Week 3: Shadows of Reykjavik

Weekly Report #3 Shadows of Reykjavik: My Third Move in ISM (09/01/2025 - 09/08/2025)

This past week, which was from September 1, 2025, to September 8, 2025, was fairly easygoing, which can be ascribed to the four-day break we received. I did have tests in APUSH and some seminar assignments, like the Harkness discussion, where we all discussed various topics that people had researched related to food and industry and food and health, as well as the standard homework. Over the break, I had the opportunity to take some time off from schoolwork and unwind.

I completed my Assessment #2 for ISM, which was our first research assessment with an annotated bibliography. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the articles, which focused on biomaterials, healthcare advancements, artificial intelligence in biomedical engineering, and biophotonics for cancer research, detection, and treatment. I’m working on the interview questions right now, and I should be finished soon. I am excited about our upcoming Professional Dress assignment, which is due on September 15th. My group members and I will go over the do’s and don’ts of dressing. In order to finish that, my shoulder partner and I plan to dress professionally, while the group members across from us will dress informally. We plan to meet this Friday to finish this assignment then. I talked about how I reached out to 65–70 professors from Texas A&M, Johns Hopkins, UNT at Denton, UT Southwestern, and UTD last week. I received eight no’s, the remaining ones were no responses, and got two responses back. One of them is a professor from Texas A&M who conducts a great deal of research in biophonotics with regard to cancer research and treatment, as well as physics in special optics. I’m hoping to meet with him soon via online meeting, and we’re corresponding to figure out a time that works for us both. I also received a response from a professor at JHU who conducted a significant amount of research at the Center for Bioengineering Innovation and Design, specifically focusing on medical device innovation. I am very grateful for their response and thrilled to be in contact with both of those professors. Once I have a chance to speak with them virtually, I will introduce myself, explain why I am interested in the topic, and ask them some questions about biomedical engineering from the interview questions. Finally, I will tell them that the next step to ISM is finding a mentor, and I will ask them if they would be willing to spend approximately one hour a week as my mentor.

Everything has been fairly normal outside of school. I worked for the Red Cross Club to get it connected to the NTX chapter. Additionally, since our previous sponsor left, we are actively looking for a new one for the Chess Club and organizing our first meeting.