不良研究所

This summer, I joined the University of 不良研究所's iGEM team with one project idea and ended up working on something completely different. That's the thing about innovation: you must be ready to pivot at any moment. We started developing a diagnostic platform for avian flu that could continuously monitor lakes near farms, sending alerts to farmers' phones when the virus is detected in nearby wildlife. The goal? Prevent entire flocks from being wiped out. 

I was doing modeling, circuitry, and building our educational outreach. We even hosted a podcast! Through the connections I made, my team attended the Global Energy Show and other entrepreneurship events. We discussed our project with CEOs, lawyers, and even two billionaires. One billionaire stayed late after an event just to talk with our student team. They even offered to invest in us if we ever turned this into a company.  

But innovation comes with hurdles, and innovation in research and entrepreneurship is no different. At one point, we had our entire research plan ready, and almost the next day a paper came out that basically mirrored ours. The only thing we could do was pivot, but through reading their paper in depth and ideating together how our project could be novel, we figured out our next steps and pushed through.  

This experience also taught me a lot about conflict management, namely: don't bottle things up. No matter how you鈥檙e feeling, there鈥檚 a way you can express yourself professionally. Give your undergraduate research experience your all but also give yourself grace and rest. This research experience exposed me to the uncertainty of innovation and helped develop my skillset in navigating with a diverse team. I also built networking and communication skills which will aid me greatly in moving forward in my career.