This week has been quite interesting. First of all, my commute to Rutgers is difficult. Taking route 18 at 9 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon is very painful. The traffic does not move and extends for more than 4 miles. It takes me 40 minutes to get there and 50 to come back home. However, the lab experience has been awesome. Although I am not working directly with my PI for my project, he still facilitates our progress and always asks us if we need anything. I am working with Dr. Panikar for my project and so far its been going well. We have just completed an experiment (I will talk more about it below) and we seem to be an effective team. The food at Rutgers, Busch Campus is great because in the food court, they have Burger King, Moe's, and some other fast food places.
I learned quite a bit about my lab in the first few days I attended. The first day I arrived, I started to set up an experiment which I was surprised about because it was my first day and I barely knew how the lab worked. The main ideas of my project are mulling and extrusion. Mulling is very similar to granulation in that you take powder and make it into a granule using water and other parameters. However the difference between the two is that in granulation, the powder particles stay the same in shape and size after they are granulated while the powder particles don't maintain their shape in mulling. Extrusion is taking the paste that is produced from mulling and pressing it into a tablet. In this experiment, I am working with Alumina particles which are very lightweight and have a tendency to float in the air. In my first experiment, we had to take Alumina powder as well as water and run it through the muller to see if we would get the same results as Dr. Panikar got before I came to the lab.
Because the muller is a machine given to Rutgers by a company, the company wants to know how long it takes for the muller to stabilize and produce a certain, steady amount of paste from the muller in order to maximize their profits when they produce it in the factories. So, Dr. Panikar and I were trying to find out how long it would take for the machine to reach steady state, or when the rate of powder and water put into the machine equals the amount of paste that comes out. The entire machine consists of 2 parts: the muller and the feeder. The feeder feeds water and powder into the muller which then mixes them into a paste. In order to measure whether the muller is at steady state or not, we calculated how much water and powder is fed into the muller by setting the rates on the feeder. Then we compare that mass to the mass of the paste that comes out of the muller per minute. However long it takes the two to equal each other, that is how long it takes for the muller to achieve steady state. This was what we did in the first experiment.
This experiment took us two full days to complete. Running the experiment only took us an hour but setting it up and cleaning up took us over a day. This was because we had to configure the feeding rates for the powder and water which took a long time because we had a little trouble with the machines. Also, we had to put the powder into the feeder which is a harder task than what you probably think it is. Because Alumina particles are so lightweight, they float in the air very easily and if you inhale too much of the powder, it is not good for you. So when pouring the powder into the feeder, we had to use a vacuum to vacuum any particles that may be floating in the air. It's hard to explain in words so next time I'll try to get some pictures of the equipment and procedures. Overall, the setup was probably the hardest part.
Well after my first two days of experimental work, I did some analysis of our results. I inputted all of our results into a Google Doc spreadsheet file and made a table and graph on the steady state. Not only am I doing actual hands on work, I am also helping with some of the lab maintenance work such as ordering supplies online and maintaining lab equipment. After the experiment, there was more down time than I expected so I was able to get some school work done. We are also preparing for our next experiment which involves extrusion.
Overall, I'm glad that I found this lab and that they let me work here because it is really a fun lab. During the first week of my lab, the FIFA World Cup was going on and people were betting on who would win which game. They even made a bracket. Also, one day, everyone stopped working at 4 and watched a FIFA game. I really look forward to week 2 of my lab and can't wait to see what kinds of experiments we will be conducting next.
P.S. I think I will be recording what I do every day instead of every week because I feel like this post was a bit disorganized and confusing because I forgot some of the details.
I learned quite a bit about my lab in the first few days I attended. The first day I arrived, I started to set up an experiment which I was surprised about because it was my first day and I barely knew how the lab worked. The main ideas of my project are mulling and extrusion. Mulling is very similar to granulation in that you take powder and make it into a granule using water and other parameters. However the difference between the two is that in granulation, the powder particles stay the same in shape and size after they are granulated while the powder particles don't maintain their shape in mulling. Extrusion is taking the paste that is produced from mulling and pressing it into a tablet. In this experiment, I am working with Alumina particles which are very lightweight and have a tendency to float in the air. In my first experiment, we had to take Alumina powder as well as water and run it through the muller to see if we would get the same results as Dr. Panikar got before I came to the lab.
Because the muller is a machine given to Rutgers by a company, the company wants to know how long it takes for the muller to stabilize and produce a certain, steady amount of paste from the muller in order to maximize their profits when they produce it in the factories. So, Dr. Panikar and I were trying to find out how long it would take for the machine to reach steady state, or when the rate of powder and water put into the machine equals the amount of paste that comes out. The entire machine consists of 2 parts: the muller and the feeder. The feeder feeds water and powder into the muller which then mixes them into a paste. In order to measure whether the muller is at steady state or not, we calculated how much water and powder is fed into the muller by setting the rates on the feeder. Then we compare that mass to the mass of the paste that comes out of the muller per minute. However long it takes the two to equal each other, that is how long it takes for the muller to achieve steady state. This was what we did in the first experiment.
This experiment took us two full days to complete. Running the experiment only took us an hour but setting it up and cleaning up took us over a day. This was because we had to configure the feeding rates for the powder and water which took a long time because we had a little trouble with the machines. Also, we had to put the powder into the feeder which is a harder task than what you probably think it is. Because Alumina particles are so lightweight, they float in the air very easily and if you inhale too much of the powder, it is not good for you. So when pouring the powder into the feeder, we had to use a vacuum to vacuum any particles that may be floating in the air. It's hard to explain in words so next time I'll try to get some pictures of the equipment and procedures. Overall, the setup was probably the hardest part.
Well after my first two days of experimental work, I did some analysis of our results. I inputted all of our results into a Google Doc spreadsheet file and made a table and graph on the steady state. Not only am I doing actual hands on work, I am also helping with some of the lab maintenance work such as ordering supplies online and maintaining lab equipment. After the experiment, there was more down time than I expected so I was able to get some school work done. We are also preparing for our next experiment which involves extrusion.
Overall, I'm glad that I found this lab and that they let me work here because it is really a fun lab. During the first week of my lab, the FIFA World Cup was going on and people were betting on who would win which game. They even made a bracket. Also, one day, everyone stopped working at 4 and watched a FIFA game. I really look forward to week 2 of my lab and can't wait to see what kinds of experiments we will be conducting next.
P.S. I think I will be recording what I do every day instead of every week because I feel like this post was a bit disorganized and confusing because I forgot some of the details.
A lab that stops to watch soccer? Awesome! I hope you figure out a way to beat traffic, and I know you'll enjoy your second week!
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