Hi, my name is Keilin and I am a fourth-year Bachelor of Science student, majoring in biology and minoring in psychology. My first research experience at TRU was through the Undergraduate Research Experience Award Program (UREAP) with Dr. Naowarat (Ann) Cheeptham in microbiology. Following UREAP, I transitioned into my honours project which focuses on investigating the effects of cannabis extracts against multidrug-resistant bacterial biofilms. In psychology, I completed an Advanced Research Apprenticeship with Dr. Claudia Gonzalez where we explored the brain activity in the motor cortex using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) during a finger-tapping task. I’m now working as a research assistant on this project in addition to helping with another project that seeks to unwind the interactions between the ventral and dorsal visual streams in the brain using eye-tracking, 3D motion tracking, and frame-by-frame video analysis. My biggest advice for students who want to get involved in research is to branch out into a variety of disciplines! You never know where you’ll find something of interest and it’s so much fun to learn techniques used in different fields of study.
