Seattle Day 4 (Thursday): Intellectual Ventures

Yesterday was my designated 'visit Intellectual Ventures ' day, as set out in Karen's detailed itinerary. I was told it would be an intense day, but it was actually pretty short and manageable. Anyway, what am I doing summarising? Back to chronological, Elle. 

NOTE:The crappy iPad blogger app just deleted everything I had written on this post. This annoys me, so the replacement post will be short. 

Leaving the hotel yesterday morning, the town car driver (suited and very fancy) stared at us and vice versa for about fifteen minutes at a standstill because he was looking for businesspeople and was sure we weren't them. I eventually had to ask if he was going to Intellectual Ventures. He was nice otherwise but bam, prejudice. 

Once in IV we had a chat with Ozgur and Ben about their nuclear power spin out and biosensing, among other things. We then went and toured the labs, seeing lots of things that I'm not going to detail because (at) it's late so I don't want to (b) checking what's okay by the non-disclosure agreement would be a ton of effort. We saw the optics lab, mosquito zapper, culinary lab and machines room. I'd seen quite a lot of the equipment already through my research but the mosquito zapper was cool and I liked the concept of the femtosecond laser. Our guides explained things really well so that an absolute beginner could understand them, which had its ups and downs. At one point Ben was explaining the concept of a biomarker to me, and I was trying to keep a straight face because my project heavily involves them. He wouldn't have known that unless he'd read through my project, so I guess he has an excuse. Again though, they were cool. 

Another cool thing was Global Good, a collaborative effort between Bill Gates and Intellectual Ventures to aid the developing world.  And the vaccine storage devices. 

We were then driven in a town car to IV's corporate campus. We had lunch, bought by Kristin our friendly guide, and chatted about general stuff like college and family. Everyone asks me where I plan to go to college. 

After that, we went to see Mona, head of Corporate Communications and previous First Lady of Washington State and wife of the American ambassador to China. She was great and very beautiful. It was really interesting to hear about her life and to chat in general. I had been told to ask her for advice on my blog but she didn't know this so she just looked at it then and there. She made some suggestions, including that I should split up into scientific and personal blogs. I'm afraid I can't do this, as I already have two blogs (one for book reviews) and it's a hassle and dilutes the brand. I do appreciate the input though. She told me to think about who the audience or market of my blog is, and do I want investors to look at it and think I'm the one to invest in - but at least at this point in my life, that's not the aim. I just like sharing my story. She had a confusing quote in her office intended to bring cocky employees down a peg. Very dignified woman.

I then went for a tour of the founder of the company's office, led by his assistant, who I thought was awesome. He has a cool office, with a real periodic table, dinosaur bones, something that resembles a nuclear reactor core acting as a coffee table, and the exact same keyboard as my friend Ciarán. He also has a big personal library that I'd love to take home. Also, this. 

Finally, we went for a chat with the company president, Adriane. She was really friendly and we got on. I admired how she surpassed obstacles with dignity, and hey - now she's President of a billion-dollar company. She gave me a lovely little present and we got photos. 

Kristin said she had presents for me too and gave me some IV merch, including a handy mini-rucksack which I'll probably use for CTYI. Then we were walked out to our waiting town car. 

After that we just chilled by going to the pool. It was beautifully sunny but almost stiflingly hot. My friends were super jealous. 

I ate in Polaris that night, and got a pretty condescending look when I asked if they sold chips. Now that I think of it, though, maybe they needed to hear fries. I just got apple crumble which was so hot it badly burned my finger.

So IV was definitely the main part of our day. Thanks to everyone for taking time out of your day to meet us and show us around!  

May Review

There were no massive events in May, but there have been a few nice things scattered through it. School fair day, one chess tournament, two awards ceremonies, a spot on the radio and a meeting.

I already covered the first of May in my April review, but to recap it was the final day of Positive Mental Health Week in my school so we had a fair day outside, with ice cream and chess and games. It was fabulous. 

Posting this photo again because I really love it.

I then reflected on what I'd learned at Evolve Biomed, finished up my world series with an interview with a French girl and expressed my support for the Marriage referendum. I talked about the benefits and disadvantages of sharing my life on the internet, and then published a post covering the Head Girl campaigns in my school.

It came as a big surprise to me when that post caused controversy. I was pulled out by my Year Head and Vice-Principal to talk, because apparently some people had been offended by the honest portrayal. I've adjusted the post and written more at the bottom, but that whole thing was a strange experience. 

I thought up my dreams in life and gave advice on how to succeed at science fairs. 

Then, finally, some things started happening in real life. 

