On April 15, 2016 SPC’s Tri Beta National Biological Honor Society and the NSF STEM Scholars made a trip to USF to tour the labs and get an introduction to the research programs in Environmental Science and Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, and Bioengineering and Biomedical Sciences.

Environmental Science

and Engineering

This tour took students to see the Membrane Biotechnology Lab led by Dr. Yeh where we learned about his lab’s work on new ways to treat waste water to not only reduce water consumption but to also increase resource recovery from waste water.  We also visited the Ecology and Public health Lab of Dr. Rohr,  learned about biogeochemistry in the lab of Dr. Lewis, and water quality analysis in Dr. Harwood’s lab.  Our last stop was to the USF Herbarium where we learned about the history behind the herbarium and the process of collecting and preserving plants.

“I really enjoyed the lab tours.  It reminded me of how everyone is so different and not type-A.    I really enjoyed listening to the current projects they are working on.  It definitely inspired me to continue my research.  I think my favorite part was the herbarium portion of the tour.  Mainly because I could tell he was prepared for our visit and he really enjoys his job.  He is passionate about his work and the work he is doing at USF.  I was really surprised to find out that there are plants from the 1800s!! That is just really amazing”

– Chelsea Knapp, BS Biology 2013 and Natural Sciences Lab Manager

“I had a great time on the trip to visit the USF programs. It gave a good view on the different programs and labs available at USF. I was very impressed with the work the labs were conducting and how friendly many of the lab faculty were. The tours were well conducted by enthusiastic students as well. I personally got to talk one on one with a paleontologist and it was an insightful look onto the career and industry in that field. I really appreciated the information I gained from the trip. “

– Crystal Flores, BS Biology Student and STEM scholar

Mechanical Engineering and

Computer Science

This tour took students to see the Design X Lab, the Center for Assistive & Rehabilitation Robotics Lab, the Biorobotics Lab and the Robot Perception and Action Lab.

Read more about this tour on the SPC IT Blog.

Bioengineering and

Biomedical Sciences

The final tour took students to visit the Center for Global Speech and Hearing Research, the College of Medicine, and the Immunology Lab of Dr. Ghansah.

“The trip to USF Biomedical Engineering Department was very informative. Most of the studies they were conducting had a real life application and this made it much more interesting. I enjoyed looking at all the advance laboratory equipment they had and used. My favorite part of the visit was visiting the the USF Speech-Language Clinic. Here we learned about hearing loss and some of the techniques they are using in order to prevent and fix hearing loss. USF is currently working on a drug that could reverse or prevent hearing loss. According to the researcher, they found evidence that antioxidants could be used as a preventative to hearing loss. Mice given antioxidants before a loud event were less likely to have hearing damage. They are also working on a device that can be inserted inside the ear in order to secrete stem cells. These stem cells could theoretically fix the hearing problem as it occurs. We visited the cancer research and medical department for about 45 before we had to head to class. The students there were studying pancreatic cancer cells. In particular, one experiment found that pancreatic cancer and other cancer cells were able to take advantage of the cytotoxic T cells by manipulating a hematopoeitic-resticted phosphatidylinositide phosphatase (SHIP). Overall this was a great learning experience and I would definitely recommend it to other NSF students”

– Minh Chung, BS Biology student and NSF STEM scholar