From Joanna Aniago_Philippine

Oh finally we are already down to the last batch of weekly feedbacks! This is so much stuff to discuss so I will just chop it into different segments.

[NHRI Facility Tour]

The arrangement of this tour was a little bit rush and short since we were only able to visit one lab (the 3D bioprinting room] + NHRI exhibit display at the lobby, but we really did enjoy the last part of the tour where we played a pretty nerdy card game, i super super loved it! But the best part of this tour was when I saw a preclinical MRI machine in the exhibit. I suddenly became curious and I found out that NHRI actually had a biomedical imaging lab where radiopharmaceuticals are being used! This sparked my interest to work in NHRI.

[Hsinchu and Miaoli County Cultural Tour]

The next part of our Hsinchu trip was also amazing since we were able to visit one last old street which is Neiwan. Very beautiful scenery plus we crossed a pretty long suspension bridge and went to the other side of the Neiwan and there's also a magnificent landscape where people could take photoshoots. Luckily for us, it gave autumn vibes so we got pretty good photos there. The next day, I woke up pretty early and was able to watch the sunrise (FINALLY) from the LongFeng Fishing Harbor. Then, we started our day packing our DIY rice noodles and tour in the morning followed by a discussion about persimmon plantation and DIY persimmon bag painting in the afternoon

[Public Health Academic Lecture and introduction of different departments at CoMST at ShuangHo Campus]

This was the last set of academic lectures we will have at TMU. The day started with a public health lecture on air quality which was presented by the academic supervisor of JB, Sobia and Sudip. I also appreciated that she discussed about the importance of knowing about radon progenies, because I had a brief discussion with her about the low impact of non-technologically enhanced radiation sources in Taiwan's environment despite worth knowing the potential risks of these long-lived alpha emitters on human health. It was followed by a hands-on exercise on how to use different instruments to measure air quality. If I remembered it correctly, we had CO2 and electromagnetic frequency detectors among others. We checked different areas and did some recording on it.

In the afternoon session, it started with introduction to research activities in the department of biomedical informatics followed by department of neurosciences, followed by a lab tour at the Cancer Biology and Translational Medicine labs, then brief introduction to the Department of Translational Medicine, and lastly a discussion by Prof. Huang-Fu about CoMST in general.

[Double Closing Ceremony]

This was a pretty jampacked day since we had a closing ceremony at MOFA in the morning then a separate closing ceremony hosted by TMU in the afternoon. I am proud that one of our Kababayans, Phoebe Ashley Ongchan represented our batch to the MOFA. Then during the TMU closing event, we presented a Hakka umbrella dance wearing like an Ahjumma, which we have been practicing since December 26. I enjoyed performing that dance and it really takes discipline to be able to learn the moves in such a short amount of time.

[Academic Presentation]

This is the last formal activity we have for this program. It was a whole day event where everyone gets a chance to present for 10 minutes followed by a Q&A session from the panel. The presentation contained everything that we have been working on for the past months of our stay and it was a great opportunity to be able to present again after more than a year. I also would like to express my utmost gratitude to our dear panel for awarding me one of the Best Presenters for the afternoon session. I was really sleepy and as the last presenter I really had to maintain my energy and give it my all til the end of my presentation.

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If I could come back to Taiwan again, I would definitely pursue graduate studies and hopefully work, and at the same time aim to bike until Kaohsiung and hike the highest mountains in Taiwan