First Day of Senior Project

So today was the first day of senior project. I was very excited to be at Case Western Reserve for my project and for good reason.

I met with Prof. Wainright first thing in the morning, and he gave me a small lecture on separation processes (which is what my project is mainly going to be based on). The "lecture" made me think that college won't be bad after all! He also gave me a background on senior labs or UNIT OPERATIONS LABS at Case Western, and gave me an idea of what kind of experiments he wanted to set up for his Chemical Engineering seniors this year.

After the lecture he gave me a tour around the Chemical Engineering department, and he showed me the lab. It was awesome, the lab I mean! He showed me the packed columns and the distillation tubes, which are used in separation experiments.

So, then it was on to work. I started on the research. With a few key search words from the professor, I went on the computer and started digging: looking for separation experiments that other universities have done before that we could also do at Case. That was pretty fun! although it was a bit difficult to find all the information I needed on my first try/first day. That's how research goes right? we don't always find what we need right away! At least that's what Prof. Wainright said.

Feeling accomplished, I discussed my findings with the professor and he was quite impressed, even though out of the 5 experiments I found he decided that only 2 of them would be somehow "suitable" for Case.

After I was all done, I hung around the campus taking pictures, (to take back to Botswana) and sitting on a bench on the grass and reading a book! I wanted to feel the "college atmosphere", kind of. :)

Day 1: mission accomplished!