and made preparation for the next activity.

NEXT UP: Games and FUN and a trip to downtown LA!

Back Again!

Hey everyone! I am finally back again after my unintended 2 week hiatus from blogging. Anyway, there's a lot to blog about, but first, let's talk about the weekend. Have you had a good weekend? I hope so! I had a great one as well and I learned two things as well.

#1: Always bring cash with you because you never know when you'll need it!

#2: Never put a cup of liquid like milk near electronics! I got lucky this time!

I decided to get a haircut on Saturday, but the problem was the barber I went to only accepted cash, so after I arrived, I found that I was short $4, and I had to walk all the way back to Tech to use the ATM since there were none nearby just so I can get $4. Unfortunately, I don't carry debit, so I couldn't get cash back at the stores either. Moral of the story is for me to carry a modest amount of cash with me at all times.

After I got back from the barber, I went grocery shopping with my friend Elise and bought some milk. I poured a cup of milk next to this laptop I'm typing on, and accidentally spilled the entire cup of milk on the laptop keyboard. All the liquid seeped into the keys before I got to wiping it up with a paper towel. Fortunately the laptop keyboard was unaffected. Unfortunately, I wasn't thinking and forgot to check where the milk had gone. Of course, it had to seep through the keyboard and fall out on the other side. So, the next morning when I went to remove the laptop from the desk, I found a puddle of milk underneath it, and you can just imagine how dumb I felt! Anyway, there's a milk stain on the bottom of my laptop, but oh well, it still works so I can't complain. Moral of the story is for me to not put cups of liquid near the laptop or any other electronics for that matter. 

Now time to catch up!

Amgen Scholars Symposium

This symposium took place exactly one month ago from Saturday, July 16 - Monday, July 18, 2011. During the symposium, 258 Amgen Scholars from across the U.S. had the opportunity to discuss their summer research projects, learn more about biotechnology and scientific careers, and hear firsthand from industry and academic scientists. A similar symposium will be held in September at University of Cambridge for the European Amgen Scholars. More information here: http://www.amgen.com/media/scholars_prepare_to_shape_future.html#pic

There are many highlights to this symposium, which I will go into detail in the next blog post. However, I've provided many photos for you in this blog post, which you can find below. However, before we get to that, let me tell you a project the Caltech Amgen scholars had completed just a week ago.

The idea began during the 2nd week of the program. A couple of us, especially Megan and Emily, wanted to do a parody music video about chemistry. After a couple weeks, I located all the material that we would need, and we created this music parody based off Michael Buble's song "Haven't Met You Yet" except this time, it is "Just Haven't Made You Yet"!

 

Hope you guys enjoy this music video! We spent a long time making it, but we had a lot of fun in the process! =D

Now, onward to the pictures and see you next time!

 

 

 

Revisited: What do Techers do for fun on campus over the summer?

Note: These opportunities are available to all Caltech students!

There are many answers to the question "What do Techers do for fun over the summer?" For instance, some of us experience new cuisines and culture in foreign countries. Others don't travel as far but still travel off campus, perhaps, to the east coast to places such as MIT. So, what do the people on campus do?

That's right! Some of us choose to develop our natural talents. Shown here is Marvin, a rising junior in Ruddock/Avery house. What makes this guy unique is that he has an affinity towards baking, which is not the type of thing you usually see guys do. He also loves whipped cream as you can tell here.

It's common to see Techers cooking together over the summer. When Caltech Dining Services (CDS) doesn't serve you food, you have to get it yourself. Of course eating out is easy, but it can't compare with the fun you can have with friends by cooking together. 

Some Techers decide to be productive in other ways. Here are two Rudds who are counselors of the LEAD program:

"Building upon the institute's mission to benefit society through research integrated with education, Caltech is opening its doors to 23 diverse and gifted high school sophomores and juniors this summer. The LEAD Summer Engineering Institute, held on campus July 6–27, gives students the opportunity to explore Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (or STEM) careers."

This means they are get to take the high school students to places around Pasadena and other parts of California during the weekends. It's a one of the few jobs on campus where you get paid to have fun.

Of course you can also be an admissions student tour guide!

Not feeling productive but still want to have fun? Some Techers do that too. For instance, with the recent free release of TF2 (Team Fortress 2), there have been an increase in the TF2 population at Caltech. In fact, I even installed the game myself: 

And... haven't played it since July 1st!

