Nancy Yip Email & Phone Number

Davis, California, United States

The projects I worked on allowed me to further my skills in experimental design and learn to work efficiently in a team and independently to carry out the processes involved. One of the current projects I'm working on involves measuring fruit attributes of newly generated long shelf life (LSL) melons. This involved carrying out different measurements to determine the texture, flavor, and color of different melon varieties. Some of these processing steps include the use of a texture analyzer to measure firmness and juiciness, a refractometer to measure total soluble solids (TSS), and ImageJ to extract L*a*b* color space values. During this project, consumer panel studies were also conducted to observe consumer likeability of different melon varieties. Through this project we process many melons for each different variety, and the data collected will then be processed and analyzed to determine whether these new LSL melon lines are better than or are on par with traditional staple LSL lines that are already commercialized in terms of fruit quality and consumer preference that meet commercial standards.

Davis, California, United States

The Blanco lab led by Dr. Barbara Blanco-Ulate focuses on postharvest fruit quality and fruit biology and uses a variety of experimental approaches to conduct research, such as plant physiology, molecular biology, genomics, etc. As an undergraduate assistant, I assisted with postharvest fruit research and worked in a team to carry out many of the experiments. Through this experience, I became familiar with the experimental design process and worked on project collaborations with AgTech companies. One of these collaborated projects involved testing the efficacy of various formulated antifungal slow-release sheets on the postharvest qualities of grapes and another project involved testing their efficacy on oranges to see whether these products played a role in reducing or limiting disease incidence and severity. In addition, other fruit attributes like moisture loss, rachis browning, and disease were observed and scored for the case of grapes to determine if the products impacted any of these qualities. From the collected data and analysis of the data through R, we concluded which formulated treatments worked significantly well and compared these different treatments based on their effectiveness and impact on postharvest qualities.

Burlingame, California, United States

The San Mateo County Mosquito and Vector Control District works to keep the San Mateo community safe from vector-borne diseases by monitoring and reducing the prevalence of diseases from mosquitoes, ticks, rodents, and birds while informing the community about risks associated with vectors and vector-borne diseases.Through this internship, I gained lab and field work experience. The tasks I carried out in the lab involved DNA and RNA purifications and extractions and PCR tests. Mosquitoes and ticks that transmit diseases like the West Nile virus and Lyme disease, and biospecimens from rodents and birds that are susceptible to these diseases were worked with. Field work involved collecting samples for PCR tests by conducting rodent surveys, surveillances for mosquitoes, and tick flagging work.