ZY Wang Lab @ UW Seattle

Position: Undergraduate Researcher (September 2022 - June 2023)

Research Credit Earned: 9 Credits (~270 research hours) from Undergraduate BIOL 498 Library Research (3) & BIOL 499 Undergraduate Research (6)

Working in Dr. Yan Wang's lab this year was an incredible experience! I observed the fascinating behaviors and systems of octopuses, cuttlefish, and bees; gained a profound appreciation for scientific communication and research methods; and pursued answers not yet formulated. While I won't be continuing in this lab next year, as I'm shifting my focus towards research aligned with my interests in public health and medicine, I'm immensely grateful for the generosity, mentorship, and educational opportunities provided by Dr. Wang and the team. I'll definitely stay in touch with them and make sure to check in on the amazing animals.

A special thanks goes to Dr. Wang for showing me that science has a place for everyone.

My main contributions and accomplishments:

Presented research on quantifying social behaviors of cuttlefish Sepia bandensis at the Allen Institute Postbac+RADS Presentation of Work (May 2023)
Quantified and manually coded social behaviors of cuttlefish using an ethogram
Conducted library research (24+ papers) on octopuses and presented weekly to lab team
Participated in Animal Behavior Journal Club meetings
Learned how to handle and dissect bees
Shared research at cross-lab Computational Neuroethology meetings with Ahmed Lab

This is an official UW Honors experiential learning activity.

What is that?

I am in the UW honors program, which requires students to complete two experiential learning activities within the following areas: international engagement, service, research, and leadership, with the goal of enriching the undergraduate experience through learning, community engagement, and exploration of the world. I have applied for this extracurricular to be one of my activities.

What are the requirements?

I must share my original application, an artifact, and a final reflection about the activity, all of which I have included on this webpage.

Project Details

Artifacts are multimodal, tangible pieces of evidence that represent some aspect of my learning and mark moments and experiences that I have (UW Honors Website).

See artifacts for this experiential learning activity from 2022-2023 autumn quarter, winter quarter, or spring quarter.

At the end of the year, we had a tide pool outing with the Ahmed Lab which was super fun and educational. I have included photos on the right as more artifacts!

Artifacts

Allen Institute Poster Session

Here is a photo of me standing next to the poster I presented at the Allen Institute Poster Session in May.

Octopuses

This photo is from a video similar to the ones I coded of cuttlefish!

Setting up octopus tanks

The ZY Wang Lab was new to UW this year, so the research tech and other team members worked really hard to build the infrastructure needed to house octopuses!

Bees in Tupperware

Michael, the other undergraduate researcher, conducted an experiment on bees that required them to be grown in groups in separate containers and color coded accordingly.

Beekeeping Suit

Had to wear this cool jacket when I was learning to handle bees!

Bee Brain

Here is the bee brain I dissected (or attempted to dissect).

This is a photo of me with Dr. Wang and Stephanie at the Allen Institute, moments before Stephanie gave a lightning talk about our poster!

Here, I am explaining the series of photos at the top of poster. I believe I was talking about how one cuttlefish usually asserts dominance in an aggressive interaction.

Starfish at Golden Gardens

Tide Pool Exploration with the Ahmed Lab

At the end of the year, I went with our lab and the Ahmed Lab to look at tide pools at Golden Gardens. I think I rocked these gloves :)

Sea Slug Alert!

Hard at work!

Stephanie is sitting at the computer I spent hours coding on.