Junior Year Ain't so Bad

Language: English and Bahasa Indonesia

What's up folks? Back at it again at another rendition of my end-of-semester recap. On this episode (geez I sound dumb), I'll be talking about my junior fall (or in the non-American term, my 5th semester. Yes, I'm old). Similar to my last post, I'll be giving you an overview of my (slightly more) exciting semester, which hopefully will bring you a further insight to the life of an MIT undergrad. Dan juga seperti sebelumnya, tulisan ini ditujukan terutama kepada anak-anak Indonesia yang penasaran atau pingin mendaftar ke MIT (deadline is approaching soon btw) biar bisa punya gambaran gimana sih kehidupan anak-anak Indo di MIT. Tentunya aku bukanlah figur representatif untuk semua anak-anak Indo di sini, tapi setidaknya pengalamanku ini bisa menjadi suatu manfaat atau motivasi bagi generasi penerus.

So without further ado, what's going on with my life?

1. Classes

2017 has been all about memes, even during lecture lol
(Thanks to Steven Truong for making 20.320 bearable)

As far classes go, I'm finally taking my first of three restricted major electives for Biological Engineering department. What's a restrictive elective, you ask? It's basically a class within (or related) to your major that you need to take to further or broaden your understanding on some of the topics in the field. For instance, you could be taking a class on material science or environmental toxicology or medical devices, any field related to bioengineering. In my case, however, I want to focus the field of immunoengineering, where we learn 'trick' our own immune system to treat various diseases, like cancer!

My first of many classes that I'll be taking in this field is 7.371 or Underlying Principle of Novel Biotherapeutics or to put it simply Intro to Drug Dev-ish. AND BOY I'M SO HAPPY TO SAY THAT I'M ACTUALLY LEARNING FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME AT MIT! <3 I mean, it's not like I didn't learn anything this past two years, but only in this one did I develop the critical mind to tackle biological problems, in particular the human diseases, and I LOVED IT! Not gonna lie though, the reason why I started pursuing this field in the first place (which I will go in detail later on another post so be patient ;)) is because I want to be a doctor. It has always been my dream to develop a cure for an untreatable disease, and this class was definitely the first leaping stone towards that future.

Anyway let's talk about the class. Unlike all my previous classes at MIT which are lecture-based, this class mainly revolved on discussion. Every Monday and Wednesday we would come prepared by reading 2-3 scientific papers which will be discussed in greater depth during class hours. For a slow reader like me, 2-3 papers (ranging from preclinical data or different stages clinical trials) are A LOT. Especially if they're on something that you barely have heard of. IBO did help me ofc with some of the immunology background, but the details you need to understand the literature go beyond that. I would often be puzzled and clueless on the experimental design or result, especially since I've yet to take Immunology in college. I suppose now that's actually how I got to learn so much. I would often do a lot of background reading on top of the papers to help my discussion. It's time consuming yes, but through it, and also the fruitful class discussions, I get to learn how and why an experiment is conducted the way it is conducted.

Another reason why I love this class so much is the story-telling that came with each lecture, and GOD I LOVE THEM STORIES! As experts in the field who've been directly involved in the many clinical trials, our instructors were able to humanize all the numbers and data we've gotten so accustomed (and bored) to in papers. After all, when you think about it, THESE ARE REAL PEOPLE UNDERGOING THESE TRIALS, and we tend to forget that! Listening through the success stories on a drug that cures previously untreatable diseases on babies and infants warm my heart. It gave me hope. At the same time, hearing how some of them are doomed anyway for a being in a placebo group shatters it. Imagine how emotionally painful it was for these scientists to tell the parents straight in their face that their kids were assigned to die, and for these parents to watch hopelessly as their kids do. I obviously couldn't have done so, and this class has brought me a greater appreciation to the pharmaceutical industries.