On Thursday the 14th, I had my first external chess tournament against a local school. I was Board 7, i.e. the seventh best player on the school team, but it was still cool and I really enjoyed winning my first and only tournament game so far. The same day, we voted for the Head Girl. I voted Sarah #1, and she won the following day at Prizegiving!

Friday the 15th was always going to be a great day because there were two awards ceremonies on the same day: school Prizegiving and an awards ceremony for Drogheda Young Innovators.

I (and my sister) did very well in Prizegiving, coming out with, well, a lot.

Immediately after that, the Young Scientist students left for the Mill for the Drogheda Young Innovators ceremony. All of us won our category, and I won the overall prize! 




Then on Wednesday the 20th, I was invited to speak on local radio about winning Drogheda Young Innovators alongside Breanndán, who helps run the competition. 

I then did a blog post about all my work experience and what I've learned from it. I've had three consecutive weekends where I didn't leave the house, so there's not too much else to add, apart from the meeting. Lately, I've been thinking about Sentinus an awful lot. It's happening in less than a month.  

My school exams went from the 25th to the 28th (the English exam on Friday was cancelled because a teacher died). On Monday the 25th, after my History exam, my teacher and I went to a meeting in St. James' hospital about continuing my research. That was great. I then had Irish and French exams (both okay), Chemistry exam (great), Physics exam (great) and Maths exam (not so great). Then on Friday the 29th, I took part in the senior students' guard of honour in the funeral procession. On Saturday 30th, I had a lovely day in town with Jerry. 

I blogged some exam tips, reviewed Fifth Year, and talked about the pros and cons of long summer holidays, the pros and cons of blogging daily, and my experience of the iPad on its one-month anniversary. I also got some interviews lined up with the wonderful Sinéad Burke of minniemelange.com and the Digital Youth Council, so I'll be working on writing those interviews soon.

It's the 30th as I write this and I don't see myself doing too much out and about tomorrow, hopefully getting some work done on my research, on the interviews and reading. 

Pretty good month. Not too eventful, so I guess it was a nice break. Would like some excitement in June, though - some things that'll be happening then include my trip to Intellectual Ventures HQ and Sentinus Young Innovators. 

Town with Jerry

Today was great, and I'm probably the most relaxed I've been this year since January - despite not getting anything done. This was, I think, the first Saturday in weeks I left the house and had a social life, as my friend Jerry came down to see me.

Also, I made an effort with my clothes and appearance for once, though I still didn't wear any makeup. Have a look:

Working that style blogger look. Dress from my sister, jacket from the wardrobe, flower band from Claire's, tights probably from Penneys. 

I wasn't sure exactly where I'd be meeting Jerry, so I was reading peacefully in Waterstones when my brother said they'd seen Jerry. So I turned around and Jerry was sitting behind me. He sneaks up on me all the time, it's hilarious. I do get lost in books. 

We didn't really have a plan in mind (y'know, teenage loitering), so we went to some charity shops (Jerry bought me a copy of The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared by Jonas Jonasson, which I've heard good things about) and to Dealz to stock up on junk. 

Bit more wandering, then we went to Boomerang (the youth café). I got hot chocolate and we both got chips. He lamented my awful ketchup technique. We then spent ages having a really interesting conversation about North Korea and nukes and neutrality and General Mao and Communism and America's military and assassinations and the Chinese education system and more. I knew very very little about all this, so I asked all the naive questions and learned a lot. I absolutely love it when people have skills or understand things I don't and are willing to teach me, it dramatically increases my respect for them and it's just so much fun.

We then walked to the Laurence Centre (this meant we had visited all three of my town's big ionad siopadóireachta) and went to the SVP where I'd gotten a really good deal on like twelve books before (twelve books for a fiver!). I bought Delirium by Lauren Oliver there for €1. I've been waiting to buy it for so long, although now it's just adding to my massive To-Be-Read (TBR) list. I'm currently reading The Most Human Human by Brian Christian, which is about AI. 

We then found a bench and I started teaching Jerry ukulele. He picked up the chords really fast and is doing fine with strumming, although he stresses too much about it. If you're reading this, Jerry, relax. You're doing really well. Also, learn songs. 

The last thing we did was go up to the roof of Scotch Hall. I don't know if you're meant to do that, but the door wasn't really locked so we just went up and walked around for a while.

Jerry took this when I wasn't looking. No idea what my bag is doing.

I saw Jerry off and came home, and have just done some aikido with Dad, had garlic bread and watched part of a movie on Netflix with my brothers. 

Quite mundane, I suppose, but it's been a really nice day. 

