BE 20.109(F20) Class blog

 In light of a very unusual semester, I wanted to thank the 109 staff for developing all the material as they did, especially Dr. Becky Meyer, who supported me throughout this journey. In so many small ways, this class has succeeded into changing me into a better scientific communicator, and I have the Comm Lab to thank for that. I'd like to take this chance to reflect on the key concepts I've learned over the course of this class, even if I haven't always been on top of the material. 1. Circularity I remember Prerna describing this concept during a Comm Lab presentation, and it made so much intuitive sense that I couldn't believe I hadn't encountered it earlier. While experimental work often revolves around a linear timeline, the communication of this research is a story, as much as I was unfamiliar with this practice. Whenever I start a presentation, I start thinking about the key message, and how to converge in a new fashion. 2. Collaboration In so many ways, sci

For the past 9 months I've been stuck at home approximately all day, approximately every day. Many people, trying to make the best of the situation, have been able to take up new hobbies. "With all my free time, I can finally learn that instrument!" Or, some similar and time-consuming goal. I love seeing my friends able to try new things, but I can't sympathize. Hearing them say that makes me wonder; what free time are they talking about? While the pandemic continues, so does the work. Over the summer, I was able to get a job (something I'm very lucky for!), and I was back on the 9-5. And since classes resumed at MIT, I'm more on the 9-9. The only additional free time I've had is that which would have been taken up by socializing outside... which isn't exactly a reward. The mental exercise of stepping outside of myself, of trying to examine what my actions and moods have been since March, has helped me learn more about myself. One thing I've learne

  by Tiwa Aina 15 hours a week? Total lie.  I'm not sure I've spent so much time on any class in my entire academic career. But, as I reflect on this, I also realize that I haven't ever had a learning experience so holistic and yet so robust. 20.109 is what I think engineering should look like: deep theory, deep praxis, and special care made to ensure I can communicate the initiatives I pursue as a scientist. (It's especially amazing that this could effectively occur while remote.) Something that I've noticed is the power of frequent exposure. Before 20.109, I would occasionally pull up a paper to learn about something, and every time I would be overwhelmed with the content. But after having gone through so many papers ( closely enough to be able to give presentations on them and answer curveball questions afterwards), I find it so much easier to digest and understand biological research.   I loved the opportunity to apply the knowledge, approaches, and experimental

This has been a very interesting year to say the least. To be honest, for me it's ending in quite a bit of burnout. All of my courses are affected, but I think 20.109 in particular bore the brunt of it. Nevertheless, ... Ok, so at this point it doesn't seem like I will be able to articulate my thoughts before the 10pm deadline, and I am really really tired. So, in case I don't make it back to complete this, I would like to thank all the professors, instructors, and TA's for all their assistance and guidance throughout this very challenging virtual semester of 20.109. In particular, thanks to Professors Meyer and Lyell for their generosity, in terms of their time, patience and care. Thank you, and I hope we get to see each other in person sometime soon! Happy holidays!

  The research proposal presentation presented an interesting hurdle to overcome. First off, there was the joy of giving another presentation. I tend to talk a lot with friends and 1 on 1, so one may rightly assume that I would be decent at presentation-giving but, well, no. So there was that. The second hurdle came with making this presentation 109-esque. Fortunately, this was not actually much of a hurdle as, while I would not have known what that meant at the beginning of the semester, by this point I feel like I understand what 109 and biological engineering entail. Finally, there was the difficulty of partner work. To be clear, that’s not to say my partner was anything but great, rather to say that I work very sporadically, and so it’s difficult for me to just set out a time and get large amounts of work done, which is kind of the MO of group work.  The first hurdle was really quite standard by now, so my partner and I just made sure to run through the presentation a few times

  COVID-19 20.109 or virtual 20.109 has been an interesting ride. When I told my friends that I would take 109 this semester (pre-pandemic), all the previous 109ers told me that lab is the best part of the class and that I should be really excited to take this class. So when I learned that 20.109 would be virtual this semester, I was devastated. I was debating not taking this class since I really wanted the lab component. While I’m sad that I couldn’t go into lab, I absolutely loved this class! Luckily, I have previously worked in a couple of labs, so I didn’t miss out too much on learning lab techniques. So while I couldn’t be in lab, this class really helped my data analysis and scientific writing skills. I will be honest, I’m not a huge fan of data analysis, so I’ve tried to stay away as much as possible. Luckily or unluckily, however you see it, this pandemic causing 109 to be virtual forced me to finally sit down and learn how to analyze data. While I still love working in a lab m

    I can't lie and say this class didn't stress me out. A LOT. I spent more time working on homework and trying to understand the material in this class than I've probably ever spent on any subject. However, personally, I feel like I'll be taking a lot out of this class, especially the communication component. It takes more than one time presenting or writing out research articles and proposals to internalize the expectations and skills necessary for scientific writing. While I did bemoan the amount of homework we had assigned in addition to our labs, one thing it did give me is the practice to form my own intuition. I can positively say that I will never struggle as much to do a research presentation as I did in this class again, because I learned so many best practices for making presentations and communicating effectively.      Making the presentation for the research proposal went so much more smoothly than the journal club presentation because I already had an ide

 With the research proposal presentation over, 20.109 has basically come to an end. (Well not really, there's still that niggling detail of the mini-report that I have yet to even look at).  After 3 months of far more writing, speaking, and just general communication, I'm really quite happy to re-enter my shell and hide behind a computer screen. Then again, pretty much everything this semester has been behind a computer screen, which has changed the way communication works along several dimensions. While is there a missing aspect of body language, there's also the nice ability to cloak oneself behind a static picture that becomes one's face to all the outside world (I've been told several times that my duck is more recognizable than I am). Such an occurrence would be exceedingly rare in the pre-COVID world, but this is life now, so we take whatever advantages we can get.  20.109 is a great class for getting out and learning to communicate in a world increasingly rel

If I had to pick a key takeaway from 20.109, it would have to be the importance of effective communication. Over the course of the semester, I did not realize just how much practice I had with developing my scientific communication skills. Until I sat down to write this post, I'd considered each major assignment as an isolated task. However, the subsets of skills I developed in each module have culminated in a collection of tools I can use in future classes.  During Mod1, I'd expected the Data Summary to be a fairly straightforward assignment because it only required bullet points. However, I realized that being given restrictions about transition sentences forced me to delve more deeply into the analysis of data and its implications. Each bullet point had to concisely provide new, meaningful insight. With this in mind, I was able to later organize my mini-presentation such that it conveyed a story with logical and succint comments about the module results. In essence, Module 1