Week 3: June 26 - June 29

After constructing a new box, I attempted to make a new calibration mold, working with Luis and Armando as they were ready to start making their stenosis molds. Unfortunately we ran into a pretty significant issue with our vacuum chamber, and the result were molds that had numerous bubbles in them. For these silicone molds to function at their best, not a single bubble should be present, as the presences of bubbles could cause light to refract in unexpected ways and prevent clear images from being taken. However, these issues (along with others from other projects in the lab) gave me the opportunity to see what problem-solving meetings look like in a research lab.

More Issues

On my second attempt to make a calibration mold, I decided to change the box orientation in such a way that bubbles would not get caught under the 3D print while in the vacuum chamber. However, Luis, Armando, and I found that, no matter other factors, the air extraction process takes too long with the vacuum chamber we have. This vacuum chamber, constructed by a undergrad last summer, is a rectangular prism, making its walls vulnerable to caving in. As a result, if too great a vacuum is created, the pressure from outside the chamber could cause the walls to break, so the vacuum pump it is attached to can only be turned to a low setting. On top of this, the various leaks in the chamber force us to tend to the chamber so that we can continue to turn on the pump to recreate the vacuum. All of these issues with the vacuum chamber caused the air extraction process to be painfully slow to the point where the silicone would actually begin to cure before we could get all of the bubbles out. Once the silicone begins curing, there is nothing we can do.

Meeting with Rafael, Luis, and Armando

Seeing as Luis and Armando were halfway through their summer program, and considering the issues we had been having, Rafael thought it would be good to discuss what has been working and what hasn't been working with the silicone models. We each prepared informal 3-slide PowerPoints that included the procedure we have been using, pictures, and other notes we had. Despite the informal nature of the meeting, it was extremely productive. Rafael would skim down each slide and fire-off a myriad of ideas, which sparked us other three to mention ideas of our own. Luis noted that in the downstairs lab at WIMR, there was a much more robust vacuum chamber that was cylindrical (making the walls much stronger) and had its own pressure gauge. We all agreed that using this vacuum chamber could very well be the solution to most of the problems we had been running into with the models. Rafael said we should bring it up in an upcoming meeting with the whole lab.

Lab Meeting

Thursday afternoon, everyone in the CVFD lab met at WIMR to discuss how the summer was going, providing me an excellent opportunity to see what a research lab meeting was really like. As opposed to other meetings I have been in, it was quite engaging. Dr. Roldán went around the room and asked everyone how their projects had been going. Everyone gave a summary of their projects and also expressed some issues they had run into along with things they might need. When we spoke, we shared our concern about the lab's vacuum chamber and also how we thought it would be beneficial to use the vacuum chamber that Luis had seen. After the meeting, Dr. Roldán kindly helped us locate the owner of the vacuum chamber and get his permission to use it. Truthfully, I was slightly perplexed at how, through this meeting, this problem had been easily resolved. Moreover, this week alone, I experienced two research lab meetings which were engaging, short, and sparked numerous ideas and solutions.