On the other hand, some houses make Rotation videos for the incoming Freshmen and for our time-honored tradition known as Rotation, which you can find more about here: http://articles.latimes.com/2007/oct/07/local/me-caltech7

Of course, what's the fun unless you participate in making the rotation video yourself? In fact, that is exactly what some of our Techers do. Below you will see a sneak preview of what might be on one of the house's Rotation videos. The prank itself is inspired by this incredibly funny youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaoLU6zKaws

We first perform the prank at Caltech! Here is a guy serenading Nina in Avery with a saxophone. Then, we do it elsewhere, but first, let's meet from left to right, Lucia, Megan, and Elise! All three of them are in my year and all three are Rudds! =D

It turns out that Elise's parents decided to come visit her over the summer and because they are really nice, they invited the three of us to dinner with them. We went to Newport Seafood Restaurant, which actually serves a lot of Asian food as well as seafood. The food was delicious, which reminds me... we eat mouth-watering treats for fun! =D

Now back to the house video. So, it wouldn't be fun to prank people just on campus. You have to do it off campus as well because it is much more fun to see the reactions of strangers, so we did just that! Here is a guy serenading random people at Anthroplogie using a saxophone. Awesome but even more so, hilarious! Note that the woman is totally astonished to see this event happen, which makes it even more amusing.

Back to more fun! Another game with an increasing player base at Caltech is League of Legends, which is a free-to-play online massive real time strategy game much like DotA and HoN:

So, there is a vast archive of information still available on the Caltech blogs website. This store of information I am referring to is of course are old blogs written by Techers, who have already graduated or are still at Caltech. Go read them for more information!

So, we all know that playing games tends to be a sedentary recreation. That's why at Caltech, we have other games to play, which allows us to get in a little bit of exercise. For those not into sports, we have DDR (Dance Dance Revolution) and also a DDR room in the SAC (student activity center). This game is super fun to play and you get to exercise and listen to music at the same time. Awesome!

And of course, let's not forget that picnics can be fun too! Here is the yearly BBQ for summer research students and their mentors at Tournament Park, just south of the track at Caltech!

===Next Time===

Saxophones, Research, Amgen Symposium and more activities!

Catch up week!

The past few days have been pretty busy for me both in and out of the lab, so I didn't get too much time to blog. The good news is I didn't forget about blogging! Note that I created an entry for this blog 8 days ago! I just didn't finish writing it until today =S

I want to start off by reminding everyone that it is important to get enough sleep every day! One thing I learned these past two weeks is that sleep cannot be forgone. You might be wondering, "But it's summer! How can you possibly not get enough sleep?"

While it is true that there aren't any classes during the summer, doing biological research can take a lot of time. All research can be time-consuming, particularly if one has a set project deadline. Biological research has the added caveat of your experiment extending past a regular workday because you are on the bacteria's growth schedule.

For instance, in my research, I have to harvest the bacteria during the end of the exponential growth phase before the stationary phase; however, I am also interested in knowing the growth rates of the bacteria. One simple way of calculating the growth rate is to take a series of opical density measurements using a spectrophotometer over time while the bacteria is growing and then perform a linear regression on the two variables of time and optical density scaled logarithmically.

The only caveat is that bacteria double in a short span of time. For my experiment, I keep growing conditions optimal for E. coli bacterial growth but I vary the substrate on which the bacteria is grown (e.g. glucose, galactose). I also use strains with different mutations in the metabolic pathway, which affect the growth rate as well. Therefore, in any particular experiment, I'd have bacteria growing at different rates, which would require me to monitor them at a regular basis (once every 40 or so minutes) for many hours.

So the point I'm trying to get at is that for biological research involving bacteria, one might have to stay in the lab longer than normal hours. If you are considering doing non-computational biological research, you now know what your research might entail.

Above is an image of Victoria Orphan's lab, where I spin-down bacteria  (separate the cells from solution based on a mass gradient) in a centrifuge once they have grown to the right density. Essentially I get a small pellet of solid bacteria at the bottom of the falcon tube and supernatant comprised mainly of water. 

 

Here is another view of the lab. After the bacteria pellet is obtained, I weigh it on a balance and then extract and esterify the fatty acids using acetyl chloride and hexane. This is done in fumehoods like the ones shown above.

The final step is to transfer the solution to a vial like the ones shown above. Then, I would run the vial on the GCMS and collect some data. There you have it. That's a bit of what I do in a typical day in the lab.

===Next Time===

What I like to do for fun when I am not in the lab.

For Prospective Caltech Pre-meds (and everyone else)

June 25: The Awesomeness of Internet and Email

The following is a recent conversation I had with a rising junior in high school whom I will call "D" from now on over correspondence by email. Some interesting facts about this conversation are:

1) I don't know D at all

2) D apparently knows some information about me including that I am attempting premed at Caltech

3) The primary reason for emailing me was that D wanted to know what it is like to be a premed at Caltech

The first two facts would make D seem like a pro stalker, but I made a personal website last summer for fun, which I kind of abandoned once I finished the project, yes, some of my information is freely available to the public. I should probably update it, but in the meantime you can check out the old stuff here if you're interested. The website itself was only made as an alternative to facebook just in case I decide premed isn't right for me and instead, look for a job right after college I would have somewhere other than my facebook to refer people. 

