After completing an undergrad in May of this year, in mid-July, my supervisor in undergrad, Professor Dr. Muhammad Ashraf Ali trusted me with the opportunity of working as a Research Assistant in the project “Living Deltas Research Hub,” which is funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and conducted by Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), BUET, in collaboration with other universities across the world. (Project link).
My responsibilities here include running a sampling campaign, analyzing the land use and land cover of the surrounding area, performing data analysis, making data presentations, and writing a paper. I also had the opportunity to get connected with professors from the UK, Thailand, etc., and work closely with them. I had also been blessed with the opportunity to learn from other research assistants who were working on different projects. Having a discussion with them has helped me grow a lot.
A good part of my work involves sample collection and analysis. There will be three sampling campaigns: pre-monsoon, monsoon, and post-monsoon. Before my introduction, the pre-monsoon campaign was already completed. After joining here, my first responsibility was to analyze the collected data from this campaign and build land use and land cover (LULC) maps in ArcGIS to find any correlation between the attained data and that of natural or man-made intrusion.
On October 2022, I had my first field trip, and I completed the monsoon sampling campaign. The campaign included a collection of tidal samples from three points (upstream, middle and downstream) of two rivers, namely, Kholpetua and Kobadakh at 2 hour interval for 12 hours as well as collecting samples from 3 ponds, 9 tubewells and 3 shrimp farms.
Recently, I am working on an antibiogram analysis of sampled river water. From the task, I am learning about different bacterial genes, their resistance, their susceptibility patterns, and how to express them. I have also been introduced to different classes of drugs. Other emerging and prominent researchers in this field are guiding me through this self-learning process.
Currently working on Papers (at the time of application):
Preparation of Land Use Land Cover map (LULC) using machine learning and analyzing data using Python to find any potential correlation of anthropogenic stress on these water bodies
(Associated skills: Mapping in ArcMap, Machine learning application in ArcGIS, Excel Pivot Table, Onsite Water Sampling, Leadership)
Drafting a paper on microbial analysis of water, “Antibiogram Analysis of River water: Threats of ESBL Producing Escherichia coli to Public Health in Coastal GBM-Bangladesh delta” (work in progress)
(Associated skills: Data visualization in Excel and Python libraries, Analysis of Antibiogram Threat Matrix, Collaboration with icddrb)