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Tchuck’s Quotes #8

[725-737] The PI  is really nice. We have meetings with her. And so, it’d be, me and my lab partner and her and we’ll talk, and we talk about lab stuff, we talk about personal stuff all the time. She had told me about her kids and stuff along those lines. We have a really friendly relationship. I guess, it’s not necessarily super professional, but I don’t know, the way that she’s done everything, it’s obviously never made me feel uncomfortable at all. And I think that we have a good relationship. I think that she also helpful. I mean, funny enough, my friend emailed her a couple of days ago about something about classes, I think. And I’ve also emailed her four times since then and she’s responded every single time to me, but not to any of them. I mean, she also might just have missed his email and I feel bad for him, but, also I think it’s fun. So, yeah. I think that we have a good relationship and she’s been helpful in helping me grow and has been helpful in terms of the research and stuff along those lines.

[740-766] I’ll say, for instance, she sent us an article and admittedly I skimmed through it, not necessarily as much as I should have, basically. So, I sent back an email saying something along the lines that was wrong because I went back and reread the whole article and knew what I said wasn’t really right. But, I had said that and then, she had to call me out on it a little bit and told me to go reread it again. And obviously I didn’t feel good about that but I really […] So, then I literally went back and read it and took notes on it for three hours. I was like, “Well shit, I can’t believe I just did that.” But, yeah. I would say like, that type of stuff she helps out with. Just literally be, I’m going to have those meetings that talk with her and just bounce ideas off her head and stuff along those lines. And this is why what she shares with us I think has helped. Because she also has been a big help with different jobs because she’s also the one that, not necessarily come up with the […] Well, I guess she does come with the ideas because she also has to push each clinic project that she’s involved with. Because there’s also other people that are in our lab, but they all do different stuff with the worms. So, she also direct you where you want to go. And literally, even at all the way at the beginning of my junior year, when I sat down with her the first time, because, basically, I got assigned to her lab to deal with the worms. But then she more specifically has put me in a group. So, she was able to talk and she genuinely talk with me and was very concerned about putting me wherever I would want to go. And I just kept telling her like, I don’t know what I want to do, I’ll probably be good with anything. Like, I’m just down to experience whatever. Well, she kind of, I think, brought the pressure a little bit just because she was actually trying so hard to get me something that I wanted, which fortunately enough, starting with Sarah my lab partner, which, we worked together great. And, I did and still do find interesting what we were doing, unfortunately, obviously we’re not doing it as much anymore, but, yeah. So, I think in that regard too, also she helped me.

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Tchuck’s Quotes #9

[793-818] Also, I went to an event, I totally forgot that I did this. It was either earlier this semester or in the back of the last semester. I think it was earlier this semester though. My professor that runs the lab emailed and told us that she wants us to go because we also, back then […] No. So, it had to be last semester. So, back then, we would have group meetings. Now we do individual ones with just me, my lab partner and her. But originally, we used to do group ones with everyone that was in the lab. And, so then, the one day she canceled, then told us to go to this thing instead, which was, basically […] I forget what her title was specifically. But she was doing some type of research and it was supposed to be on planaria, I think. I’m pretty positive. Which I would have found interesting I had known a lot about it, I would have been able to follow it. When I get there, it’s about some hydro looking bacteria or something that also replicates planaria. However, that’s probably one of the only similarities and I’m looking at it, trying to follow what she’s saying and I really couldn’t. But I still did find her research interesting. It definitely was still a good experience I would say, it just was hard to follow, just because she […] The lady already had so much background and experience in it and I obviously didn’t. So, I think that was probably one of the bigger factors. But again, like I said, I think if it had been planaria, which I think that it was supposed to be originally, then, I would find it a lot more interesting and it would have been useful.