The third fact is, however, is probably the most interesting for those of you premeds out there, who want to get a head start on knowing what it's like to be a premed at Caltech. I corresponded with D over three emails and will post the questions D asked and my response. I don't know if this will be extremely helpful for everyone of you, but my hope is that some of you will get a better understanding of premed at Caltech, even if it's only a little bit more. If you have questions after reading this, you can put them in the comments section. If you're reading this way after 2011, then drop an email, which can be found on my website. 

Before I sign off, I want to wish you all a happy July 4th! If you read this afterwards, I hope you had a fantastic July 4th!

Until next week! 

-Yang

===Correspondence between D and Me begins here===

Note: permission was obtained from D to have this correspondence posted

Email 1 (D to me):

Yang,

I'm a sophomore (soon-to-be junior) at my highschool, and have always had a certain attraction to the idea of performing surgery, and medicine in general. With the idea hitting me that I have two years until I'm done with high school, I started doing some research on colleges and found CalTech.

 

I'm in my school's I.B. Program, carry the workload fairly easy, and have always considered myself a fairly dedicated, driven, and intelligent student. My fear with CalTech -- if I'm even able to get in, when the time comes -- is that I'll get there and find myself among an echelon of genius so far out of my reach that I can't even hope to make it through the classes.

 

Combined with this, I've heard that pre-med students in CalTech are rare, and ones with a GPA above 3.5 (like yours) are even more rare. I'm also torn because I enjoy challenging myself, and I enjoy learning, but I don't want to ruin my GPA in the process. Math is a strong focus in CalTech, even for Biology majors (or so I've read), and I've always been interested in and fascinated by math, but have never been exceptionally skilled in it. I can pull a low A fairly casually, but I imagine that CalTech would require something better.

 

Basically, this e-mail is asking advice from a person that I would want to be like in about four years. Did you find the core classes drastically different from your courses in high school? Did you at any point regret your choice of CalTech? How many Pre-Med students that you know don't have a GPA above 3.5, or have completely dropped the idea all together?

 

Believe me that I'm willing to do the work, but I also understand that sometimes, hardwork doesn't equate to thorough understanding.

 

Thank you for your time and any answers you can give.

-- D

Email 1 Response (Me to D)

Hi D,

Thank you for your email. I'm really glad you're considering Caltech
as a possible place to spend your college years. Reflecting back on my
admissions experience, I am very grateful that my mother made me apply
to this institution. It was probably one of the best decisions in my
life so far. You seem very dedicated starting your college search at
this time and sending emails to current students (how did you find out
about me?)! Keep up the good work!

You are right that I am studying premed at perhaps one of the most
difficult institutions to uphold a decent GPA. In fact, when I was
applying, I had the same worries. I wasn't confident that I would even
make it in! I remember being really afraid of starting classes because
I had this premonition that everything would be so difficult and I
would be starting at the bottom of the pack. It turned out many of my
peers had the same worries. Don't get me wrong. It was difficult. It
is still difficult. Some days I feel really small, but I never
regretted and will never regret coming here. While academics can be
strife on some days, it is the smart individuals here that make the
college worth attending.

Now before I get further, I need to debunk a myth. If you are admitted
by Caltech, then you are capable and expected to graduate; otherwise,
you wouldn't be admitted in the first place. The caveat for premeds is
that in addition to graduating, we need to get good grades. Is it
impossible? No. Is it difficult? Very much so. Caltech is an
institution that takes pride in its students' ability to work hard,
but at the same time, the school gives many tools and resources to
help every student succeed including our wonderful collaboration
policy. The only thing necessary from the student is dedication to do
homework almost everyday of the week and to put in the necessary hours
to study study study. I can't stress that enough. Your ability to
study independently and to seek help when needed in the form of office
hours or tutors is really important for the premed. That being said,
half the students get 3.5 GPA or higher, so you don't have to hole up
in your dorm all day long and study every minute in order to get a
good GPA. In fact, Caltech encourages its students to be involved, and
as a premed, it is good to be involved anyway, so the school in
most cases is very supportive of the premed student. In fact
(debunking another rumor you brought up), we have quite a large
population of premed students at Caltech that we even have a
student-run premed association with many many members.

In fact, biology is one of the top 5 most popular majors here, and the
majority of all biology majors are premeds! Exciting!

Now to your questions: Core classes vary dramatically in difficulty. I
found calculus to be much more proof-based at Caltech, which is to say
there is more theory involved than using brute force and plug-and-chug
formulas to get your way through homework. Certainly there are
problems like that on your homework but Caltech emphasizes
understanding the concept rather than being able to apply a formula
because anyone can do the latter but not having control of the former.