Enough with biology, another class I'm excited to talk about is 15.351 or Intro to Making. As the name suggests, we learn the maker skills and culture that MIT embraces: "Mens et Manus," mind and hand. Over the past year, MIT MechE Professor, Prof. Culpepper, also known as the maker Czar, has been pushing a huge effort on campus to transforming MIT into a more maker friendly community. One of this push is this class, the Intro to Making, where we learn to use basic maker tools: hand tools, band saw, drill press, 3D printer, laser cutter, vinyl cutter, arduino and circuitry, and so on, to build our own project. The reason I took this class was because I felt I was missing a critical MIT experience and skills that I would otherwise would've not picked up if I had just stuck with the conventional Bioengineering route, which would suck ofc.

As a class, we each individually get to pitch a project idea, in which people can form groups around. My idea was making a light display of an anatomical feature, perhaps from a CT scan. to be honest, compared to others, my idea seemed inferior. Luckily, however, I had 3 other people who supported my idea, so this display got realized as a project. So we worked on it, and later it developed into a brain display with sensors that light up various regions of the brain. We installed a photoresistor for the occipital lobe for vision, a potentiometer for frontal lobe for motor cues, a microphone for the temporal lobe for sound, and a push-button for the parietal lobe for touch. It took some time to put it all together, but I am very much satisfied with what we came up with; it was exactly what we envisioned! Overall it was great first experience for me, and I plan to continue making in the future.

THIS BRAIN IS LIT!
(tho we're missing a 'red' Occipital lobe cause I only have 2 hands but 4 sensors and a camera to operate)

2. Research

Not much has been going with my project at the Lodish lab. However, this semester, I've been doing a new UROP in addition to my old one for MIT Biomaker space! Similar to Culpepper's initiative for the MechE, the biomaker space is an initiative started by the faculty members of Biological Engineering to build a lab dedicated for student projects. As of now, we still don't have the lab built yet (it is expected to be done by Fall 2018). So what then is my role for this UROP? Well for this UROP, a group of us were assigned to come up with a series of lab course (2-3 meetings/round) which may serve as an introduction for the biomaker space. The theme of our course is bacterial photography utilizing a synthetic, optogenetic based circuits designed by the Voigt Lab at MIT. To prepare, we met regularly to discuss the training setup, write down protocols, test them a couple times and run a pilot training which would give us valuable feedback for more training to come. We realized early on that this short lecture may not be sufficient to learn all the necessary skills for independent lab work, so we changed our goals midway. Instead of trying to equip the mentees with all lab skills, we aim to raise awareness and interest in the MIT community on ongoing biological research in the institution, hoping that one day, we'll have a group of passionate students with original ideas ready to work once the space is built.

3. Extracurricular Activity

Overall, my extracurricular activities don't differ much from last semester. I still dance (on another dance group on a genre that I approve: Hip Hop. Also props to all choreographers and Dance Troupe officers for making it fun and possible!) and work out. But this semester, I've been trying to pursue more of my long forgotten hobbies: I sketched a lot more, I read novels a lot more, I picked up guitar again, and I party more so often (partying not being one of my old hobbies, obv). I reached out to people more often, and had multiple dinners and conversation with my professors. I went to multiple concerts and NBA game, and also met some cool people (like founder of Tokopedia and comedian Hasan Minhaj). We had an IBO reunion too (with yours truly, Kelvin Suriyaputra TOBI 2014)!

Another thing that I've been working on is completing the requirements to join Tau Beta Pi, an engineering honor society recognized all over the US. To qualify as a member, you have to be at least top one-eight in your class year with a strong recommendation letter from your advisor, run one of many TBP positions and volunteering services, and attend the social events offered throughout the semester. Honestly though, I couldn't care less about joining TBP; I only did it because TBP graduates get to seat front row during graduation with a special costume(?) (so I heard), and I know that would make my parents even happier for my graduation. Truly, these activities have carried me through what was a tough(er) semester. So instead of elaborating it in words and bore you even further, here's some pictures that might entertain you! (I have a video of my dance on my instagram account, not sure how to link it here tho).

DOGKOLLABO PRESENTS PUPPY POSE!
pc: Rachel Wu

Facial Expression: Swag, and you know it!
pc: Anya Quenon

As usual, we had several notable figures from Indonesia visiting MIT this year, one of which
is the founder of Tokopedia, William Tanuwijaya. It was a fruitful discussion, indeed, on
the current landscape of online business in Indonesia.