[821-843] They actually have these events semi regularly, not always for biomedical engineering. But they’ll basically have speakers come out or whatever to talk about their stuff or it’ll be. I’m trying to think of what the right phrasing is. But, basically, try out I guess for them as a job. I don’t remember what the right phrasing is, but it has something to do with them presenting their data and stuff that they’re doing and, stuff along those lines. In terms of, I think it was potential candidacy for a position or something that, basically. That’s what it was. And so, then they would come and present or talk about whatever they need to talk about. And then, I don’t think every student that went got a say, but I think it’s better to have people there and stuff. And then I think, the professor would have to go and look at it and stuff along those lines. So, I don’t think only that specifically was the thing that we’re doing, but it basically is similar because […] I only say that because they send out basically these emails that have a picture of the person, the description of what they’re going to talk about and then just say like, “Okay outside researcher or candidacy spot open,” or whatever or whatever it is. But basically, when they have these events, so mostly, all of these is just them talking and then after the fact you just leave. And that’s basically what ended up happening. If she want us to say after your talk, we would have, but, she didn’t really seem to. And also, she actually stayed after and talked with the lady, because I think she already knew the lady. Because of her research with planaria. Even though she didn’t talk about planaria. But, that’s why she wanted to go, I think, and, still at least talk to her. So, she did. She went and talked to her afterwards but everyone else in the lab, pretty much just left.

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Tchuck’s Quotes #10

[769-790] As far as my lab partner, she was really friendly honestly and that’s the biggest thing. Because, not that I’m not a friendly person, but I guess, I’m not that good at just, socializing right away basically. But she was and also, if I’m cool with that type of person, then I have no problem as well. So, I’ll say that, that definitely worked well. Then we got to know each other. We were able to just, basically go in the lab, we know what to do. We talk about it, we text. We’re literally, like I said, we’re working on the abstract for four hours yesterday, texting back and forth, trying to figure out what to write. So, I think that’s been good. And then my peers as a whole, last semester we were even more so all together because of the whole cohort thing. And then this semester we broke up basically, into more sectioned groups, obviously. Because, literally, like I said, you had to go down the path kind of thing. So then, now I’m with a more select group of people and to be honest, I probably like it more. Just because of the people that ended up having to be in the group. Not because I didn’t like the other people, just because, I think that me and these other people are able to like … Well, we actually were the people that would more specifically go to the library and study to be honest. Because not everyone would go and do it, but I was one of the people that would consistently do it. There was my friend that lives five tenants away. So, there’s a couple of other people and, a lot of these people are in the same classes that I am now, which again, still has helped me. Because then, I just get them to do the study groups within this stuff and I do the orgo quizzes and stuff along those lines. So, yeah. I think that my reaction has definitely been good, and it definitely has helped me overall.

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Tchuck’s Quotes #11

[41-51] Then what was after that? So then biomaterials, which is a pretty hard class. The teachers, he tries really hard. I do think that he’s a good professor, except the only problem is, he expects us to know a ridiculous amount of information basically. And I do put a lot of time and effort into the class, and it’s still really hard. And I mean, he also acknowledges that, and he also does notice the effort that you put in something that says that he’s going to factor that into your grade at the end, which is good. But either way, that exam itself, I studied a lot for it, and it was still really difficult. It was literally basically all open-ended, and then there’s a couple of graphs that we had to analyze basically. And he’s also strict on, he’s not really going to accept any type of BS answer, it’s got to be basically almost exactly correct to get credit. And I knew that going into it. And then, obviously it was a little bit difficult.

[171-177] Yeah. So, biomaterials, like I said, it’s pretty hard class. The teacher goes very hard. He does care a lot and he’s a good teacher but […] So, the way he sets up his class is, he calls it a flip lecture. In my opinion it’s not, because I took a flip lecture class earlier last spring, and the way that she did it is […] So, the idea is to watch lectures outside of class and then basically do the problems in class. And then, because your lecture was having an idea about the material, then you’re going to try and do it and then the teacher can actually help you apply it, which in theory, doesn’t sound like a bad idea.