Core was pretty difficult for me, but 2 terms out of 5 of it are not
on grades but on pass/fail, so there is no need to worry during your
first 2 terms. This may change to one term when you get here, but by
that time, core will be reduced to 3 terms. I got almost straight A's
through core. I remember getting one B and one A-. In reality, the
courses in my major (biology) were much much more difficult than core.
So, core for me was more of a grade booster. Core can be similar or
different. I heard that the IB program prepares you more adequately
for core than AP classes, so you will be fine if you get in.

You say you will work hard, which is definitely required here at
Caltech if you don't have a wide knowledge-base to begin with. I
believe you will work hard as you say, and will ultimately do fine if
you come to Caltech. As for understanding, it is definitely
recommended that you understand what you're learning, but I feel that
sometimes we rush through courses at lightning speed that there isn't
time to thoroughly understand every concept. This is where selectively
studying for tests and quizzes help the premed student. You may not
get a full understanding of what you're learning but you will know
enough to get by, which has helped me tremendously with my GPA.

I wish the best for you in your college application journey. Work hard
throughout your junior year because that is necessary and important
for success but please do me a favor and enjoy the latter half of your
senior year after you have applied to colleges. I remember working
hard even after applying to colleges and reflecting back, I now know I
lost time that I could have spent with people I will most certainly
not see anytime soon.

I hope you find my advice helpful!

-Yang

Email 2 (D to Me)

Your e-mail has given me some confidence. Knowing that acceptance means that you already are believed to have the ability to pass clears up part of my doubt, but as you said, pre-med students' worries extend beyond that.

 

On more rumor for you to confirm or refute: I had read that certain pre-med students that are overly aggressive or serious about their grades (for reasonable concern) are sometimes ostracized at CalTech because that sort of behavior is a bit taboo. I have always been serious about my grades, though it's something that my friends and classmates accepted long ago as just an ingrained belief. That's not to say that I see them as the end-all be-all; I just know that GPA is something that will follow you for a long time.

 

I also wanted to know if you had any research experience before joining CalTech, like having a mentor and working at a university and everything, and if so, did it make transitioning to Caltech easier? Personally, that's somewhat diffcult; I live hours from any university with any sort of research opportunities.

 

The idea of everything being more about understanding than ability to mindlessly calculate is something I find interesting. That's the sort of philosophy I wish my high schools teachers would take on. Personally, learning a concept backwords and forwards makes it easier to remember, easier to use, and frankly, is somewhat exciting (nerdy, I know, haha). However, I understand that this isn't always true at CalTech (as you mentioned, certain times courses are rushed). As I said in my last e-mail, I find math fascinating, though I fear that pure interest may not be enough to get through the classes; I will still need a great amount of skill. In fact, learning in general is something I consider a pastime.

 

But thank you again for your answers. They were helpful and very in-depth, especially from a pre-med student who has made it part way through with a very respectable GPA and can give me the insight I want.

And I'll try to take it easy after college applications. :)

Email 2 Response (Me to D)

In response to your first question, no one likes grade-grubbers, and unfortunately

sometimes there is that stigma associated with premeds. The good news is
that at Caltech it is either unnoticed or very unpronounced. In fact,
I always jokingly bring it up in front of people and it is actually
the pure biology majors who have more of a problem with it than anyone
else since a few of my pure bio major friends tend to not care so much about
their grades than their research and sometimes I inadvertently give
them a hard time by complaining about my own grades without realizing it.

In that situation, however, they have every right to criticize me since

I probably am giving them a hard time about their own grades without meaning to do so.

People here are too nice to give premeds a hard time for being premeds.

I did have some research experience prior to coming here. That is
because nearby my home city is a national lab, so I got the opportunity to
work in a lab during my senior year for a year. However, don't be let
down. Admissions takes into account your location and resources, so if
you can't find a lab, that's no problem. Just don't say, "over the
summer, I played computer games all day long and did nothing else!"
That's not to say you should say you only work and have no life.
Balance is the key with a leaning toward science!

Research didn't really play a role in transitioning to college, but it
did help a little when I started my research internship over the
summer last year. That is to say you don't need research to get in. I
also know people who have never done research in their lives that have
gotten into Caltech. It's the passion for science and how you show it
in ways that are available to you that count!

I must say, if learning is what you consider a pastime, then Caltech
may be right for you. In fact, that is a recommended skill for any
college if you want to be successful there without problems. If you
have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

Finally, thank yourself for being dedicated. If you keep that up, you
will go far. Also, I'm glad you plan to take it easy after
applications. As a general rule of thumb, it's always good to not
overwork yourself to keep low the chances of burning out.

