缅北强奸

My work this summer, supported聽by聽the Schull Yang International Experience聽Awards, has been some of the most rewarding of my higher education, and I am grateful to Mr. Schull and Ms. Yang for providing the resources necessary to make such an opportunity possible.

I originally applied to the award because I am聽interested in a career in research, and projects such as this one are valuable for fleshing out the specific areas where my interests lie. Why an international project, though? Opportunities for exploration through short projects or spontaneous trips become fewer聽as life obligations鈥攖o a job, a family, or a community鈥攂ecome daily and incommutable. The Schull Yang International Experience聽Awards offer聽a chance for exploration in a time when I am lucky to be able to take it. Even despite the pandemic, my close working relationships with scientists from countries across Europe and the UK enabled me to view my work from new angles and to discover new styles of workflow and communication.

University College London provides a unique opportunity for researchers such as myself,聽interested in the auditory cortex, because of the strong relationship between their Ear Institute, which specializes in hearing and deafness, and their overall neuroscience department. The collaboration between the two enables rigorous and innovative research on the auditory system, with projects ranging from hearing loss in humans to the very fundamentals of acoustic perception in animal models.

My project looked into the way the brain combines auditory and visual information into a cohesive scene, using ferrets as a model system. I began in May with file folders of voltage measurements from electrodes implanted in the ferrets鈥� auditory cortex. Over the next three months, I worked to uncover the relationship between cortical activity and various audio-visual stimuli by analyzing information such as neuronal spiking extracted from these voltage traces. This process allowed me to hone my instincts for scientific questioning, develop signal-processing skills, and learn several statistical techniques which will be relevant to many future projects.

I especially enjoyed the experience of brainstorming with my supervisor and colleagues about how to interpret puzzling results and what next steps to take. The lab meeting each week allowed a wonderful opportunity hear about my colleagues鈥� own projects and road-blocks common to research in this field.

Overall, this project developed my scientific skills and instincts far beyond those fostered through my coursework. The chance to 鈥渢ry out鈥� research on animal models has transformed my understanding of my own interests and redirected my future plans. Prior to this project, I was only interested in participating in research on humans because of its more tangible link to clinical intervention, but these past four months have fostered a deeper understanding of both the utility and overall appeal of research using animal models. This experience will certainly impact (and has already impacted) my future plans by helping me discover my own interests and understand the ways in which I can contribute to the field. This international experience has broadened the range of possibilities I see for myself in both the near and short-term, and I hope I can continue my international studies in my future work.

This experience would not have been possible without the Schull Yang International Experience Awards. Thank you to Mr. Schull and Ms. Yang for making this opportunity possible.