[178-185] Except, it also means that I have to watch, 45-minute lectures out of class, on top of, still being in class. Not to mention the fact that the way that he does it is, you watch the lectures, and then he bases his lecture on the lectures that you had to watch. So, he literally had the same exact PowerPoint, he’ll take out some of the slides or change some of the data or delete some stuff, but it would literally be the same exact picture, same exact information. And he’ll just post it and he’ll just go through it in class and he will […] And he has a thing on his phone where he’ll randomly call on you and then ask you questions about the PowerPoints.

[186-194] So, what I don’t understand is how are we going to call it a flip lecture when literally it’s just him, wanting us to watch it, almost memorized it, but also, more so understand so that way you can answer his questions. Because they’re also not […] He’s also not just being like, “Okay, well, what does it say on slide two or what does it say right here?” He actually wants you to get a little bit in depth. But along with that, he also mix questions with his 45 minutes lecture, and I even take notes on it. I still can’t answer his question sometime, which is, very frustrating and it happens, literally to everyone. So, again, in the grand scheme of things, it’s fine, but it still is frustrating.

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Tchuck’s Quotes #12

[195-211] And then, he’ll also have journal discussions as well as case studies. So, journal discussion is literally, they’ll just be basically one scholarly article. From what I’ve done, it’s going to be somewhere between eight to 12 pages, basically. You’re going to want to skim through it. I take notes, specifically on the figures and graphs stuff because that’s what he likes to talk about. And basically, just analyze the scholarly article and the idea is to get more familiar. We’re going to finish up the writing in the future. I agree with him, it makes sense. I personally like those better than the lectures because, I can read it and analyze that much more easily than, try and watch 45 minutes lecture and completely understand, all this biology stuff and memorize all the […] Because, again, it’s still a lot of memorization. Like, types of lymphocytes and blood cells and all this type of stuff. And then there’s case studies, which is, basically just, he gives you a collection of somewhere like, four to seven or eight scholar […] Within a lecture, it would be scholarly articles. Some of it will probably be scholarly articles, some of it would be random stuff. And basically, you have to read them and then formulate an opinion based off of all the stuff that you read. And then, type it up actually in a one-page report and give your opinion on the situation and potentially how you think it should have been handled, basically.

[212-224] So I’ll say, for the most part, the one that we had to write, it had to do with ethics a little bit. Because, for instance, the one that I just had to write a couple of weeks ago was […] It was on breast implants. So basically, there was a whole problem with silicone as breast implants basically. Well, there was thought to be an initial problem because there was, basically, a couple of women that had issues or that ended up getting cancer and stuff along those lines. And they decided to say that it’s because of the silicone breast implants of which, the courts at time, seemed to disagree with them and let it go. And then, basically, later on, it comes out that, yeah, there’s actually no correlation after more studies were done. Da, da, da. Companies lost a lot of money because they got sued a bunch, stuff along those lines. So basically, I just had to read all that incompetence and basically give my opinion. So, again, those, I also personally like those more than the lectures as well. But, yeah. So that’s basically what we do in that class.

[229-238] He’ll basically set it up to where we either have […] That lecture that day will either be based on, either a lecture that he posted, it’ll be a general discussion or be a case study. And the way that he does the general discussion and the case study, he also still, does the thing on his phone where he randomly calls people to talk about. Because basically, his entire class is not him preaching to us at all. It’s literally only him having conversations with each of us individually, asking us questions. Again, I can see how it definitely helps. Like, if I get something wrong, obviously I’m going to remember it. Because I don’t want to get it wrong again, it does engrain a little bit because you get embarrassed and stuff and I get that. But, I don’t know. I’m not the biggest fan of it, but that is how he choose to do i

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Tchuck’s Quotes #13

[246-255] So, occasionally, because you also have the option to raise your hand like a normal classroom, except, no one wants to volunteer. Because, if you volunteer, you’re basically forcing yourself to have this in-depth debate with him of which, he’s probably going to end up inevitably asking you a question that you won’t understand. So, therefore, it discourages a little bit. If I know 100% that I know the answer, someone else is struggling, maybe I’ll help them. But I also know that if I do that, he’s going to hit me with another question right after, and I don’t know what that question is going to be. So, but, yeah. It really doesn’t encourage I guess, group discussion to be honest. I mean, he obviously does get a lot of us individually because we have talked to him because he calls on us. But, yeah.