-Yang

Email 3 (D to Me)

Yang,

I was hoping to ask you about house life and that process. As in, how are they selected, what sort of community is in each house, etc.

I had read that each house tends to have its own 'personality', and the students joining that house tend to reflect that. Would you agree/disagree, and how would you describe each of the houses' characteristics?

Housing was just another topic that doesn't have much first-hand coverage on the internet (at least, none that I've found). However, I've also read that some of the processes behind the housing are a bit hush-hush, and I would understand if you weren't really able to share information.

Thank you again for any answers you can give.

-- D

Email 3 Response (Me to D)

Hey D,

You're right that the process involved in Rotation is kept quiet. By Rotation, I refer to the first 2 weeks of freshmen year, where students "rotate" through all the houses, where they have a meal with the house residents (lunch or dinner) and are given time to interact with them. The whole point of Rotation is for the new student to get acquainted with the house culture. You have to understand that it is unfair for the houses to carry stereotypes in new students' minds without the students actually seeing what the house culture is like for themselves. We try to keep the houses unbiased for that reason. What I can tell is that students are temporarily situated in one of the eight houses upon entering Caltech. After rotating through the houses, they are given a sheet to rate the houses on a scale of 1-20 with 1 being the house they enjoy the most and 20 being the one they really don't want to live in.

After that, behind closed doors, the eight house presidents and a couple others convene and officially decide where to allocate the new students. I cannot give you any information on how this is done neither do I know how this is done since I haven't served in a capacity that allowed me to make decisions on which house to put freshmen in. Also, Rotation rules, which all Caltech students are subject to (like the Honor Code) prevents me from going into further detail since violation of the Rotation rules is akin to violating the Honor Code, which forms the heart of how Caltech operates. You can read more on rotation rules here: http://ihc.caltech.edu/rotationrules.html

What I can tell you is a little about my own experience. I wasn't put into my first house choice. However, if you come here, you will know that at least 9 times out of 10, a student will be put into a house where they can live happily and thrive in. Houses may have distinct personalities, which you'll have to find for yourself once you get here, but in all honesty, I think I can live in any of the eight houses without a problem because they are ALL fine houses!

With that being said, if you still feel that you belong more to another house, you will be given the option to become a social or full member of any of the eight houses. By becoming a full member, you can even move off of your primary housing assignment and into that house of which you are a full member. Of course, students rarely move out of the house they are assigned unless there are extraordinary circumstances. I hope that answers your question.

-Yang

Lab and more fun

I am starting this post with an aside. If you want to skip it, just scroll past the

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June 25, 2011: Daily slice of my life

Google Definition for "spam":

1. A canned meat product made mainly from ham

2. Irrelevant or inappropriate messages sent on the Internet to a large number of recipients

Both types of "spam" are bad, but if you had to take your pick of artery-clogging canned meat or unwanted messages, you will probably pick the meat because once you eat it you'll have to go to the store to buy more but even if you delete spam, you'll constantly receive it, nonstop.

After a recent embarrassing experience, I definitely know I'd pick spam meat over spam messages.

On Saturday, I had to deal with an unexpected and potentially costly event related to spam. No, I didn't go to the store to buy a week's supply of spam or did I fall for those scams that end up in the spam folder. On the contrary, I inadvertently was the spammer, or rather the texting spammer.

Pictured above: my new phone, beautiful but deadly.

Last Tuesday, I talked about receiving a brand new HTC Inspire cellphone from my family. It is a gorgeous phone with too many features than I would have cared to have. The only downside is that the large LCD screen drained life from the battery like a vampire, meaning I have to charge the phone everyday.

When you first set up the phone, it allows you to transfer your contacts, calendar, and old text messages from your old phone. I thought this was quite a nifty feature since I wouldn't have bothered adding every single contact from my old phone to my new one. It simply would have taken too long and would have been too boring. So, I didn't think twice and made the transfer.

  So, at first it was pretty good

But then, I suddently received random texts from people like the following:

"Wait, what?" and "You're sending me a lot of spam" and "I'm receiving all of the texts you sent me from 2 years ago until now!"

...At that point I started thinking what I possibly could have done.

...I thought some, and finally it dawned on me that the problem probably came from transferring all the old data from my old phone to my new phone. I shouldn't have transferred the old SMS texts. That was a bad idea, and now I'm going to tell you that if you happen to be or ever are in this situation, don't transfer old text messages!

So, what happened next? Well, I went to work and fixed the problem and I got to say everything went better than expected! 

I posted my dilenma on facebook so my friends who received texts would know what was going on since there wasn't an option on the phone to forward a text message to everyone. 

Can you believe 6 people actually liked the fact I was spamming others? I hope they were being sarcastic. I am so glad that I have unlimited texting; otherwise, it really would have been a problem! So far I haven't had to pay for other people's texting costs. I hope it stays that way.

