•Overseeing the scientific research and development activities within the organization.•Providing strategic leadership and guidance to our scientific team.•Collaborating with other departments to ensure alignment of scientific initiatives with business goals.•Driving innovation and continuous improvement in our scientific processes and methodologies.•Representing DIA Labs Canada in scientific forums, conferences, and industry events.

•Helped to lay the foundations for upcoming roles and projects involved at DIA Labs Canada•Participated in early stages of projects that aimed to commercialize research at various institutions into technologies that could improve patient care. •Represented the company at various symposiums and conference events in efforts to expand the company's network.

Launched a creative venture focused on embroidery and DIY kits, combining technical skills and artistic expression to create unique products and experiences for customers. This role highlights the ability to adapt transferable skills, such as precision and teaching, into an entrepreneurial context.Key Achievements and Responsibilities:•Inventory Management: Ensured consistent availability of supplies by effectively managing stock levels and tracking sales trends.•Custom Order Design: Tailored unique embroidery kits and completed custom orders to meet specific customer needs, enhancing customer satisfaction.•Contract Negotiation: Partnered with art shops and event organizers to showcase products, securing favorable terms for distribution and sales opportunities.•Community Engagement: Transitioned from in-person to digital-only sales, leveraging online platforms to engage with a wider audience.•Skill Sharing: Adapted skills from previous experience teaching suturing to promote dexterity and artistic techniques in embroidery, encouraging conscious creativity.

After fulfilling my undergraduate requirements for an honors thesis, I returned to the Barker lab to complete my master’s thesis. In August 2023, I successfully defended my thesis project “Changes in Lateral Preoptic Area Glutamatergic and GABAergic Activity After Cocaine Conditioning” with Dr David Barker, Dr Rafiq Huda, Dr Smita Varia as my advisors. As a graduate student, I was responsible for my own projects, general lab needs, and the projects of the undergraduate students I was mentoring. I was also tasked with collaborating with other research labs on a few joint projects, which included analyzing and sending data between the labs. After three years of rigorous research, I have helped complete and present 7 poster presentations, mentoring and training 20 undergraduate students in some capacity. Through these years of rigorous data collection and scientific research, my problem-solving skills have helped me overcome laborious hurdles, and my understanding of neuroscience and drug addiction has deepened.

Through my exposure in Dr David Barker’s laboratory at Rutgers, I have gained experience researching the neurocircuitry involved in psychiatric disorders that relate to substance abuse. I have successfully created and implemented MATLAB projects to collect and record opioid consumption quantities and consumption rates in mice that model depression. After developing my knowledge of software through these projects, I transitioned to enhance my comprehension of hardware. This transition has enabled me to carry out my honors thesis project, which was to help design and construct a functional sciatic nerve cuff. The implant enables researchers to modulate pain by varying the brightness of a blue LED on the cuff. The mice used possess rhodopsin channels along the sciatic nerve that activate in the presence of blue light wavelengths. Medical researchers can employ this device to collect a wide range of data that correlates pain sensitivity to many factors including drug addiction/relapse and medicinal pain alleviation.

This past fall, I was able to teach a class of 25 incoming pre-med freshmen students regarding career opportunities in the health field. Over the summer, I created a curriculum from scratch that incorporates resources offered by the university as well as my own research, to teach the incoming freshmen about the opportunities, such as research and shadowing, that they have in order to get started on their path to a career in medicine. In this class, I utilized a wide range of teaching techniques such as group activities, peer connecting exercises, and a final group project that will all help to determine the student’s final grade in the course. Teaching this course over the fall was tremendously rewarding, as I have learned a lot creating this course and I learned much more when I actually taught it.