[608-627] I mean biomaterials obviously, like I said, it was all open ended. I didn’t feel overly confident going into it because I knew it was going really hard even though I did study. But then afterwards, yet with all the open ended, I wasn’t feeling […] I mean, to be honest I felt I did okay. I actually ended up doing worse than I thought, which is also why it made me dip a little bit lower. But, yeah. In terms of dealing with that, I don’t know. I mean, for me personally at least, it definitely was a low, but it also was more so a low for that type of day, I guess. Because I also don’t to try and dwell on things because, obviously it’s not beneficial. Especially one that I […] Okay. So, I took the exam, I don’t know what I actually got. Could I get a 100, sure there’s still a shot. Did I? No. But […] So, my point is, I definitely did get upset about it and I wasn’t happy. But I’m, be able to get over that type of stuff relatively quickly. And just move on. And, like I said, especially when I got the grade back, but even prior to that, I was like, “Okay, well … Like I said, he bases his grading more so on effort so I got to make sure that I put up this effort. I got to make sure I email him a bunch of times and stuff. So, he actually sees that I’m putting forth the effort because I am putting forth ever. I’m watching lectures and taking all these notes, but he’s not watching me, watch his lectures or looking at my notes that I’m taking, he’s just basically going off, if you email him, which he keeps stressing, he wants people to email him. However, I really just haven’t had that many questions or reasons to email him.

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Tchuck’s Quotes #14

[259-277] So, the biostatistics professor, he’s pretty solid. He gets really into it. I can definitely tell that he cares. He likes to make really bad dad jokes all the time. And I know that sounds stupid but, he just does it so often that it basically is a big staple of his classroom. And I think that it helps. I mean, no one really laughs, but he’ll just stand there awkwardly and then just let it hit and not land. But, yeah. He has basically long Google docs that he works off of, which I pull up on my computer while I’m also taking notes, which I think is helpful. And then, he’ll basically just go through and then he’ll do […] There’s example problems and he’ll do example problems and he’ll also talk and explain how to do stuff. And, I think that he does a good job. I also have already learned most of the material that he’s taught us so far this semester. So, it really wasn’t that difficult. It was literally, I don’t know, distribution, probability, stuff along those lines. Which like, I don’t know, I literally already did it all senior year. And I don’t remember all of it, but I remember decent amount. And also, you can do something in the calculator too, which I know how to do. So, yeah. Overall, that class really isn’t that bad. I think he’s a good teacher. The way that he’s setting up the rest of his semester is, he’s switching it to now, the entire semester is based off of the […] He’s assigning us to four assignments. This is all because of the Coronavirus stuff.

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Tchuck’s Quotes #15

[291-302] I think that he does care. I do personally think that I like the way that he teaches. Because, I think that, basically he just throws an example. So, he’ll go in-depth explaining a little bit why do think that it’s needed? He uses examples that I think are applicable. For instance, for probability example, he uses Sixers players, 76ers players, which, I personally found interesting. I don’t know about everyone else in the class. And then he also specifically tries to, for most of the problems, because that Sixers don’t, he’ll mostly find a random one. For most part, he does it, like involving biomedical stuff. So, I don’t know.  Whether it’d be, devices, probably it’d be getting cancer, any little thing that involves it, he does try to throw it in there, which I also think is good. Because obviously that’s why it’s called biomedical statistics or whatever. But I think because, especially with statistics class, because there’s nothing super specific for biomedical.