Moral of story? Think twice before you make a decision!

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A Little Bit About My Research Over The Summer 2011

 

There's a scientific discipline called biogeochemistry, and I am doing a summer that falls within that field. I'm working in Professor Alex Session's lab in North Mudd building. Professor Sessions has a wide variety of interests. Taken from his website: "I [Professor Sessions] study organic materials in both modern and ancient environments, using their molecular structure and stable-isotopic composition to understand where they come from, what processes have affected them, and what environmental conditions they record. This can be variously described as organic geochemistry, geobiology, and isotopic biogeochemistry."

What you'll find out when working in a research lab at Caltech if you haven't already is that in most cases you will be working with the professor's postdocs or grad students rather than with the boss himself. This is because the professor (commonly known as the PI or principal investigator) is too busy to babysit undergrads. Yep, we start at the bottom of the food chain, but it is quite possible to make significant accomplishments provided you spend enough time thinking about the science and working in the lab. For instance, I have a friend whom we'll call M who has already published a paper as a second author and another friend N who is hoping to be second or third author in two papers that should be coming out later this year.

I met a guy from another guy part of the Amgen program from another university who worked so hard that he has his name on 9 publications. Wowza! Of course, the vast majority of summer students like me have not published yet, but the possibility of publishing before graduating is defintely possible, given enough time spent in lab on the project and some luck.

My mentor is Xinning Zhang, who did some work investigating how the deuterium-to-hydrogen-ratio variations in bacterial lipids relate to the main type of metabolic pathway used in certain types of bacteria. The abstract is here. What I'm currently working on is an extension of the project, so that we can learn more about the relation of hydrogen isotopes and metabolism in bacteria. A reviewer wrote a easy-to-read review (here) of what the past project has shown. It summarizes what kind of research I am doing pretty well.

Currently, I am getting through a set of experiments seeing how changing the substrate on which E. coli is grown affects the D/H ratios. The substrates I'm growing E. coli on are glucose and galactose, and the E. coli used include strains with knockouts of different metabolic pathways including glycolysis and the TCA cycle, also known as the Kreb's and citric acid cycle. I'll keep you posted on the results when I get them.

Opinions on summer research programs available at Caltech|Amgen, SURF, & MURF

SURF (Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship) - The vast majority of Caltech students, who stay on campus over the summer apply for a SURF. According to the SURF website: The SURF program introduces students to research under the guidance of seasoned research mentors at Caltech and JPL. Students experience the process of research as a creative intellectual activity. Basically, for any type of research, you will have to approach a professor on campus and then ask if you can work in his or her lab over the summer. Of course, you should know what the lab does in some detail and what kind of project you are specifically interested in taking part in. A CV or resume may also be required for some mentors, who receive too many SURF students than they can accept, but generally it is easy to find research due to Caltech's small student body size of 1000 students and a 3:1 student to faculty ratio!

Amgen - If you are interested in doing a biology-related project and may possibly want to pursue an MD-PhD (although certainly not required to do so), then it may be better to apply for an Amgen in addition to a SURF (you can submit applications to both)! You can learn more about the program here! The Amgen program at Caltech provides slightly more income than the SURF program and definitely more social activities as well as mandatory weekly seminars that introduce you to the other types of research of the professors that your peers are working for over the summer. This means that the professors themselves will do the presentations! It's like taking part in a mini-science conference every week without having to leave campus! Super cool!

I believe the program accepts around 25 (give or take one to two) total students, half of whom are from Caltech and the other half not from Caltech. These are actually pretty good odds considering 1) freshmen and seniors cannot apply (that's about half the student body) and 2) not everyone is interested in biology, so if you're interested, defintely apply.

MURF (Minority Undergraduate Research Fellowship) - This is basically a SURF or Amgen for minority students. There are more social activities for smaller groups much like there are activities for Amgen. More information can be found here.

As with any type of research at Caltech, it can take a long time to get results and it can be hard. However, lab is not boring to say the least. For instance, the apricots shown above were grown from one of the lab members, who kindly brought them in to share with everyone else.
Om nom nom!

Some of the fun activities over the summer include karaoking. Here are a group of students singing at the UFB (upper fishbowl - yes, rooms and alleys have names based on their uses and in this case, how they look) in Avery House. There was also free pizza! More om nom nom! <3

This is my lab bench at work. I get to do a lot of mixing solutions as you can see with the bottles lying around and also use a little bit of knowledge I learned in organic chemistry earlier this year such as working with acetyl chloride for fatty acid derivatization. =)

It's Friday Friday, gotta get down on Friday! Here is a fun picture of seven people trying to get themselves jammed in an old-fashioned telephone booth we found around town.

