LHSI Experiences

In December 2023, Sri and I presented a research poster at the IUURC. The poster that we presented was from a colleague of ours, Gurbani. The content of the poster centered around treatment of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at community mental health centers (CMHCs) from the viewpoint of parents of the child getting treatment. This experience was a challenging, yet very rewarding one, as it was the first time Sri and I had ever presented research in a conference setting. It also was not our primary research, which made it harder to prepare for the conference. However, this helped me strengthen work ethic and time management skills, as I was able to familiarize myself with the research and talk about it in a scholarly way to people that were interested in the research. This experience served as a good stepping stone for the LHSI Showcase at the end of the year.

In April 2024, Sri and I presented research on our year-long project, which centered around treatment of conduct problems in individuals with Down syndrome. The research was done in a scoping review format that involved extracting data from previous literature that was related to the topic. The final presentation, as well as the elevator pitch and summary,  can be seen in the "Internship" tab. This presentation was much easier for Sri and I, as we were much more familiar with the content that we were presenting, since we had been researching this topic for the whole school year. Putting together the presentation took a lot of effort and teamwork, as we had to decide how we wanted to present the information. This was different than the IUURC presentation because the research poster was already made for Sri and I, and we had to familiarize ourselves with the content, rather than making the poster file and having previous knowledge of the content we were presenting at the LHSI showcase. Communicating the research was much easier for me at this conference, as the IUURC helped prepare me for what this showcase would be like, and I was much more comfortable with the content that we were presenting. Having Sri presenting with me was definitely a bonus too, as we had good chemistry and knew which parts of the poster file were important and some of the key information we wanted to drive home to the audience. Overall, this was a great experience and one that I hope to lean on when UROP starts in the summer.