[306-358] So, the biomedical devices and systems class is a mess. It’s his first […] So, the guy that’s teaching it, from what I’ve heard, he basically runs the ECE department, which is electrical engineering at my institution. And the ECE department is run really well. They have a hundred percent placement rating after graduating. Ridiculous. And he supposedly runs it. But now, he’s teaching this class for the first time, and I don’t know if he’s ever taught a class ever. And it just a whole ass mess because, for one, his homework policy is that, the homework’s not due until […] Well, he has a due date that, when you’re tentatively supposed to hand in, so you hand it in. So, it’s not due until he hands back people’s grades. He hasn’t handed back any homework the entire semester. I’ve only done the first two homework assignments. I think there’s been four or five because he hasn’t graded any of them yet. And I also heard that apparently one year, he literally just didn’t grade any whatsoever. Like at all. It was for a different class but […] And then, we tried to do a lab because we’re in an ECE lab setting where it has a bunch of, I don’t even know what the devices are called to be honest, but a bunch of, basically devices where … I know the one thing that we did was a wave simulator. So, we did Stein leaves and stuff. And, he basically tried to have this lab on one […] It was supposed to be a lab for one day, he just had to use it and then do this lab and his instructions were so bad. A lot of the devices were different, which he didn’t account for. He didn’t do a good job explaining the paper itself, the hand-out that he gave us wasn’t very clear. The only way that we were somehow able to get through it is because there were seniors in that class that were already ECEs. So, everything that we’re doing in the class was still pretty easy for them because they already had gone through it. Whereas also us as BMEs, we’re looking at this and like, “I really don’t know 100% what he’s talking about sometimes.” But, basically, they went around helping us with the lab. We still never even got real data from the lab. He mentioned I think once or twice about writing our lab report, there’s literally one line at the end of the document that said to write a lab report for it. Without that, no one has any data. Let’s see. He had an exam […] Oh, I forgot to include that exam because it was literally such a joke because it was a take home exam. And literally, everyone worked together on it basically. And it was a joke and also some even got a grade back on that. So, I was completely fried about that. That’s how much of a joke his class had been. Also, the school issued a mandated thing that, we’re supposed to hear from all our teachers by Wednesday, which was yesterday. Well, in terms of what they’re going to do for our class and stuff considering we are transitioning online. And I’ve also gotten emails from, I think all my other professors, besides him. Even before this, just at least saying something, he hasn’t emailed anything at all. So, I have no clue what this class is going to do. I have no clue what we’re doing now that this happened. And, this class, I really […] Yeah, I don’t know. I can’t really describe it much better than it’s an entire mess. And I think the whole idea like he tries to teach us during class. He’ll basically just go on rants about I think stuff that he finds interesting that is also probably semi relative to the curriculum. However, I still don’t even really know what the curriculum is supposed to be specifically for this. Because, he will go talk about, some systems and devices and he’ll also hand us out diagrams of complex ass circuitry stuff. And we’re like, “Yeah, well, we don’t know what the hell this is.” And he’s taught us some stuff, I know he’s talked about capacitors and types of filters and stuff along those lines, but for a majority of it, a lot of it goes over our head. And we try and ask them questions, but also, to be honest, I’m not even going to lie, the feeling that I get as a class is people are starting to give up on him, which obviously, it’s bad. And he’s also doesn’t seem like he’s putting that much effort in either. So, if no one is putting in effort and then nothing’s going to get done. And, in my opinion, that’s what I’ve seen happening. It’s pretty sad. I’m just being completely honest.

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Tchuck’s Quotes #16

[363-385] So, he actually has this policy, but this is the one thing that I’ll give him credit for. He handed out a note cards and his idea is he wants you to have […] I don’t even know how it works, 100%, because I don’t personally do it and I don’t really know if anyone else utilize it at all. But, you write on the index part, I’m not sure we’re supposed to put it. But then you just ask him a question on the next card and in case you guys don’t want to ask him in class, basically. And then he’s going to address the next class, which I think is good idea. I think people utilize it maybe once or twice because he would say, “Okay, in this card I got asked, here’s the answer.” Because he would tell everyone, “Because obviously, if one person is thinking it, maybe multiple people are thinking it and the person just didn’t want to ask in class. Fine. I agree with that.” My point being no one utilizes it now. And some people ask questions in class and the number has just consistently dwindled and dwindled as the semester goes by. Not to mention the fact that, when you ask a question, he’ll try to explain it, but he also doesn’t necessarily explain in the best way. And I also think that, he isn’t acknowledging the lack of understanding in stuff that we’ve learned as biomedical engineers. Because obviously, there’s the senior who literally already know everything. But then, besides literally those four or five seniors, the rest of us are all junior biomedical engineering students. And I know everyone else in my class because I had all classes the last semester. So, I’m on the same boat as them because, the only other experience we really had in terms of circuitry and stuff, was our efounds, was our electrical foundation class the last semester, which, also wasn’t that good and did not prepare us very well at all. So, between that and then this guy also just not managing it well, it’s just been a very bad foundation.