18 Things I Learned at Evolve Biomed 2015

Hello! So, earlier this week I attended and presented my research at the inaugural Evolve Biomed event, a conference to "accelerate biomedical innovation". In my blog posts during the event, I was too tired/busy to do more than just list the events without commentary, so here's all that delicious commentary. 

Warning: This blog post focuses on how the conference relates to me and my experiences, so it's a personal account. If any of the organisers want a more objective view of the quality of the event:

(a) It was very good
(b) I learned a lot
(c) It was a great opportunity to mix with people in the industry
(d) Impressive job.

1. Emphasis on Industry

For a gathering of academics, there wasn't much focus on academia. From the moment I arrived I heard people talking about PhD students preparing for their "transfer" (boy does that sound dystopian - an academic dystopia?), and while that could've been into post-doc, the majority of the talks were on industry and entrepreneurship. How to start a spin-out company. Venture capital. Pharma companies and the drug pipeline. 

I'm not saying this was a bad thing, and I did appreciate all the new information. But being young and naive and idealistic and wanting a PhD, it was discouraging to see all these people trying to get out of academia as fast as possible. I mean, even while I was in CRANN, they'd talk about low academic wages, but they still liked academia. It was weird.

2. People believe what they want to believe.

When I went to the Gaeltacht (aged 13), a guy there immediately told me I looked like I was seven. That was rude but not uncommon; people often tell me I look younger than I actually am (I'm 16). But here, people read my poster and kept asking where I'm doing my PhD. I had to keep saying "I'm still in secondary school, but..." I think a lot of people there were convinced I'd won a prize at Young Scientist that let me present at the conference, but no such prize exists. It was just through AJ. 

Anyway, I found it interesting how much people will believe what they want to, or what makes sense in the situation while ignoring evidence from their eyes. I really don't look like I'm in my 20s, and yet almost everyone assumed I was. 

Nice change. 



3. Incremental Progress

I saw at least three posters on the same (or at least very similar) topic - radioisotopes as tracers. I know this is a conference on one (broad) field, and I should probably stop comparing everything to Young Scientist, but you wouldn't see that in YS, except maybe in the Social & Behavioural section.

The sort of projects that do well in YS tend to be really individual and ground-breaking. I mean, that's similar in the real scientific world, but the YS is unforgiving to projects with incremental improvements on existing methods, ones that might merit a paper in reality. Things have to be media-ready, new and exciting. 

It left me thinking of how important the public can be, and how we really need more opportunities for non-university-educated people to do real research. I haven't worked out the logistics, but something like CoderDojo for science could be really beneficial. 

4. What I did wrong with my poster...

As this was my first conference, I had my poster made quite thick so it would last. That backfired when it fell down and broke under its own weight. 



I discovered that posters for conferences are generally thin but laminated. 

5. ....And what I did right.

Mine was the only pink poster there. Everyone else's were blue, gray, white and black. All muted, boring, business tones. The benefit of being inexperienced is an ability to naturally think outside the box (because you don't know the box is there). I could also get away with seeming unprofessional because, well, I'm not a professional. 



6. Books in the RDS

When I first went into the concert hall (location of most talks), I thought it was a gorgeous room. I was impressed by all the books there, but when I went for a close-up look I was astonished to see multiple heavy books on each row, all of the same volume. I mean, I don't think they got the point of volume, but here's a picture showing the April, February, March and January 1964 editions of "Comptes Rendus De L'Aead Des Sciences", all part of Volume 258. That makes me wonder, just how many of these are there? I mean, obviously they're something to do with science, but are they just collections of all scientific articles published in a certain place in that time, or something else? 

They're in a different language (French?), but if I'm in the RDS again it might be worthwhile to have a look through them. 



7. Mysterious vandal with bad grammar

Even in a place as posh as the RDS, I found this. No idea what it means, but the contrast was funny. 

8. Value of Young Scientist

I was talking to the guy whose poster was beside mine, and asked him where he'd presented his work before. He said this was his first conference or event like that, and I was very surprised. He was the second-youngest person there, a Masters student, but still. 

Across my two projects, I've done at least five exhibitions, most of those with judges. I'm still not great at condensing my work for the layman, but I do have plenty of experience with it, and it really surprises me that there are academics who haven't at all.

I guess that's the value of things like Young Scientist and Sentinus Young Innovators (and, to an extent, Drogheda Young Innovators). You learn really important speaking skills, and learn how to pitch your work taking your audience into account (e.g. if it's a judge in your area or in another field, in which case you need to be respectful but still explain most things), or if it's a member of the public or a child, all people who'll need a different level of explanation). You also learn what's relevant and what isn't - if you're talking to ten-year-olds, it's just going to take too long to explain everything, so you need to be okay with oversimplifying the work there. 

