About Me and What I've Learned So Far

   My name is Dilziba Kizghin. I am a sophomore honors student at University of Nebraska-Lincoln studying Biological Systems Engineering with an emphasis in Bio-Medical Engineering. I have been doing research on a type of paramecium called Vorticella convallaria for a little over two years now with Dr. Ryu in the BioFlow lab.

   I have learned a lot through these couple years of doing research as an undergraduate. I have learned many skills that can be useful to me generally in life. More importantly, I have learned so much about research that I can carry with me for the rest of my career as a college student and beyond. 

   So far in my research, I have been able to come up with a methodology of harvesting the optimal number of cells for my study. I have also been able to come up with a process to image the cells. However, my goal this semester was to better this process. The problem earlier was the inability to take longer videos, so I set out to find a solution to this problem this semester. I was able to find a solution this semester and came very close to figuring out if it really worked for my research, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic I was unable to continue. 

   Looking back, I have made a lot of progress on my research. But there is more to go. I plan to have this problem thoroughly figured out as soon as I can so that I can use my new method to collect the data that I need to continue my research. All the troubleshooting that I learned so far will definitely benefit me in the future, whether it's my classes, research, career, or personal life. I believe it is especially important in my career to have this skill because as an engineer, our job is to solve problems by troubleshooting.