Summer Research Alumni

 

The Vanderbilt Biophotonics Center  (VBC) is launching its third summer research program in 2022 and will be bringing students to campus to work closely with VBC faculty on biophotonics-related research projects. The paid 10-week program will provide undergraduates with the opportunity to have first-hand research experience in laboratory research.

Here are some anecdotes from some of the student research interns of the inaugural summer research program:

Name	Mayna Nguyen	Gianna Busch
University	The University of Texas at Austin	University of Arkansas
Major and Graduation Year	Biomedical Engineering, May 2020	Biomedical Engineering (and Psychology Minor), May 2021
Research Interests	biomedical optics, laser therapeutics, surgical engineering, neural engineering, translational research, computational modeling, data science, machine learning	multiphoton microscopy, scanned oblique plane illumination (SOPi) and relevant applications
Summer Research Collaborators	worked with Dr. E. Duco Jansen sonification of neural signals (encoding the signals as sound) to better understand and identify inhibition during infrared neural inhibition (INI) experiments	worked with Dr. Anita Mahadevan-Jansen and Sean Fitzgerald
BUSRP Experience	"This was my first real research experience and while previously I was unsure about my career path, I am now applying to graduate schools (including Vanderbilt) because of the great experience that I had. In addition to research, we had weekly seminars where we learned professional development skills and about graduate school, which I found to be very helpful. We also did a few socials with all the undergraduates where we got to explore Nashville."	"I spent a lot of time learning about how SOPi works and helping Sean improve the microscope.   We also imaged samples from other grad students to see what could be visualized.  In particular, we imaged some cervix samples from Rehka's mouse projects and I conducted some basic image analysis using the Vessel Analysis Plugin on FIJI to look at vessel diameter and vascular density of the images."

For more information on the program, please visit this page. The FAQs page can be accessed here.

For information on potential projects for the 2022 Program, please visit this page.

Application deadline: February 14, 2024.

Program dates for 2024: May 31, 2024 - August 5, 2024.