9. Specialization

I was alarmed by the amount of specialization at the conference. I mean, it was on one area (biomedical science) and yet most people didn't understand my research and I didn't understand theirs (although we could definitely catch the gist of it with some effort)

I've been told before how incredibly specialized you are by the time you get to a PhD, and I always took that to mean your work. But it actually seemed like the people themselves were really specialized. At Young Scientist, exhibitors generally have a much broader view on things. There are benefits and drawbacks to this one, but I'm not a big fan of specialization. It feels like closing yourself off too much.

10. Livetweeting

I Tweeted so much during that conference, and so did everyone else. I think the organisers did a good job with encouraging social media engagement - I didn't think people would co-operate, but they really enthusiastically did. I mean, a big part of it was showing off and compulsory outreach attempts from labs, but hey: mutually beneficial. @EvolveBiomed kept a really good eye on the Tweets and stayed on top of Retweeting them, instantly rewarding everyone who engaged online with the conference. 

11. Work experience repetition

Some of the talks at this conference really made me realise how valuable my work experience has been. Last November, I did a week of work experience with AMBER, during which we went to the Tissue Engineering labs in RCSI and learned about the triad used in tissue engineering (we also got to touch the 3D-printed moulds and plenty more besides, as well as visits to other places like the AML - Advanced Microscopy Laboratory and graphene labs in CRANN). Then there was a talk from someone in Tissue Engineering at AMBER that covered the exact same topics (with some added material they must not have deemed fit for TYs). So it was really cool to see that we were learning actual cutting-edge things on work experience, rather than the old stuff that makes it into textbooks.



12. The Value of Asking 

This links in with "Value of Young Scientist", point #8), but I want to state it clearly because it's really important. That same Masters student couldn't believe I (and a few others) had been allowed to visit and touch the cyclotron under Blackrock Clinic, and I told him I just asked.

Now, that was part of a work experience programme (UCD Physics Week, 2nd to 6th December 2013), where all these visits had been scheduled in. So someone at UCD asked the people at Blackrock Clinic to let us in under supervision, and they said yes - because people generally do. I asked to be let on the programme. Why would people say no? I believe people are generally helpful, and as long as you make it easy enough for them, they'll do it.

Use this wisely. 

(That reminds me: thanks a million to the many people who helped me out throughout the two days, especially in giving me directions and carrying my poster.)

13. Pandering

During all my other work experiences/programmes/exhibitions, the talks would revolve around young people and how we're the future, innovators, etc. The fact that teenagers were mentioned only once at this conference (to my knowledge), and it was in a very separate way "Teenagers share their lives online" rather than "You share your lives online", proved just how much pandering they're doing at other, teenager-centric venues.

Which is to be expected. The speakers are just tailoring their points for their audiences. 

14. Unexpected Scarcity of Like-Minded People

This could just be a lesson in the diversity of people. But I admit, I thought I'd find more like-minded people. Going back to the guy beside me (and others who echoed his opinion), they said they never would've been doing this sort of thing when they were sixteen. Now, I'm not showing off. It's just a personality type, I guess, people who do projects like this, and it's definitely helped by Young Scientist and support from my school. But people who didn't do sciencey things in school and just went the normal route (Bachelors, Masters, PhD) seem to have a different mindset. 

I found a lot more like-minded people in CTYI. The fact that they're both teenage and (usually) ambitious helps.

Don't get me wrong, though: I'm still really impressed by a lot of the people there, including the speakers and organisers. 

15. Money

At least two of the talks were solely about how much money is available to researchers in the form of various prizes and grants (these were from Enterprise Ireland and SFI). Apparently people just need to know about them. 

So go forth and sign up for SFI e-alerts.

16. Family

I probably shouldn't have been so surprised by this, but I did find it really strange to sit at tables and hear professors and PhD students talk about their kids. I never really thought of them as people who have family, so I guess that humanised them for me in a way. 

17. Translational Research 

The conference really pushed this one, as mentioned in #1 about the emphasis on industry. It's all about getting from basic to applied research, and showing there are supports and mechanisms available to help you get there. Translational Research is where it's at. 

18. Communication

This was the real takeaway from Evolve Biomed 2015, I think. Speakers kept repeating the theme that scientists need to learn to communicate with healthcare professionals, people in industry and the public to effectively disseminate their discoveries, something we learned in BT Business Bootcamp from that Newstalk presenter.

Linking back to point #8 (again), communication and practice with presenting your work really is, in my opinion, key.

Again, good job to all the organisers and thanks to AJ for inviting me. 

April Review

I actually totally forgot to do an April Review until I saw Aimee's, and was in the process of writing a reflection on Evolve Biomed (the conference). But here you go.