[388-405] The guy for electrical foundations, he, I don’t know. Again, I’m going to say he wasn’t a good teacher. I mean, he’s helped with the ascent which I’m not going to fault him for, but it did make things a little bit harder. And then, not to mention the fact that, he would also basically just come in and just, write literally pretty big circuits on the board and then just go through the problems. Which again, I’m not going to say that that’s not the worst way to go do circuits basically it’s you just actually, go do them. But that’s basically all that he did for the most part. And also, we would literally spend a lot of time writing down the circuits and not be able to listen to them or not be able to follow what he’s doing. So, we’d be trailing behind him the whole time. And we told him this because he actually had a mid-semester evaluation. So, some guy came in, he left the room, he asks us these questions, whatever. We all spoke honestly, everyone ripped into him a little bit and then, he really didn’t change at all after that still, for the most part. He mentioned, I think, not even the class after that, but two class after that. He brought it up a little bit at the beginning of class, and then, he didn’t really change much of the structure though, which is a little frustrating.  But, yeah. That’s why I feel I don’t necessarily have as good of a basis in, I guess, circuitry as I could have.

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Tchuck’s Quotes #17

[678-685; 76-80] Overall, the study groups really helped me in terms of the couple of hot points that were my exam grades. So, that was good. I mean, yeah. I will say that, not even group, just friends in general definitely helps with the hot points I would say. Just, find people and talk to people. My roommate and me talk about stuff all the time because we’re literally there, 24/7, which also is just another big change in how kids […] Now I’m home and I’m around my whole family, which is great, although and sometimes it’s not. But, it’s just a completely different, again, environment situation. So, just got adapt a little bit. However, I think not being on campus is definitely going to hinder me because I do think that being on campus, especially with my roommate that was an engineer, as well as being around other engineers all the time, definitely helped me navigate engineering

[643-667] Now that I’m home, fortunately, one of my friends, he’s my friend from high school that’s also doing biomedical engineering, who I also have all my classes with this semester still, he lives like, five, 10 minutes away. So, maybe not necessarily now because all the shit is going on, but relatively in the future maybe we can get together and work on stuff. There’s also plenty of people that I can just FaceTime or text and stuff and basically get help with or help out or just talk to. Because, again, I think that’s the biggest difference because I think that, I will still be able to stay on top of my work. I’ll have literally nothing to do. I won’t even be able to leave the house. So, obviously, I’m going to be on top of all my work.   I think that just the biggest thing is probably the, not the social, but I guess the, study groups thing. I do think that genuinely helped a lot. And also one of the things that we’d figured out for orgo would be we all take the quiz together, because, the way that it works is, when someone’s missed it, then you get all the answers for the quiz. So then, you have to game the system a little bit. There’s just a lot of little things and, I’m just being completely honest with you because, if you’re going to give us that situation, we’re all smart kids, we’re all going to take turns, we’re all eat the one […] We don’t even do bad when one person does that, because we all worked together on the problem. We’re still all doing the quiz, we’re just doing it all together so that way it doesn’t affect our grade. When, okay, so we all got four questions wrong, but guess what? We all could have gotten them right if one person is submits it. And like, “Okay, I’d rather have the grade boost and I’ll eat the one week you eat the next week, whatever.” We’re still learning on the material. But, yeah. I think other people are also trying to set up that type of stuff again too. So, I do think a lot of it’s just going to be trying to still, consistently do what we were doing, just obviously, adapting to the new situation that we’re in now.

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