Hey everyone, today (30 April 2019), I just finished with my final year project (FYP) lab. Since I'm not in the mood to write my thesis, so I will share with you guys about what I have learnt from my FYP. I hope this article will help students out there especially biotech or bioscience student who are about to do FYP in next semester. Ok, let's get started!
1. Choosing supervisor and project
For me, choosing a supervisor is the most important part. This is because supervisor (basically the supervisor is from your own lecturer but other than can be your co-supervisor) is the one who came out with the project. So you should choose a supervisor that have expertise related to your field of interest. For an example, a bioinformatic student should choose a supervisor that is expert in bioinformatic because not every lecturer knows about bioinformatic tools. Secondly, as you have a list of supervisors, pick up a name that you think that you can work together with her/him comfortably. For the project, usually the supervisor has their own projects, but I think, you also should come out with an idea. Whether your idea is accepted or not, at least you show to your supervisor a good attitude that you're really interested and serious to learn a new thing.
2. Maintaining a good relationship with the supervisor and post graduate students
It is important to maintain a good relationship with the supervisor and the post graduate students. Every supervisor has their own post graduate students (master or PhD) and usually they are doing a project related or almost similar to your FYP. Supervisor will not always be with you during the lab session but we might do the lab session with the post graduate student. So, as an inexperience student, we need to always ask them about our project. Ask them about the protocols, lab skills, how to analyze the data and etc. Next, it is also crucial to have a good relationship with your supervisor. Let them know your progress, which stage are you at, what is your problem if your result is negative. Many of my friends got stuck with their FYP just because they feel afraid to meet and discuss with their supervisor. For me, as long as it is a professional meeting, there is no reason to feel ashamed.
3. Learn to organize your duty
As we are in the final semester, of course, we have a lot of works need to be done. You might need to attend the class in the morning, go to the lab during afternoon, and then attend the second class in the evening. So, organize your work properly. Try to take online subjects during course registration week. Please make a simple Gantt Chart so that you can see whether your work is still on the track with the time or not.
4. Use the Internet wisely
Nowadays, we can access any information with our fingertips. So, we can search any protocols that are related to your project. One thing you should take note is whether the protocol is suitable or not to our sample. For example, my sample use glycogen during DNA precipitation step while most of DNA precipitation protocol out there does not use glycogen. So, you should take note whether your steps in the protocol need some modification/adjustment or not. You can also learn how to do steps in the protocol by using the YouTube. YouTube is one of the most effective ways to learn because it shows you how the work is done by simulate the situation, compared to the articles where you need to imagine the situation by yourself. I also highly recommend to you guys to go to any blog or website that can teach you hacks or tips and trick about the steps in a protocol. These tips and tricks you may not find in formal article, but it can be helpful as it is from an experience writer in research and development field. Here is one of the best websites that teach about tips and tricks in the lab.
5. Be prepared
Be prepared for your experiment at least one day before conducting the experiment. Make sure all substances, samples, machines, and equipment are available for you. This is crucial especially for those who conducting experiment in a new lab (like me). Apart from that, you can calculate how many grams, concentrations or litres of the substances / samples ealier, so that you can just add the substances according to your calculation on your lab day.
6. Organize your data
You must organize your data wisely. You can use Microsoft Excel to do it. Make sure to arrange it according to date, day, place where you conducting the experiment, the purpose and the expected result from the experiment. Don't forget to write down a little bit description or caption especially for pictures or diagrams. Analyze your data by adding comment on your data and modify steps for improvement if you need to repeat your experiment.
7. Writing thesis
Writing thesis is the most boring part (but enjoyable for me) of the fyp. Make sure you know the direction of your project before starting to write the thesis. The direction means what is the purpose of your project? is your project successful? do you really understand about your project? If you cannot answer these questions, you need to read more papers and ask your supervisor for a better understanding. After that, start to take note about the style of the thesis for your university such as spacing number, font size, font style and margins. There are a lot of styles of writing such as APA, Chicago and etc. Always update or write your thesis once or twice a week and send it to your supervisor to be checked. This is important as we can have better idea to write the thesis if you keep writing it day by day compared to if you write the thesis at the very last minutes. Besides, it is important to make sure the thesis to be checked so you know what is the element lack in your writing.
8. Software or website that really helpful
Here are some software or website that might help you for your fyp:
a. Sci-Hub
- Help you to access to any articles for free. Click here to go to the website.
b. Mendeley
- A software that can help you to manage all the references that you use. Besides, it can also be used as a note, find a new article and find researchers for a particular field. Click here to go to the website to download the software. Click here to learn how to use it.
c. GraphPad
- A website that can help you to calculate moles, molarity, concentration, volumes and grams. Click here.
9. Backup your data
There are a lot of cases where students (especially post grad students) lost their thesis due to technical error such as their laptop were stolen or damaged, losing the pendrive and accidentally delete the thesis file. Make sure to back up your data by using cloud storage such as Google Drive, Dropbox and etc.
10. Enjoy every moment conducting the experiment
Learn new skills, make new friends, and gain more experiences. This is the way where you learn new skills that might not cover in your syllabuses such as new protocols. Besides, rather than learn through theoretically, this is the time where you will conduct your experiment by your own. You can also make new friends, especially post grad students under your supervisor. Meanwhile you may get a fail result, believe me this is a part of the experiment. Learn from the mistake and make improvement when you repeat the experiment. I leave you with a quote from one of the greatest inventors, Thomas Edison, about failure:
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