It's been a pretty nice month.

I got internet back after five weeks without it at the start of this month, which was a relief. During my time without internet, I'd fallen in love with my Nokia phone. I discovered studyblrs and Dad moved into a new house. 

My sister's birthday was on the 20th, and that same day I sang a Beyoncé song at Mass and World Week began on the blog with "Interview with a Canadian". In the following days, I interviewed people from Africa, Australia, America and Hong Kong. I really enjoyed that series; it was fun doing a theme I'd invented, and it felt like real journalism going out and interviewing these people (virtually). Thanks to everyone who shared their stories. World "Week" actually has one more installment coming, from a French girl. So look forward to that in the coming days. I also played a lot of chess in school in April. 

On the 24th, I went up to the Department of Education in Dublin for an Awards Ceremony, after winning the 15-17 Category nationally for a newspaper writing about alcohol competition. I got an iPad, so that was nice. 

The Awards Ceremony was the start of a very busy week that just ended yesterday. The day after was my brother's Communion.




On the 29th and 30th of April, I attended and presented my work at Evolve Biomed, a conference accelerating biomedical innovation. Exhausting but definitely an experience. Reflection on that coming tomorrow.






The week of 27th April to 1st May was Positive Mental Health Week in school, which was really great. The best day was Friday (Fair Day), which wasn't technically April but here are some photos anyway.

Positive Mental Health Week 2015

So, my school had its second annual Positive Mental Health Week this week, and it was awesome. Sadly, I missed two days of it because of the conference (Evolve Biomed), but here's what went down. 

Every morning, students were handed sweets on the way into school, and pens, tea and cakes were distributed during some classes (especially Maths). Each year also had various talks, which meant that I missed my Sciences double on Monday and Tuesday for Mental Health talks (not my favourite thing - I probably would've preferred Physics and Chemistry). Students also told really stupid jokes over the intercom, which I enjoyed. Stuff like:

Oxygen and Potassium went on a date together. It went OK. 

That joke has been on a poster in my school for ages now, but still. I love the effort. 

I missed Wednesday and Thursday. On Wednesday, there was a Teacher vs. Teacher Lip Sync battle that the teachers took really seriously and was all top secret. Apparently it was amazing. My year voted for Head Girl nominees on Thursday. I'm glad Sarah Kieran got nominated, I plan to vote for her. 

Instead of just continuously painting white over the graffiti on the bathroom doors, art students painted really nice designs on them, like these:

On Friday, the school went all out. All it said on the schedule was "Fair Day for the whole school", and we know there'd be an ice-cream van selling cones for 70c, but that was about it. 

So that was today, and it was awesome.

In English and Maths, we were given tea and biscuits and just chatted, it was very relaxing. I was talking about how bad my eyes are and Grace gave me (not) the best compliment ever: "Elle, if I had no eyes, I'd take your eyes." Chemistry was our only actual class, where we made ethyne. Here's a video.

During Chemistry, we were burning our samples of ethyne and Laura (holding test tubes) said "I can't wait to set fire to all my little babies", so that was funny. 

After lunch, it was time for the Fair. I'd agreed to help out with the Chess Department and set up giant human-sized chess pieces on the chessboard courtyard. Unfortunately, Alex, Niamh, Safia and I (plus some helpers) went on a wild goose chase around the school and did not get the chess pieces. 

It was okay though. People still came over to the chess tables even though it was only small chess. We set up sprint chess, where you have to make a move, then sprint over to the clock and then back to make their next move. Now, at first I was reluctant because sprint chess involves two things I dislike: chess clocks and exercise (you should see how much I panic when the chess clocks are brought out. Not my thing). 

I taught some people how to play chess, and watched my little sister beat various teachers. Very proud. Also, her friend Niamh beat the school vice-principal. Go chess club!

I got ice-creams for myself, Moya and Niamh. I feel bad because I skipped the whole queue which I never do, but in fairness I thought it was the senior queue (you're allowed skip Juniors when they're in your queue) and had a job to do for chess. Shut down a cheeky first year. 

It was really sunny, and we had a nice time. 

A teacher did tai chi with some students, and though I won't post pictures for fear of expulsion, it was entertaining. 

Towards the end, I discovered the Karaoke Caravan and bounced around in there for a bit (excluded between a group of TYs and 6th years so that was a dampener, but oh well). 

Carnival games: 

I then went in and Laura started facepainting me, but didn't get to finish.

Positive Mental Health Week is a really great initiative and has only improved since last year, so congrats to Mr. Keenan and all the organisers. Dorkiness aside, I love my school.