Hey! I see you!

Contrary to what most people like to think on Friday, I was not looking forward to the weekend because it was not so much fun fun fun fun but more work work sleep deprivation work. Since my project involves sleep growing bacteria, I have to harvest them at certain times. I got to work all of Saturday starting at 9am in the morning. It turned out that I couldn't harvest one culture until 4am Sunday morning, which meant I didn't get out of lab until 4:30am the next day!

However, realize that most research don't end up like this. This was just a special circumstance that required me to get the experiment done soon because I wouldn't have access to some equipment that following week.

And the fun doesn't end! Sunday morning at around 6am or 7am, I was awakened by steam pipes busting open in the mechanical room of the house, which promptly set off the fire alarms. I guess students around me can sleep through about anything or didn't want to be the one to fix the problem, so the alarms kept going on and on for half an hour until I decided this is it and called security to come check the problem out and fix it.

At noon, I somehow got up and went with the Amgen group to Huntington gardens, where we got to see a lot of beautful foliage. You can check out the album of photos I took here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150294173034515.379673.564879514

Part of Memoirs of a Geisha was filmed at the Huntington (above) in the small city of Pasadena at a location that is less than 5 miles from Caltech! Wowza!

I also experimented around with the camcorder feature on my new phone, so here are some videos of Huntington art gallery. There will be shaking because I find it hard to keep absolutely still. You have been warned!

The first video is actually of bonzai in the Japanese gardens at Huntington.

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107 Days of Summer Break at Caltech!

June 21, 2011: Summer Solstice

Google Definition: The solstice that marks the onset of summer, at the time of the longest day, about June 21 in the northern hemisphere and December 22 in the southern hemisphere. 

June 21, 2011 marks the beginning of summer, and it also marks the start of a journey! Read on ahead to find out more!

Your Guide

  <-- He is awesome!

My name is Yang Hu and I am a junior undergrad at Caltech. I am majoring in biology, and my aspiration is to make it to medical school. My goal in this blog is to give you firsthand experience of what a summer at Caltech can be. Whether you are a high school student, prefrosh, or anyone else, I hope you find this blog useful. Now, enough about me. Let's go visit some places!

What to Expect

<-- Venues include Caltech, Pasadena/LA area, and Yosemite over 107 days! 

You will find our in this blog about my summer research at Caltech, activities I will pursue over the summer, and more about me. I will also talk a little bit about Caltech academics, especially toward the beginning as well as clubs and other opportunities available at Caltech. I have written this blog with prospective students in mind in addition to random readers, who may stumble upon this page. Be sure to read everything to get a full sense of my experience! Now, let's get started!

FIRST STOP: END OF FINALS

The first day of summer for me was spent grading one question on the Bi1 final, which made up about a quarter of the grade for the freshmen nonbiology major core biology course. It was a class I had the lucky opportunity to TA (That's right! Undergrads can TA other undergrads at Caltech and get paid for doing so!) It became a pretty late night even though I didn't have to grade all the finals, but it was quite interesting reading the student responses. Some of the nonbiology majors had real potential in biology! The hard part is convincing them to switch majors. =P

Opinions on some biology classes|Courses Taken 3rd Term (39 Units)

Advanced Genetics taught by P. Sternberg -- This was a very low stress class. The entire grade was comprised of four problem sets worth 25% each. An A is any grade at or above 90%. Even though there is no extra credit offered, rumor has it that A+'s were given to students with the top grades in the class. Yes, Caltech does give A+'s and they count for 4.33 GPA!

Genetics Laboratory (from 2nd term) taught by B. Hay and J. Mendel -- This lab class literally lasted forever! The entire class was given an extension 2nd term and apparently this was done the previous year as well, so the class lasted from 2nd term to 3rd term. The course had 2 portions, one part focused on doing genetic screens on a newly discovered species of Caenorhabditis elegans nematodes and the other part had to do with creating a P-element deletion in the SUMO gene of Drosophila melanogaster! How cool is that?!? Super COOL!

Organic Chemistry Part 3 taught by B. Stoltz -- A very difficult course indeed, I'd say even at other colleges. The third term was absolutely brutal with an emphasis on sythesis and covering the previous two terms worth of organic chemistry. The class is no joke and required consistent studying throughout the year and especially during this term. The course had quizzes almost each week, an in-class midterm, and a final!

