Sydney

I am currently working with different types of coatings to prevent corrosion. At first glance, this seems like an easy task… Just slap on some paint and you’re ready to go. Unfortunately, I’ve learned that it is slightly more complex. I’ve resolved that the different components of the coatings is what makes them so effective, or ineffective. My first week was spent with my eyes glued to a computer screen. Dr. Hsiao shared with me nearly 20 different articles with mainly all one main goal… to create the most effective (sustainable of course) coating to save taxpayers millions of dollars on infrastructure repairs due to corrosion.

What I plan to do with this new knowledge is to do some tests on different coating samples. I intend to do an adhesion test, an accelerated salt submersion test, a tensile test and a step stress test.

Found below are a few different types of coatings disclosed to different exposures for varying time periods.

The second project that I will be completeing is being mentored by Dr. Marya Ahmed. I am going to be creating a hydrogel for drug delivery purposes. Hydrogels are an up and coming invention especially in the medical field. Their current uses vary from contact lenses and wound dressings all the way to being used in diapers and facemasks.

To start off, I again had to do some research as to what a hydrogel actually is. Fortunately for me, my projects overlapped so I had read about some of the terms previously. I concluded that a hydrogel is a 3d polymer network that can be controlled by the use of different chemicals. For my personal project, I have to determine the perfect ratio of all my chemicals to create a temperature- sensitive hydrogel that could be used for drug delivery. Dr. Ahmed has given me the following 5 different non-toxic chemicals: a temperature responsive, a non-respnosive, a crosslinker, a catalyst, and an initiator.

After creating 7 hydrogels with different ratios of chemicals, I used my last three iterations to try and encapsulate dyes. The purpose behind this encapsulation was to mimic drug encapsulation for my own learning purposes.

In grade 10, I had tunnel vision and health care was the only career option for me. Since opening my eyes and learning more about engineering, I definitely have something else to consider. I plan to stay on the island and go to UPEI. I am currently sitting on the fence as to if I will major in chemistry/biology or engineering, perhaps I will try to combine them both.

Before getting to that point, I'd like to apply for SHAD. I think this is another great opportunity to expose me to even more pathways, while preparing me for university. This program was so much fun and I think that SHAD would be quite similar.

I am also working towards completing gold in the Duke of Edinburgh program. I felt as if this program has helped me gain organizational skills and helped my become more involved throughout my community.

First off, I am so thankful for this experience as a whole. It has been very eye-opening and enjoyable, although my pleasure does come at the expense of Dr. Amy Hsiao's time. She was the mastermind behind this wonderful plan to expose girls to engineering, which undoubtedly took months to organize. I have not had so much fun during the summer before and I was learning while doing so! She kept us all busy with our projects, field trips and mini projects along the way which made the experience even more interesting. Thank you Amy for keeping me on the right path, and smiling the whole time.

Secondly, I think it is important to thank all of the faculty at the School of Sustainable Design and Engineering. Thank you for accepting us, high school girls, by being so welcoming and friendly. I'm not sure I can count the amount of times someone stopped what they were doing to help me or to open a door for me. Despite the fact that I will never remember the majority of everyones names, the little things that you have all done will always brighten my day.

For the UPEI students that I was privileged enough to work along side of throughout these 5 weeks. Thank you for inviting me to play games with you at lunch. I would have never been able to juggle a soccer ball more than 10 times without all of you. Laura, thank you for being so sweet and for letting me and Abbygale take up your bay. Thank you Peter, for answering my never-ending trail of questions about onshape.

To all the "guides" of our countless field trips. Thank you for taking the time out of your day to share with us your stories and knowledge. It has helped me grow and develop an educated opinon about engineering. Thank you Dr. Marya Ahmed for consoling me through the interesting experiment which you created for me. Thank you Dr. Nadja Bressan for brightening my day with your smile and sharing your story with me. You are always there to lend me a hand or answer my questions.

Finally, I'd like to thank all of the girls involved with proGRES. I loved getting to know all of you, and I hope that we will see each other again in the future, perhaps at SSDE. I think that we were all able to learn from each other because we all have different interests so it was delightful to see them combine.