Elementary Chinese Native Speaker's Track taught by F. Ming -- I'd say this class was one that left behind quite a few memories. This course had a lot of busy work that is usually associated with language classes, but it is busy work that cannot be put off without major consequences. Some had to ask for extensions to finish the coursework even after the course was finished and these are brilliant people too! My class decided to make a video at the end of the term to commemorate the time we spent together. It is in Chinese but you should still get the gist even if you don't understand what is being said. Here it is below:

  

Monday Night Jazz Band taught by W. Bing -- This was an awesome, awesome class! Imagine being able to play some jazz with others who share a similar interest in that genre of music after a day of lecture and homework! Making music with fellow musicians is an awesome way to destress! With the added benefit of the talented and chill band director, Bill, it was definitely an awesome and fun experience I had during third term! Want to check out some of our music? Below I've posted part of our 2nd annual Latin Jazz Festival concert from this past year. Enjoy!

 

Health Advocates taught by M. Stapf -- What's not to like about learning about first aid and practicing it in the class? Health advocates was definitely one of the more enjoyable classes I have taken so far. Even though it was 3 straight hours on a Wednesday night, we got to sit in comfy sofas and have snacks halfway between! Plus, I got to be in the company of a lot of awesome friends and participate in the final practicum which included the use of a lot fake blodd!!! =)

(TA'd Bi1 -- As a job, TA positions do not count for credit. This was definitely a class worth taking as TAs are required to take the course in addition to TAing and holding recitation sections and office hours. The professor P. Bjorkman applied concepts in biology to HIV viruses. If given the option to TA, I would most likely do it again.)

The next day was much better. I got to catch up with some friends at Blacker that I didn't get to visit much due to a busy third term. We went to Noodle World, which features a lot of... you guessed it... NOODLES! Nom nom nom ... a full Techer is a happy Techer! Since the campus is small enough to walk by foot, some (like me) opt not to get a car, so traveling off campus is a tadbit more difficult, which is why it's good to know a few friends with cars. =P

This summer I am lucky to do research as an Amgen scholar. Amgen is basically a research program for those interested in pursuing an MD/PhD or does something remotely related to biology. It is a great program that provides many little perks including bonding time with the group of Amgen scholars. One of the first activities was a scavenger hunt across the Caltech campus. Of course, being a Caltech student made the scavenger hunt a little easier than intended, but the fun part was meeting new people. In the picture above, 3 of the students are not from Caltech.

I also got to go to lab today, but more on that in the next post!

 The next day was a filled with fun as well. There was a kick-off summer BBQ for all summer research students (SURF, Amgen, and MURF) featuring mediterraneanfood catered by Burger Continental (which gives you a $2 Caltech special of a burger with fries on the side! That's cheaper than McDonalds! xP) After that I had to pack for my 3-day trip to Yosemite sponsored by the Caltech Y, which is our campus volunteer organization, which I will go into detail in future posts!

SECOND STOP: YOSEMITE  

Hiking can be fun, especially if you happen to chance upon some members of your own house randomly in the middle of a trail. Pictured above are me, Marshall (alum), and Rebecca. It was a totally unexpected meeting. It's a small world after all!  Full album of pictures for this trip are located here: http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150280685039515.377920.564879514&l=31b037b94c

It looks like I'm ready to jump off a 500+ waterfall for a little swim in ice cold water! This shot was taken at the end of the Mist Trail, which runs to the top of Vernal Falls (the water fall pictured). The trail was slippery and wet. Many sections didn't even have railings, and rumor has it that some ill-fated tourist fell off the trail into the ice cold river below a couple weeks before I hiked up the trail. Luckily there were no casualties on this particular trip. It was pretty exhilarating, and the views were absolutely breathtaking. You've got to go see it for yourself.

The next day, the group got to visit a giant sequioa forest. Apparently Caltech owns some property up here. There are even 5 giant sequoias named after famous Caltech people like Milikan. It was a whole different type of hike that involved trying not to get yourself stabbed by a tree branch sticking out at you from the ground or a fallen-over tree. Feet-eye coordination I gained from taking DDR (dance dance revolution) classes at Caltech proved very helpful here.  

THIRD STOP: BACK TO TECH

The next day, I spent some time filming the House Video intro for rotation, and I also got to go to the annual "Pasadena Make Music and Sidewalk Chalk Festival." There were a lot of beautiful sidewalk chalk artwork as well as some interesting bands I've never heard of. Overall, it was awesome, and I also got to hangout with some Amgen buddies pictured above. 

Since I've come to Caltech, I've become more sedentary. I used to do sports like cross-country and track in high school, but kind of dropped the ball at Caltech. This summer, I'm hoping to workout more to get back in shape. That's the goal. Now let's see if I get past planning xP

I got a care package from my family today! Awesome family =D

The package came with an HTC Inspire, which will replace my Blackberry Curve 8310. Now, I have to figure out how to use all of these new features, which the Curve didn't have. Whoot! More things to keep me busy over the summer.

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NEXT TIME: Learn about what I am actually researching over the summer and see what Caltech students can cook up (hopefully something edible)! =O